Specifics | Timing | Supplies | Risks | Orientation | My gear | Philosophy
What makes the Carpathians different
Unlike many other long-distance hikes, in the Carpathians you will find only a few ranges where you encounter scores of tourists – the Tatras, Východní Beskydy, Munții Rodnei, Piatra Craiului, Făgăraş, and Retezat – which account for about 16% of the thru-hike. For the most part, you walk along trails, ridges, and forest roads where you might be the only hiker for a day, or even a week. In some places, there is no visible trail at all, and you need to forge your own path.
To illustrate the point, in Slovakia I met only 1 multi-day hiker over the 200 km stretch between Slovenský raj and the Dukla pass. Apart from Polonina Borzhava I met only 2 hikers in Ukraine, though I saw 3 tents at Polonina Svidovec. The number of hikers I encountered between Rodnei and Piatra Craiului was 2 (two!) over a distance of 550 km. So apart from a few popular ranges I met on average one hiker per 137 km not counting the day-hikers I met at Strážovské vrchy, Haşmaş, Siriu, Ciucaş and Bucegi.
This does not mean the mountains are deserted. A settlement is rarely more than a day’s walk away, and in summer, the mountains are inhabited by shepherds with their herds and dogs.. Hikers are visitors in their land and it is better to avoid Romanian Carpathians unless you are willing to accept this fact. Hiking trails often follow paths that shepherds have used for centuries, which is why the sheep-dogs attacks are so frequent there. In many places, a hiker is treated as a being that appeared out of thin air, and the locals simply do not know, how to react in this situation. On the other hand, you can be sure they will help you when you are in real need.
The Carpathians run through several nations, giving hikers the pleasure of using many languages. Do not expect locals to speak international languages. Hungarian is spoken on western slopes of the Eastern part of the Carpathians. Young Romanians, Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles are usually fluent in English. Many Ukrainian men understand Czech, Slovak, Polish and Lithuanian from their experience working abroad. While most Ukrainians are fluent in Russian, many are now unwilling to speak it due to the Russian aggression.
Apart from Slovakian E8, it is very unlikely you will meet any long-distance hikers. In 2019, I almost met with Michał Kulanek who was walking across the Carpathians in the same direction and we connected through Facebook.
The other side of the coin of this solitude is freedom. The freedom to walk, camp, and forage for wild berries and mushrooms – a freedom one hardly experiences in other European mountain ranges today. This, of course, does not apply to strictly protected national parks (the Tatras, Poloniny, Rodnei, Ciucaș, Bucegi, Piatra Craiului, Retezat), where hikers must stick to the designated paths and camping areas.
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Timing
If you want to hike all the highest mountain ranges in the Carpathians without special equipment for snow, both timing and direction matter. The Romanian section of the thru-hike is significantly more demanding than the Slovak and/or Polish parts. For this reason, many hikers choose to start from the Danube in Romania. In this case, you need to bear in mind that in early June, there are still snow patches in the Godeanu and Retezat mountains, and you might not be able to cross Făgăraş until the end of June. A safe date to start from this direction is mid-June. Another advantage of this direction is that you will encounter almost no mosquitoes as you reach lower altitudes in late summer.
If starting from the Danube in Slovakia (or, as in my case the westernmost Pálava hills), the timing depends on the route:
1) If walking north from Vysoké Tatry through Poland, startimg is possible as early as April. 2) The Nízké Tatry are passable from early June, so a mid-May start is feasible for this route.
3) If you want to cross the Vysoké Tatry, the situation is similar to the Făgăraş – mid June can be considered a safe start. However, a significant difference is that camping is not allowed in the Vysoké Tatry, so you are obliged to stay in mountain chalets.
Expect sub-zero temperatures overnight at both ends of the arc in the second half of September. The first snow typically arrives on the highest peaks before the beginning of October, but it should still be passable. The mountains in Romania become deserted once the shepherds descend to the valleys with their herds in September (in one particularly dry year, I experienced deserted shepherd’s houses at the end of August). The same applies to early June before the fresh grass grows. The advantage is you can use shepherds’ huts for overnight shelter.
Your experience will be highly impacted by weather. The very same ranges can be either muddy or dry during the same week in different years. There is no general rule regarding the weather. I suggest expecting thunderstorms, showers, or continuous rain on roughly one-third of your hiking days. I got rain on 40% of days during my 74 days of the 2019 thru-hike, while Svetozár Krno and his team got only 7 or so rainy days out of 92 in 2024.
