Vorokhta - Hoverla via Kukul

[Tourist]

The main part of this route, which attracted my attention, is a zigzag section between the Kukul and Hoverla meadows, along which the border of the Transcarpathian and Ivano-Frankivsk regions passes. A direct transition from Vorokhta to the foot of Goverla could have been an interesting route, but not only was there no marked route on all the maps, but even no paths were marked. Didn't help and wikiloc.com with tracks. All this prompted me to look at this abandoned part of the Carpathians with my own eyes.

So let's go!
The passed route can be seen here: Vorohta-Kukul-Goverla-Shibene

The start of the hike is the blue route. After the bridge across the Prut, marks appear on poles and trees and further to the very Kukul valley. This section of the path is quite simple, the height is gained smoothly. In the middle of the path there is a good source, a little up the road from the equipped resting place. There are excellent panoramic views from the valley. Unfortunately, most of it was covered with low clouds.

Outskirts of Vorokhta

Middle of the blue route. Source 20 m up the road

Polonina Labieska

The ascent here also took about 4 hours

Polonina Kukul

The main part of the route, from the Kukul meadow to the valley of the Kuzmeska river (the place of the bivouac near Hoverla). If you look at the map, then this part of the path is shorter than the one covered, and I expected to cover it in three hours, but in reality it turned out to be twice as long.

From the top point of the jumper with signs we go down the path in the direction of the houses. You can go exactly the same way as I did - traverse through the meadow into the forest and further along the road with marks for cyclists (black dots on the map). The main thing here is not to slip a sharp turn to the right, just behind the fence, otherwise you can go to the floor. Zakukul. But it is better to go down near the buildings and go to the green route. This will allow you to cut the corner a little, and most importantly, this option is more cleared and not so dirty in rainy weather. We move to the border post number 10 on the old Polish-Czech border of 1920-1923.

From this point, the road along which the green route is laid goes from the border to the right to the descent to the Beskydya River. Straight ahead, barely visible paths. A little to the right, a more trodden path can be traced. I'm starting to think about where to go. This is where logic takes precedence over intuition. I decide to move forward, adhering to the border posts. At least I won't be mistaken.

Unfortunately, this decision was made by many other tourists. Along the way, there are other scattered paths. At first, on the descent, I wander between the pits of trenches and dugouts, bypassing fallen trees. The closer to the jumper, the blockages become more impassable. In the end the path rests on a heap of large trees. There is no further move. I start looking for a detour on the right. You have to go lower and lower. I do not want to lose height, but there is nowhere to go. And at some point, I notice a well-trodden traverse path below. And then I realize that this is exactly the path that my sixth sense was pushing me to.

Then my movement went faster. The trail is almost horizontal and without serious blockages. I quickly passed the jumper between the 10th and 8th columns (No. 9 is located on the jumper in the wilds of the blockage), and I expected that soon this path would lead me to the very top of 1299. But she stubbornly did not want to climb, and the slope on the left became steeper . This trail took me farther and farther away from my goal towards the summit of Konsa 1211. Again I began to doubt the correctness of my choice. The trail offered me to go even further, and the logic said that I needed to climb the ridge on the left. Moving forward, I began to look at a more gentle place, suitable for climbing. And when I saw that the path turns even more to the right, I realized that the moment had come to climb ahead. At first everything went well, I dodged between the fallen trees, choosing a more gentle slope. But the higher I climbed, the steeper the slope became, and the hard ground turned into loose scree.

In the end, after about half an hour, I still got to this ridge. As expected, there is an excellent trodden path along it, smoothly rising to a height of 1299 m. Later, already at home, analyzing my track, I came to the conclusion that it was necessary to go along this path no more than 500 meters Mount Konsa (1211) and upland 1299.

Observing the distance traveled from peak 1299 (column No. 8), one can see the consequences of a strong hurricane - there were no standing trees along the entire border ridge from the top to the cofferdam. Fallen trees blocked the slope, creating impassable blockages in several layers.

Those. the correct way to go from point 10 to point 8 should be like this. From column 10, look to the right for the beginning of the path, then follow it towards Konsa and a little short of it, it should lead to a decrease in the ridge, and then to the very top of 1299. But this is my guess.

Border post 10

Detour trail below the ridge

It should be noted that this section is the most difficult and not obvious. Even at the bottom, bypassing height 1299, I saw a steep descent path from the top. Or rather, not even a path, but simply traces of a descent through. Those. the group going in the opposite direction probably tried to move along the border, and then turned left and simply slid down onto the bypass path. My version of the passage can be taken as the basis for the passage, but make the adjustments described above.

Further on, the trail becomes more obvious. She goes along the border and deviates to the side only on the bypass of small blockages. From time to time there are border posts, and the trail practically does not disappear. The longest and hardest ascent to the summit 1458 (column No. 5). Further, between 1458 and Vel.Kozmeskaya (1572m) there is a fairly gentle ridge, overgrown with young fir trees and leading to juniper thickets and blueberry fields.

The descent path from Vel.Kozmeski starts to the right of column 4, if you look along the way, right among the dense thickets of fir trees. The path going through the clearing leads to Mal.Kozmeska. Having passed a little among the thickets on the descent, we go out onto a normal road coming out of the military cemetery and marked with yellow-white squares.

Bivouac near Hoverla

Military Polish cemetery

View from Goverla on the path traveled

At the top of Goverla

Further, the hike passed through Hoverla and the Chernogorsky ridge to Pop Ivan, and the descent to the village. Shebene. Overnight stays were on the lakes Nesamovyte and Maricheyka. But this part of the route, although beautiful, is not so interesting, so I only give photographs.

View of Hoverla from Breskul

Lake Nesamovyte

Lake Maricheika