Hasmas Mountains: Hike to Piatra Singuratica Chalet

Our story goes on… we left with grand thoughts that we would hike to Piatra Singuratica chalet where we would abandon our heavy gear and then we would set out to conquer Hasmasul Mare peak. With my knee problem I set such plans aside as I knew I would not be able to continue past the chalet, but you know… one can at least dream!

Distance

8 Km

Total Time

4 h 00 min

Active Time

3 h 30 min

Vertical Relief

+600 / -600 m

Min/Max Altitude

900 – 1520 m

Average Speed

2.4 km/h

Hike to Piatra Singuratica Chalet

We were a pretty big group so we set out in the direction of Balan, a small city located at the footsteps of the mountains. Here we left our cars in the small parking lot behind the catholic church. Check here the location.

From here we left on foot on the street named Paraul Fierarilor – Steelworker’s Creek. In short time we left the houses behind and started ascending on the footpath through the forest (not on the forest road) following the Blue Tape markings.

You have a relentless ascent but nothing too hard to comment. From time to time you’ll find an opening in the forest for a quick photo and a short rest.

The white forest brings a calm in our souls and the snowflakes are perfect in every way.

Even if the surrounding landscape was beautiful most of us were looking forward to reaching the chalet. The funny part was that just when we thought we had arrived we reached one last slope that exhausted us hard. Not because it was extremely steep but because it was covered in fresh snow that made you slip hard. But yeah, basically we had reached the first objective!

There we found this guy… he was really friendly at first but after a while his weirdo levels got off the chart…  he would sit in front of the porch and would not let you go out. Yup, even horses bite and can chase you around. This dude didn’t want to disappoint us in that regard.

Our group left for the peak but didn’t had success in reaching it. It was late, there was lots of snow and the clouds decided to take a nap just above the ground so they came back but the fun was worth it.

In the evening we socialized together with the other people in the chalet after which we all left for some well deserved sleep. Since the weather the next morning didn’t show any signs of improvement we decided to start descending and made our way back to the cars. Only a few shy sun rays marked our  footpath as we were slowly coming down the mountain.

As we didn’t reach our peak we need to come back here too!

GPS track to Piatra Singuratica Chalet

How to get to Piatra Singuratica Chalet

There are multiple access roads that lead to Balan. Feel free to organise your root as you need to.

Where to sleep?

With all the mist and snow and snowfall the landscape was simply a bliss. An excellent spot to built a chalet up in the mountains; the guys that made it sure picked it well!

Hmm… can’t really say the same thing about how they did it. It’s the typical mentality to get as many people inside no matter how crowded it gets. All in all there are simply too many beds and too little space for walkways and it gets either too hot or too cold. The thing that shocked me the most was the inefficient heating system made out of a small metal stove that would eat up lots of wood and deliver little heat in return. The room is pretty big and there is only one stove so the people that were sleeping above and close to it were really hot and the ones sleeping further were really cold. In the dining room the same thing only even smaller. Apparently they didn’t manage to build terracotta stoves that offer excellent wood efficiency and lots of constant heat. Ah well, you can’t have it all!

All in all I can’t say the chalet is bad and that you shouldn’t go, just that there is room for improvement that in time may be it will get fixed. Hopefully the owners will realize this and change some things.

Good to know

Hope you found the information helpful and accurate, but remember, if you have any questions drop them in a comment below!

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