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Supplies
Food supplies for hiking in village shops are more varied in Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, especially regarding dry instant meals. Expect a more limited offer in Romania and a poor in Ukraine. However, basic staples are easily accessible in all these countries. I mean oil, sugar, rice, buckwheat, cous-cous, chocolate, raisins, instant noodle soups. —specifically oil, sugar, rice, buckwheat, couscous, chocolate, raisins, and instant noodle soups. Sunflower halva, which has a superb price/weight/energy ratio, is widely available in Ukraine and Romania. Fresh cottage cheese (though usually not milk) can often be obtained directly from shepherds. Specialized items like meal replacement nutritional powders, isotonic drinks, or freeze-dried fruits are not available along the trail at all.
Sport/outdoor shops are located in large cities far from the trail. You can find them in Trenčín, Poprad, Sighetul Marmației and Petroşani if following in my footsteps. Some hikers detour to Braşov or Bistrița to get necessary gear. I tailored my own equipment so that I could stay in the mountains for the whole hike.
While in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, alcohol fuel can be obtained in drugstores (Drogerie), in Ukraine and Romania in pharmacies (Аптека, Farmacie). The Ukrainian alcohol was of the finest quality; the cheap Romanian 70% blue liquid always left behind some unburned residue.
I tested poste-restante delivery to post offices in Slovakia and Romania, and it worked well (apart from one case). During my 2019 thru-hike in Romania, I received my first parcel in Borsec, took what I needed, and split the rest into two new packages – one sent to Bușteni and the other to Petroșani. Note that when sending a parcel in Romania, you must provide a local return address where the package will be delivered if it is not picked up. While walking the northern trail, I tried Paczkomat delivery in Poland (self-operated box to box delivery), but it turned out to be too fast—I ended up having to pay a penalty because my package waited in the box longer than the allowed time.
Only once did I take a 10-minute lift from a mountain pass to a nearby village for supplies. I preferred to compensate for the joy of being out of touch with civilization by carrying a heavier backpack (up to 6 kg of food).
Water is generally available throughout the Carpathians, though the Eastern Beskydy and limestone ranges are drier. There is usually no need to filter the water unless it looks dirty or is taken from stagnant pools. You can download the coordinates of water sources here, and also read the description of my daily water management.
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Risks
Sheep Dog Attacks | Bears | Other Wildlife | Ticks | Thunderstorms
Bears, aggressive sheep dogs, ticks and thunderstorms are the realities you cannot avoid walking across the Carpathians.
Out of those, SHEEP DOG ATTACKS are the most exhausting for a lonely hiker. Expect them in Romania, everywhere out of the few areas with tourist presence (like Rodnei, Bucegi, Făgăraş). I went through as many as 10 attacks a day. Dogs understand well, when in superiority and are naturally set up for attacking lonesome individuals. Being in a group is the best protection from severe attacks.
The worst attacks happen in early morning and in the evening, when shepherds are busy with their sheep, meanwhile both dogs accompanying herds and those staying at the base are united in one pack and got nothing to do. Each attack is individual so there is no universal advice, however, I would suggest the following:
1) track and watch – it is always better to be aware of the dogs before they sniff you. Try to avoid the attack if possible.
2) always keep 3-4 stones in your pocket. If expecting an attack, hold both trekking poles in one hand (dogs are regularly beaten by shepherds and seeing a long stick scares them). Keep pepper spray in your pocket and increase the ammunition of stones.
3) seek for the shepherd’s help first, only he (she) can calm down the dogs.
4) ignore the dogs to the point when the attack is imminent and they break your perimeter (10 meters), do not bother with 1 or 2 dogs, they either do not attack or you can easily repel them. If dogs are only scaring you off by barking (most of the cases), do not pay attention to them and do not follow the next point, which definitely opens up aggression.
5) if the pack of more than 3 dogs is aggressively approaching = snarling, do not show fear and attack the pack leader first, the bigger the stone is, the better. If there are no stones in the area, make movements as if you were picking them up from the ground and throwing in between throwing your reserve real stones. If you got a stun gun, do not bother with stones and discharge it towards the pack leader (the sound scares the dogs).
6) try to keep dogs in the distance and far from each other (split the attackers – if 2-3 hesitating dogs leave the pack after being hit, the others stop attacking).
7) constantly search for the shepherd’s help.
