With its elevation of 2509 m, this peak is the highest point of Retezat Mountains. It is located in the middle section of the northern main ridge. Four ridges run down from the rocky summit of Peleaga, the NW and NE ridges being part of the main ridge. The north side of the NW ridge is split into several towers with steep walls. This rugged section is called Colţi Pelegii ("Tusks of Peleaga"). Where the "tusks" end, a side-ridge (called Culmea Pietrele) departs towards the north from the main ridge (which continues towards the west).

Glacial erosion has left its fingerprints on and around this mountain. The "king of Retezat" has remarkable tarns under its west, south and east face (Lacul Bucura, Lacul Peleguţa and Lacul Peleaga, respectively), and a dozen more in its vicinity (more information about these tarns can be found on the Retezat Mountains parent page). All the water from Peleaga runs into river Strei /Sztrígy/: from the northern slopes via Nucşoara /Nucsóra/ creek, from the southern slopes via Lăpuşnicu Mare /Nagy-Lepusnyik/ creek.

In good weather the peak offers beautiful 360° panorama, from here you can see all other major peaks of Retezat.

Peleaga from the distance

West view from Peleaga

East view from Peleaga

Getting There

As Peleaga peak is located in the northern region of Retezat, I would suggest approching it from Nucşoara village. Getting to Nucşoara is described in detail on the Retezat Mountains parent page (follow instructions for North Retezat).

Alternatively, you might get a taxi to Poiana Pelegii campsite from Haţeg town, and stay there or hike up to Bucura Lake campsite. However, this site has been reported to be inaccessible by car since the end of October 2007, because of trees knocked down by a strong windstorm. The road was drivable only until Rotunda hut at that time. For up-to-date information contact Salvamont.

Routes

Hiking

Hiking routes in Romania are marked by red, yellow and blue colors, and use three shapes: stripe, dot and triangle. From this point, I will use abbreviations for these (for example: YT=yellow triangle, RD=red dot, BS=blue stripe, and so on...)

Peleaga can be scaled by following two marked paths (described from west to east, but of course they can be walked the other way as well):

RS: coming from Curmătura Bucurei (saddle, 2206 m), via Custura Bucurei peak (2370 m) towards Păpuşa peak (2508 m)

YC: coming from Bucura Refuge (2052 m) towards Păpuşa peak (between Peleaga and Păpuşa the same as RS)

Neither of these paths require any climbing, but if you intend to come (or leave) from (or towards) either Bucura Lake or Păpuşa peak, be prepared for some steep sections with occasionally unstable ground. Take care not to kick rocks down on people below you. The YC signs get hard to spot after you reach the rocky region, because the lychen cover on the rocks has similar color. But anyway, you should follow the gradient up until there's no more gradient...

Reaching the summit

Curmătura Bucurei is actually the junction of the west-east RS (which continues towards Bucura peak in the west) and the north-south BS (connecting Cabana Pietrele with Cabana Buta, via Bucura Lake and Poiana Pelegii). Thus, if you are staying at Bucura Lake, there are possibilities of doing circle-trips:

small circle ("just" mountains):

Bucura Lake (2041) - YC - Peleaga (2509) - RS - Custura Bucurei (2370) - RS - Curmătura Bucurei (2206) - BS - Bucura Lake
|total elevation gain: ~480 m|

large circle (includes passing by a handful of tarns):

Bucura Lake (2041) - YC - Peleaga (2509) - RS - Custura Bucurei (2370) - RS - Curmătura Bucurei (2206) - RS - Bucura peak (2433) - RD - Tău Porţii (2230) - RD - Florica Lake - RD - Viorica Lake - RD - Ana Lake - RD - Bucura Lake
|total elevation gain: ~700 m|

From Şaua Pelegii (the saddle between Peleaga and Păpuşa peaks, 2285 m) there are further marked paths to Pietrele hut (RS, then YT) and Genţiana hut (RS, YT and RC).

Climbing

If you are a climber, then Colţi Pelegii is the way to go.

The following list of climbing routes is adopted from this external source (you can also find hand-drawn sketches here). Difficulty ratings are according to the Russian grading system, which is used in Romania.

Easier routes	Difficulty
Creasta Fraţilor	2B
Ţancul Singuratic	2B
Traseul Prieteniei	2B
Traseul Începătorului	2B
Creasta Pionierului	2A
Creasta Luceafărul	2A
Vîlcelul Sfinxului	2A
Vîlcelul Verde	2A
Vîlcelul Alb	2A
Hornul Etapelor	2A
Creasta Mijlocie din Valea Rea	2A

Harder routes	Difficulty
Traseul Mezinului	5A
Corvinul	5A
Fisura Ascunsă	4B
Muchia Ascuţita	4B
Muchia Mare	4B
Traseul Curajului	4A
Fisura Verde	3B
Traseul Vostok II	3B
Traseul Capra Neagră	3B
Diedrul Sfinxului	3A
Traseul Schiorului	3A
Creasta Însorită	3A
Traseul Diedrelor	3A
Creasta Frumoasă	3A
Hornul Zăpezii	3A

Colţi Pelegii

Red Tape

Take care of us!

