The "Drumeții Montane" Festival was Stage III of the "Ștafeta Munților" National Championship, being organised by the "Drumeții Montane" Association & "Jnepenii". This year it took place on 1–3 August at the "Cheile Buții" Tourist Complex in the Retezat Mountains, bringing together at the start more than 350 people who were able to compete in various mountain-specific activities.
All those who wished to take part in the Festival chose a category according to age, gender and experience, and the teams were distributed as follows: the women's category were the "Domnițele Suave" (the Gentle Princesses) with 9 teams entered, the "Open" category with 31 teams and "Family" with 27 teams, being the "Haiducii" (the Outlaws), "Veterans" with 6 teams and "Elite" with 10 teams, being the "Zmeii Înaripați" (the Winged Dragons), and the "Children" category with 8 teams and "Juniors" with 7 teams, being the "Dinozaurii Pitici" (the Dwarf Dinosaurs). All the teams were coordinated by the organisers, who were named the "flăcăii viteji" (the brave lads) of this Festival.
Within the fairy-tale story created by all those present, there were orienteering, climbing, tourism knowledge, mountain raid and cultural events.
Friday 1 August, between 12:00 and 23:00, was reserved for awaiting the participants, ending with a technical briefing at which the "flăcăii viteji" explained to the arrivals what the programme for Saturday would be.
The events started on Saturday 2 August, with 98 teams entered, and those who arrived late could no longer take part in the activities, turning into supporters for the other teams.
The competition itself began at 6:44 am, when each team of three people entered the tourism knowledge event, having to answer 20 multiple-choice questions out of the 240 published on the festival website. This was followed by the climbing event, in which the competitors had 5 minutes to tie three knots used in climbing.
The teams that successfully passed the tourism knowledge and climbing events entered the mountain raid event, having to cover a mountain route within a time set by the organisers.
The "Family" and "Children" categories had to cover a 12 km themed route, designed by the organisers, in a maximum of 240 minutes plus a one-hour break, returning to the camp, after which they took the orienteering event on the map.
The "Juniors", "Veterans", "Women" and "Open" categories had 480 minutes and a one-hour break, while the most experienced of all, the "Elite" category, had 390 minutes and a one-hour break. For all these categories, the route was: Cheile Buții – Cabana Buta – Plaiul Mic – Vârful Albele – Vârful Piatra Iorgovanului – Câmpușel, over a length of 22 km, and the teams that did not finish within this time received penalty points.
The teams that reached Câmpușel entered the orienteering event on the map, after which they received a bonus from the organisers, being transported to the camp by coach.
Each event was held in accordance with the rules of the "Ștafeta Munților" National Championship, with the teams receiving points based on their performance, which made up the final ranking of each category as well as of the festival.
A great many competitors took part in Saturday evening's photo competition, as the scenery on the mountain raid route gave them the opportunity to take spectacular photographs, and it was quite hard for the organisers to pick a winner.
Saturday's cultural evening was a real challenge for the participants. Plays were written and staged, poems were recited and various mountain songs were sung to the guitar in front of all the participants.
On Sunday 3 August, the prize-giving ceremony was held on the basis of the rankings, so that every participating team went home a winner.
In 2014 we managed to take the participants of the "Drumeții Montane" Festival to an altitude of 2,014 m, on Piatra Iorgovanului peak. It was conquered in 3 hours and 50 minutes by the "Dacii Liberi" (the Free Dacians) team, entered in the "Zmeii Înaripați" ("Elite") category.
We thank the Câmpu lui Neag Mountain Gendarmerie, Salvamont Uricani and the Uricani Town Police for their support during the festival.
The "Drumeții Montane" Festival project was a real success this year, with prizes worth a total of 13,000 euros offered by the supporters: Ch-Center Hosting, Dwyn.ro, Lew.ro, Doppelherz, VitalisGroup.ro, AuroMedia, the Cuculis and Associates Law Office, MobilaDalin, Touch Antibacterial, Belkin International Inc, Craimont, MobilaDalin, IBU Publishing, Piticlic, O & R Bacău, Mozartinno, ListaFirme.ro, Elmo-Print, MagazinulArtistilor.ro, A-Z Cursuri, Hotel Peștera, CEDES Cercetare Dezvoltare, Imperior – FRA 12, Xventure – Freinademetz Off-Road Romania, Cofetăria Alice.
We thank our partners: Bradut Associated, the National Union of Students in Romania, Music Channel Romania, the Cheile Buții Tourist Complex, Retezat National Park, the National Forest Administration Romsilva, the Lupeni Forestry District, Polaris M Holding.
The "Drumeții Montane" Festival is a project run by the "Drumeții Montane" Association and "Jnepenii", with no participation fees, the activities being free of charge and those involved being 100% volunteers; the project's main aim is to promote and popularise sports tourism as an eco-friendly way of spending leisure time, to improve knowledge about biodiversity in a playful form – by walking tourist routes / interpretive trails –, to get involved in environmental protection activities and to develop the competitive spirit by organising sports events specific to mountain sports: orienteering, climbing and mountain raid.