8) if they manage to get very close and try to bite, face them moving towards a shepherd or your direction (do not turn your back or run away!) and start active defense depending on your weapons:
8.a) Stones: continue throwing stones without mercy. Do not rely on trekking poles – they are too short, block your palms and make dogs more furious.
8.b) Stun gun: proved to me to be a great defense tool. Dogs are shocked by the sound of the discharge and stop the attack for a while. If repeated too much with no direct effect, they start attacking again, but you earn the valuable time. And of course you can use it in case of close contact.
8.c) Firecrackers: a Romanian ranger told me this works great, but I have no personal experience with firecrackers.
8.d) Nothing: shouting loudly as if giving orders sometimes helps to stop the attack.
8.e) Other tools: Whip should work very well since shepherds use it. I tried slingshot for few Romanian treks but it did not work as the dogs do not know it. I keep pepper spray ready in case of a bite but I have never used it against dogs.
9) respect that the dogs are just doing their job and be nice to a shepherd. There is an ongoing conflict between shepherds, hunters and tourists in Romania even at legal level. Showing your sympathy to a representative of this centuries old craft is appreciated. Give a smile, shake a hand with a shepherd, exchange few words and apologize. Make mountain brotherhood, do not feed animosity.
I got five BEAR ENCOUNTERS during my Carpathian solo thru-hike. It is hard to say how many times a bear got out of my way without me noticing, but my guess is at least dozen times. On the other hand, I had not encountered a single bear on dozens of my previous Carpathian hikes. I can see the following reasons for that: a) bears usually avoid the popular higher ridges with tourist footpaths, b) while walking in a pair or group we make more noise and watch the surroundings less, c) bear population was considerably smaller in the past.
In the Carpathians there are ranges with high bear density (Veľká Fatra, Călimani, Vrancea) and then there are spots and daytimes where meeting a bear is imminent. I shall not write about the bears used to humans that are begging along roads in Romania or regularly attack tourists at the footpath between Bușteni and Cabana Caraiman. They are the most unpredictable and the only advice is to avoid them.
Unless curious (happened to me once), the brown bears you encounter in the wild have the paramount desire of not meeting a human. And we should help them with it following few simple steps:
– Do not walk at dusk or at night (this is no. 1 advice).
– Keep pepper spray easily accessible (I have it in the pocket of my hipbelt and move it to the pocket of my trousers, when the signs of bear presence occur).
– When in the terrain with visibility below 150 meters, make noise (I use jingles), this study shows that a third of bear attacks in Europe happen because the animal is caught by surprise.
– Keep your food in a sealed drysack and near to you overnight (some might dispute this, but it has worked for me as well as other hikers). Avoid any attractive smells around your campsite (e.g. food leftovers, grilled meat). If cold soaking in a pot – seal it and keep it either close to you or away from your campsite.
– Mark your territory, pee on a path a bear may use 30–50 meters from your camping spot.
– When you can see the signs of bear presence, be vigilant and make extra noise (e.g. combine jingles with singing). The signs of bear presence are: bear tracks, shattered rotting trees, upturned stones (bears search for insects below stones and in the wood), rummaged anthills and wasps’ nests, scratched tree-trunks and of course bear droppings. In summer bear droppings are typical by the purple color and it is quite easy to assess, how fresh they are.
In case you meet a bear:
– assess the situation, if the bear is far from your trail and your movement cannot be intercepted as dangerous, follow your way, without paying attention to the animal.
– if the bear is close to your trail and has not noticed you, slowly and silently retreat and try to walk around in considerable distance.
– if the bear has noticed you, identify as a human by speaking softly while retreating. Once I made a nice monologue lasting several minutes with a bear staring at my campsite from 60 meters distance. However, try to avoid looking into its eyes or casting flashlight during the conversation.
– if you meet a playful cub, retreat immediately. No time for pics or selfies with it, frightened mum will follow. According to this study, 50% of bear attacks in Europe is associated with female bears with cubs.
– if the bear charges, it could well be a false charge and the bear stops near you. I have never been in this situation, however there are two options depending on your equipment:
1) You have your pepper spray ready: discharge it from about 3 meters towards the bear’s face.
2) You do not have a pepper spray: the advice is to stand still or slowly lay on the ground with your face down. When lying on the ground, put your hands around your neck to protect your head and face. Be passive and remain as quiet as possible until the attack ends.
I can remember an account of a Slovakian surgeon who was treating many forest workers injured by bears during his career. He was surprised that such a mighty animal makes relatively mild wounds to humans.
