Mt Strymba

The path out of Kolochava starts climbing at the last house and does not level off until the cross, five hours later. Between the two lies about 1,170m of ascent — village at roughly 550m, summit at 1,719m — compressed into some seven kilometres of trail. Nothing on it is technical. It is simply relentless, and that is why the mountain stays quiet.

Strymba is the highest point in Synevyr National Nature Park, ahead of Nehrovets at 1,707m, and the last real summit of the Gorgany before the range runs out. Come for the day rather than the tick, and bring the daylight to do it in.

The last of the Gorgany

The peak stands on the old boundary between the Mizhhiria and Tiachiv districts of Zakarpattia, above the Tereblia valley and the villages of Kolochava, Horb and Nehrovets. It is a triangle of fine-grained sandstone, and on top it behaves like a Gorgany mountain: shattered rock, juniper, mat-grass and no shelter.

Lower down it stops behaving like one. Beech runs to about 1,350m before spruce, mountain pine and juniper take over, and the pastures at the foot have more in common with Borzhava than with the stone chaos further east. Local descriptions call Strymba the last of the Gorgany, and that is a fair reading of the ground.

The climb from Kolochava

Start further into the village than the central bus stop. Driving, follow vul. Druzhby to the post office and leave the car there — parking is thin but findable — then turn left onto vul. Kozheduba, where the blue markers begin at about 48.4176N, 23.7483E. From there it is roughly 7.3km to the summit, 14.5–15km round trip. Other descriptions give 6km one way from a different start, and the 18km figure you sometimes see includes the walk out from the village centre.

Beech woods carry you for the first hour, then spruce, then the slope opens and the horizon widens. Do not force the first kilometre: the gradient bites straight away, which is precisely why the climb is short. Reckon on nine hours car to car with stops, and start early enough that a slow descent is not a headtorch one.

The tarn in the saddle

A shallow pool lies on the eastern arm of the ridge at about 1,600m, eight metres by four and barely a metre deep. Nothing feeds it but rain, and rain is not in short supply up here, so the water stays cloudy and holds no fish. It does hold Carpathian newts, a Red Book species untroubled by the altitude.

The pool is silting up year by year, but the flat ground beside it is the obvious place to eat lunch or pitch a tent, and the last landmark before the summit push — fifteen to thirty minutes of climbing to the cross.

The circuit, and the long way out

Coming back down the same path is the sensible default. The better day is the loop over Streminos and the Pryslip pass, 18 to 22km and nine to eleven hours. Navigation is the problem: marking is dependable up to the summit and unreliable after it, so carry a downloaded track. Streminos itself, 1,652m, is smothered in mountain pine and awkward head-on — walkers traverse below the top. Some transfer drivers will collect you at Pryslip, which a capable vehicle can reach, and that turns the circuit into a one-way day.

There is also a proper crossing: Kolochava to Synevyr village by way of Sukhar, Yavora, Horb, Nehrovets, Velyka Hropa and Chertizh, roughly 35km. That means a night out, or a hard pace held all day.

What you see from the cross

The cross is oak, 4.1m tall and 2.1m across, and weighs over 200kg. A group from Kolochava carried it up and raised it on 23 August 2008, Ukraine’s Flag Day; park staff still climb up every 23 August to fly the flag from it.

From beside it the view runs a long way: the Pryvododilni Gorgany, the Pishkonia ridge, polonyna Krasna, Svydovets and Borzhava, and in clean air the Chornohora two-thousanders — Petros, Hoverla, Kostrycha, Kukul. A wider horizon than anything else in this corner of Zakarpattia, and the climb is what it costs.

When to go, and what to do with the second day

Late spring to early autumn. Summer gives you the daylight margin this route needs; October is the handsomest month, with the lower slopes turning and the ridges cut sharp. Spring means mud, standing water and snow patches high up, and winter is a different undertaking altogether. Take boots with grip, a waterproof, more water than you think and a warm layer even in July — the summit is exposed and the weather turns faster up there than in the village.

Kolochava earns the second day: the Stare Selo open-air museum, the narrow-gauge railway, the Arpad Line bunkers, the school museums and the 1795 Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, with Lake Synevyr and the bear rehabilitation centre a short drive on. Buses reach the village from Uzhhorod and Mizhhiria; by train, get off at Volovets and take a bus or taxi.