Initiation

My cousin B has been eager to leave behind the comfort of ski lifts and taste the thrills of backcountry skiing. We headed for Bâlea Lake early on Sunday morning to introduce him to skiing unmarked and ungroomed pistes.

Long climb

Weather wasn't great. We started our ascent through thick fog. By the time we reached the top, the mountain opened up a bit but overcast clouds made the surface definition of the snow to disappear. This was not a complete whiteout but still made reading the slope extremely difficult.

First turns

We commenced our descent into Doamnei Valley as soon as the sun made it through the clouds. Took B some time to adapt to the new conditions. As expected he found steering a lot more difficult than on groomed runs. Eventually he gained enough confidence to let the skis slide through more than a couple of turns at a time.

I've made it!

B made it through the most difficult spots in one piece. Scary to him were the big boulders we had to avoid. He was constantly under the impression that hitting one of those was imminent and unavoidable.

Posing

Having reached the place where snow became insufficient to continue on skis, we changed into hiking boots, strapped skis on our backs and slowly made our way home through the forest. Starting a bit dull, this turned out to be a great day in the end. Will B stick to backcountry skiing? That I don't know for sure...

Heading home