In 2023 a bear attacked a runner in Slovakia (surprise encounter early in the morning), the man slipped while trying to escape and the bear attacked him lying on his back. Though the the runner was totally defenseless, he survived with some bites and scratches only. It is obvious European bears do not treat humans as food for they are able to tear a horse to pieces. We should also mention, there has been on average one fatal bear encounter a year in the Carpathians over the last 20 years.
What not to do: do not immediately lie down on the ground – this could make the bear curious, do not scream, do not make fast movements, do not try to scare the bear away – might work several times but could as well turn into disaster. Do not run away. I could see a running bear near the Oituz pass and believe me they can run really fast. Do not leave food leftovers near your campsite.
OTHER WILDLIFE
I encountered a wolf only twice, but could hear howling and tracked it quite frequently in different parts of the Carpathians. They pose no danger to humans. My friend even encountered a wolf-pack in winter while camping on a remote ridge and they passed by the tent with two frightened humans inside.
Seeing a lynx is a lifetime experience. I could see it only once from distance in Eastern Poland. They pose absolutely no danger.
Some people (UK hikers in particular) are afraid of wild boars. There are cases of their attacks in Central Europe, but I got several close encounters without any trouble. One night we even got to the middle of a wild boar herd crossing the footpath. I could feel them touching my legs but they were just going their way. Once we found a den with three piglets and could see their mother running away. However, in this case it is advised to leave the site immediately. Wild boars are more frequent in the western Carpathian ranges, less in Romania and Ukraine.
TICKS are very common all across Carpathians in altitudes below 900 meters. They transmit two diseases: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and Lyme borreliosis (LB). Vaccination is the best protection against TBE virus. From the time my friend ended up confined to bed totally paralyzed, I suggest everyone to apply the vaccine.
Lyme borreliosis is a bacterial disease, while vaccination is possible in North America, European vaccine is still in the testing process. However, it could be easily cured if discovered in early stage. First step in prevention of the disease is taking tick out of your body as soon as possible and disinfecting the spot immediately. Normally the place is itching for few days and small red circle (an inch or two wide) appears around the spot. However, if the red spot grows over time into several inches or even palm-size, the LB bacteria got into your body. In this case you need to apply antibiotics (like amoxycilin). Keep in mind that many times the tick leaves your body unnoticed. To comfort folks from non-tick areas: I personally caught well over 1000 ticks in my life and am still alive, no TBE and (hopefully) no LB.
There are basically two types of THUNDERSTORMS in the Carpathians:
1) thunderstorms originating from local evaporation. These thunderstorms occur more often later in the day. They are bound to cumulonimbus clouds and thus localized to area of few square kilometers. One year we got this type of weather for 5 days in Grohotiș and Ciucaș mountains – every afternoon there was a thunderstorm. As these thunderstorms are well visible from distance in the high mountains, their movement can be predicted and a hiker got time to get ready. When caught in this type of thunderstorm high up in the mountains, I sit down isolated from the ground by my backpack with only one leg touching the ground my poncho isolating both me and the backpack enjoying the raindrops bites. This type of thunderstorm moves fast and it leaves a spot within 30 minutes.
2) thunderstorms during cold front crossings. These thunderstorms happen over large areas, can come any time of a day, last longer (especially when the head of the front stops at the mountain range) and are usually followed by hours of rain. Lightnings during these thunderstorms can turn night into a day with constant light and thunder drumming. As weather forecast is easily available these days, I suggest hikers to watch it and find a shelter out of the high ranges for the hours of a cold-front crossing.
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Orientation
My first trips to the Carpathians relied on 1:100,000 Czechoslovakian maps of Slovakia and sketches published in 1986 Guide to the Romanian mountains. For the past 15 years, however, I have relied on digital maps. For the thru-hike, I backed up smartphone by having the trail loaded on my smartwatch. Today, my smartwatch is my primary orientation tool and I consult my smartphone only when necessary.
MOBILE APPS (Android):
Mapy.com – free of charge in online mode, 19€/year with offline maps. The app has excellent offline maps, and a good online planning tool. Although it is #1 choice for most hikers in the Carpathians, I am personally not fond of this app because of poor customization and battery drain issues I got with it. I use it only as a secondary source, double-checking that the app is fully closed afterward.
PathAway – was my app of choice for almost two decades. It offers high customization, a solid trekking function, and “on-the-go” map downloads (Open Topo) for offline use. Unfortunately, the UI is still stuck in the Windows Mobile era, and its slow responsiveness during my thru-hike was maddening. Also, the position-sharing tool did not work for me.
