This report is about the tour: Marmarosy range 🗓 4–October 9, 2015
Hello Kirill! One of the participants in the hikes with your instructors is writing to you. It’s very difficult to force me to write anything, because I have to spend a lot of time on it, and I value my free time very highly. Therefore, something very extraordinary and shocking must happen to write this letter.
The thing is that I accidentally came across a review of one of the participants in the hike in which I also took part, namely, the hike to Marmaros. As soon as I saw the photo of the main character of the report (because there was also a main character, apparently her husband or friend, who was the main source of all the conflicts that arose during the campaign), I decided that dirt would flow from the very beginning. But as it turned out, the review began very positively with a detailed description of the beauty of nature and the delights of a group hike.
But the results were not long in coming and they started with the minuses. Most of all, it was the instructor who, according to these would-be tourists, must be not only an experienced instructor who knows the route perfectly well, but also a tour guide and a “mass entertainer” who satisfies all the emerging needs of all participants in the hike.
But how, tell me, can we conduct excursions if the group stretches for a kilometer, and the authors of this report walked precisely at the “tail” of the group and significantly slowed down the entire trip. And the fact that the instructor devoted the whole evening to folklore, I even consider it a kind of excess for the group, which was divided into several subgroups, despite Yuri’s futile efforts to somehow unite the team into a single whole.
Further in order. “There was an opinion in the group that they were saving on food,” and this was after we threw away the fried porcini mushrooms, because it didn’t bother anyone else. As for the rules of behavior when meeting animals (even on forums on the Internet they cannot come to a common opinion, except that you should not run away from a predator), we spent the whole morning discussing the story of the night roar of deer, and the fact that this married couple kept themselves apart for almost the entire trip and did not participate in various discussions is their problem.
When it came to choosing the best place to sleep - in a tent or in a cradle, then they were in first place and created a conflict between the participants in the hike.
As for finishing the hike a day earlier - even on the website it was indicated that on the fifth day we were supposed to reach the Shibene River and only on the sixth go to the village of Shibene, from where transport to Ivano-Frankivsk would pick us up. And the fact that we left at 10 am on Friday instead of 1 pm (which was really necessary, since one girl had a train at two o’clock in the afternoon from Vorokhta) to call a whole day, is already too much, especially since they advise purchasing tickets for the evening only so that everyone could sit at the end of the trip in the “Ten” pub, which is what happened to us, only at two o’clock in the afternoon, and not at five, as planned.
And lastly, where on the website does it state that it is the duties of the attendants to wake everyone up in the morning? It was clearly stated that those on duty got up at seven in the morning, the rest at eight. I remember the day when this married couple was left without breakfast, when everyone spent the night in a cradle, and they decided to pitch a tent three hundred meters from the camp, and they were not alone, but for some reason the other couple found the strength to wake up on their own at eight in the morning (and these are adults!) and come on time for breakfast, and it turns out that someone needed to be woken up.
In general, I have written a lot, but one conclusion can be drawn. Bad people really don’t go on hikes, but there are people who are completely unsuitable for group hikes, and no one, even the most experienced instructor, is able to unite them into one whole with the group.
P.S. There were 11 of us without an instructor. Nine of them exchanged phone numbers and emails and all received photographs from each other from the hike. Only two were not on the list sheet with personal data, which we all photographed for further exchange of photographs. Guess who?
And one more thing. I was on two trips with Oleg Boyko and two with Yuriy Yurkiv. The most difficult question remains who to choose as an instructor for your next hike in the summer of 2016. It's like comparing the operas "Don Giovanni" and "Carmen", which is better, if you understand me. There is no clear answer. The ideal option is when one goes as an instructor, and the second as an ordinary tourist (during a break between their own hikes), which is what I did on two hikes, so I know what I’m talking about.
Sincerely. One of the participants in the hike, Oleg Loge from Berdyansk.