First weekend of October brings snow to Romania’s mountains

Those living or visiting mountain areas last weekend had first seats to a preview of the upcoming winter season. It snowed heavily in the mountains, with the layer of snow reaching some 80 cm at Omu Peak in Bucegi Mountains on Sunday morning. The snowfall also covered Romania’s beautiful high altitude roads Transfagarasan and Transalpina, at over 2,000 meters. Moreover, due to the bad weather alerts issued last Friday, the roads company CNAIR decided to close the segment between Ranca and Obarsia Lotrului on Transalpina. The Transfagarasan is officially open until October 31 but the authorities advise tourists not to take this road in the following days as the snow reaches 1 meter on some segments. They are currently working on removing the snow.

Those in charge of removing the snow also intervened on several roads over the weekend, such as Transalpina (DN 67C), DN 1A (Cheia), DN 73 (in Prahova county), DN 2D (in Covasna county), and DN 71 (in Arges county). The Police advise drivers to adjust the speed to the weather conditions, and respect road signs and temporary restrictions. They are also recommended to equip their cars for winter traffic if they cross the mountain areas affected by the snow in this period.

The bad weather also brought bad news. In the Bucegi Mountains, where it snowed strongly over the weekend, the mountain rescuers intervened on Saturday to recover a tourist who was seen on the ground, perhaps in a coma, on the Jepii Mici route. Unfortunately, the man was already dead when the rescuers got to him. Doctors believe that he had died of hypothermia, reports local News.ro. It took rescuers around one hour and a half to take the man’s body down from the mountain due to the blizzard and low visibility. Also on Saturday, a man went missing during an endurance competition on Rosu Mountain, near Cheia resort. Fortunately, the man, who didn’t return after the competition ended, was found safe later the same day. The rescue mission was also complicated due to the blizzard. Several tourists were stuck on Sunday afternoon on a forest road leading to Ciucas Chalet in Prahova County, after several trees fell and blocked the road. Nobody was injured, and the tourists stayed at the Ciucas Chalet until the authorities managed to unblock the road. The temperatures also dropped over the weekend, but are expected to go up in the coming days. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com