Vf. Peleaga is inside the territory of Retezat National Park (further information about the park itself can be found on the Retezat Mountains parent page). It is forbidden to leave trails, camp outside of designated sites, or put up a fire. Swimming is prohibited in Bucura Lake (and the others as well, I suppose). If you plan to climb, it might be advisable to contact the National Park administration (see External Links section below) and/or Salvamont (Mountain Rescue, see Retezat Mountains parent page) in advance.

You should bring all your trash back down with you when leaving (just like elsewhere)! Please do a favour for the mountains by fetching garbage that others have left behind (furtunately this does not happen very often, but if you look, you'll find).

As for the admission fee to the National Park, the situation is not clear. Some people report they were asked to pay entrance fee, some (like us, even though we tried to) not. Perhaps this is also dependent on where you enter and how friendly you are. Anyway, the admission fee should not be expensive. The main NP visitor center is by the road at Nucşoara - you may ask there (if you find it open).

Huts and Camping

The closest huts are Cabana Genţiana (1670 m) and Cabana Pietrele (1480 m). The latter consists only of scattered bungalows and a designated campsite now, since the old hut burned down in February, 2007. From either of these huts, follow the BS until Curmătura Bucurei (Bucura saddle) and turn left (east) on RS.

The nearest campsite is the one at Bucura Lake. From here to the peak it takes about 1.5 hours on the YC (ascending ~460 m). From Poiana Pelegii campsite the ascend is about twice as much (~900 m) - first you have to get to Bucura Lake on BS/RC combo. From Stâna din Râu campsite it is even more demanding, since you have to scale Păpuşa peak first (~900 m up), descend from there (223 m down), and then ascend to Peleaga (224 m up). There is an emergency bivouac place just below the summit, but it has only a circular rock fence against wind.

More information about these campsites and huts can be found on the Retezat Mountains parent page.

When to Climb

The most welcoming weather can be anticipated around late summer - early fall, when precipitation is relatively little, but temperatures are still warm. Though it is not impossible to ascend the peak in the winter, you have to be an experienced mountaineer to do it safely, as the chances of avalanches is generally high in the area. There is no mountain rescue service in this time of the year, either (see Retezat Mountains parent page). Probably it's safer to go if you have already been there in the summer, and know the terrain.

Perfect summer weather around Peleaga in the end of July.

Perfect winter weather around Peleaga in March.

Weather

For general weather information please refer to the Retezat Mountains parent page.

Online weather information for Nucşoara (idea borrowed from Nanuls):

Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar | Hurricane Center

Please note that these are data for a village at the feet of the mountains, they're good to get a general feeling of what's around. In the high regions the situation may be quite different.

Maps

The paper maps that I've met two so far:

Munţii Retezat/Retyezát-hegység/Retezat Mountains (1:50,000) by DIMAP, with guiding text on the backside in English, Romanian and Hungarian. Can be ordered online from DIMAP here or from Map-info here (online shop > maps > mountain maps).

Munţii Retezat/The Retezat Mountains/Das Retezat Gebirge (1:50,000) by Bel Alpin, with text in English, German and Romanian. Saw it at Cabana Cârnic (in Aug, 2007) for 20 RON and online here for 10 RON.

Further discussion of these can be found on the Retezat Mountains parent page.

Navigable online maps are also available at alpinet.org (Romanian mountain site - see External Links section below) to help getting better acquainted with the area.

Miscellaneous

Currency

The new Romanian leu (RON) was created in 2005 from the old leu (ROL) by chopping off the last 4 zeros (so that 10,000 old lei - plural of leu - is 1 new leu). While nowadays the banknotes in use are the new ones, sometimes it happens that people tell you prices in old lei, but doing it in units of thousands, which can be quite confusing. An example: "80" can easily mean 80,000 old lei, which is actually 8 new lei... What really helps is to convert the amount to a currency that is familiar to you (exchange rates can be found on xe.com) and compare it with "Western European" prices for the same thing. The Romanian price should generally be less (or about the same but never higher).

Time zone

Romania is in the Eastern European time zone (GMT+2)

External Links

Retezat National Park official homepage

Retezat on PAN Parks page: short introduction

Retezat page on alpinet.org: only in Romanian, but has up-to-date news section, maps (SRTM map, topo map) and huts info

Images



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