Surprisingly, this is one of the easiest 8 pointers in the county, surpassed in accessibility only by Rarau and Cota 1576. Put in another way, it's easier than many 6 pointers. The total length of the trail from the car to the summit and back is only 4 kilometers, with an altitude gain of about 300 meters (in the 2 kilometer climb). The mountain itself has a long ridge (calling by the locals "The Long Mountain") which is nice hike in its entirety. Beautiful sights at the top, with many SOTA summits visible: Rarau, Pietrosu Bistritei, Giumalau, Ostrei, Botusan, Alunisul, Toaca (Ceahlau), etc.

Radio-wise we started in VHF, UHF, then switched to 14MHz. Because of our poor results in the 17m band (low propagation and chaser presence) we skipped it completely. Andrei managed to get the most contacts in his SOTA history to date.

The weather was crummy at first, the sun punching a hole in the ceiling, eventually. Cold nonetheless. On our way back Andrei spotted a bear crap in the trail which seemed only a few days old. I remained some 50 meters behind, studying some rocks, when I heard Andrei screaming: "Bogdan, where are you?" There was a hint of urgency in his voice. He spotted a bear and told me to keep right. I asked him if he was in any danger, said no. Pulled my dog spray and regrouped with him. They spotted each other at 20 meters, when Andrei decided to climb out of a ditch and heard a stick break nearby. Surprised by the presence, the medium sized bear froze for a second and then ran away. It was good that it hadn't ran towards me.

​(video later)

A hard climb from bottom to top, but very short (around 1km). Despite the sunny day, the air was cold and the wind made it worse. We scheduled S2S contacts with two other summits. One group went on Magura Sarata. It consisted of YO8SST, YO8AZQ and YO8SFF. The other group, formed by YO8SDF and YO8SSH, climbed Alunisul. We were all pretty close together, the summits being somewhat rectilinear and accessible from the same valley and road. Andrei and myself were in the middle, at about 10 kilometers south from Magura Sarata and 8 km north of Alunisul. The propagation on shortwaves, as usual lately, was very limited. The 18MHz was almost completely dead (we managed to get 3 contacts in about half an hour of constant calling), while the 14MHz was better, but not exceptional either. As a result we packed up earlier than planned and used the spare time to wander around the woods for a bit. A nice day, all in all.

​(video later)

Target summit: YO/EC-527 "Cota 1576" - www.sota.org.uk/Summit/YO/EC-527 - and YO/EC-017 "Rarau" - www.sota.org.uk/Summit/YO/EC-017
Our Route: For the first summit, Cota 1576, we went straight up from the wooden scene. For Rarau, we followed the road that goes to the TV station.
GPS Track: None available.
GSM coverage (on both summits): Full signal on multiple networks, no problems whatsoever.
1st Summit conditions: Grass on one side, trees on the other. Careful, the north-eastern side of the ridge is quite steep.
2nd Summit conditions: Open, next to a concrete shack and an old radio tower. Windy at times.

Probably the easiest 8 pointers in the whole county, easily doable in the same day, maybe even in winter. There's not much to say about this activation. We started with "Cota 1576" in VHF and UHV, then switched to 18Mhz. Skipped the 14MHz entirely. Then we moved to Rarau and activated it in VHF and UHF only, thanks to our trusty local chasers. The weather was pretty cold and gloomy, but we managed OK. (Pics and video later.)