Locus Map (formerly LocusPro) – my current favorite. While the default offline maps are slightly less detailed than Mapy.com, you can easily switch between various free and paid map sources within the app. It has a well-organized UI, smooth operation, and a wide range of useful plugins. (Tip: Disable automatic app updates while on a hike; otherwise, you might have to re-download all your offline maps.)
Soviet Military Maps – though the map data is 50 years old, it provides a nice overview and servers as an alternative source of information.
Munţii Noştri – a Romanian-developed app aspiring to cover this part of the Carpathians
AvenzaMaps – features the largest collection of digital versions of printed maps (though in my experience, the calibration/georeferencing is not always perfectly precise).
PRINTED MAPS
Today the entire Carpathian region is covered by tourist maps. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, maps can be purchased in shops near the mountains or at mountain hotels. In Ukraine and Romania, however, they are harder to find once you leave the larger cities. Some of the sources for buying printed maps:
Czech Tourist Club edition – high quality 1:50000 maps.
Slovakian tourist maps – various publishers and scales available.
Maps of Poland – and actually all the Carpathians.
Romanian edition of tourist maps
Archive of scanned maps of Romanian mountains
Older archive of Romanian maps – seems no longer updated.
PLANNING
I use Locus Map or Mapy.com for rough planning, export the gpx and then fine-tune the trail in the Quo Vadis software. I also use this software to process and archive the data collected during hikes.
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My gear
Unlike in the Alps, outdoor shops are far from the mountains. You can easily tear your gear while pushing through thickets or new growth where a path might once have been. The “land management” in Romania and Ukraine changed significantly since the 1990s. Following clearcuts and heavy storms, paths are sometimes blocked by logs and overgrown with tall grass and bushes. Old trails sometimes vanish into the undergrowth as they are no longer used. This requires a great deal of improvisation and preparedness.
My backpack for Carpathian hikes is not the lightest; I know I might not encounter another person for days, and I want to be prepared for any trouble. The base weight is almost 7 kg. Including consumables (food, fuel) and water, I usually carry under 14 kg after resupplying. That is sufficient for a 10-day trek in the Carpathians. Water management throughout the day also plays an important role.
For my 2019 thru-hike, the total pack weight was about 8,600g (7,950g base weight). I should note that I didn’t end up using about 450g of my repair kit, first-aid supplies, and pepper spray. I also carried a keyboard (177g) and a scout scarf, and my first-aid kit included two EpiPens (55g each). In retrospect, my cooking setup was too powerful for one person, and my sleeping bag was too warm.
In general, my advice regarding the gear for a Carpathian thru-hike is:
1) Don’t just copy-paste experience from popular US trails. Keep in mind that many influencers making videos about ultralight backpacking earn their money from your clicks, which doesn’t always translate to the reality of the Carpathians.
2) Fast charging is a must. Unless you stay overnight in civilization, there is no way to charge a power bank that requires 6 hours of charging time. In 2019, I only had the opportunity for an overnight charge 5 times in 74 days, though other hikers may use different strategies and stay closer to civilization.
3) Long pants are a necessity as you often need to bushwhack your own path.
4) Expect rain. In 2019, it rained on 40% of my hiking days. Good rain gear and waterproofing your backpack’s contents will save you a lot of trouble. I keep a waterproof pad in my pocket to put my backpack on or to sit on wet surfaces.
5) A fan-powered woodstove is my choice. It provides the magic of a fire, allows for fast cooking (even for food requiring long boiling times like rice), and provides warm water for hygiene and laundry. I don’t have to worry about carrying fuel, and unlike a traditional campfire, it follows Leave No Trace principles. In sensitive areas, I use an efficient liquid alcohol stove (20g of fuel can boil 0.5l of water for 6 minutes).
6) Despite what outdoor shops and commercial hikers claim, hiking is not about the gear, but about having nature near.
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Philosophy
Although I don’t view my journeys as athletic performances, but rather as pilgrimages, I must admit that my goal to walk the entire Carpathian arc within a set timeframe turned the 2019 hike into something of a contest. Unlike my previous journeys, I felt I lost a large part of my sense of freedom once I started comparing my progress against a pre-planned schedule.
In other respects, however, I stayed true to the philosophy I embraced 25 years ago: local sources + less comfort = less weight = nicer experiences. The philosophy I learned in the book Carpathian Games by Miloslav Nevrlý.
