As we had limited time on our first trip to Romania, and did not know the area, we decided to hire a local guide to take us up the mountain. A web-search (see at https://www.toursbylocals.com/VladeasaMountains) found us a guide - Camelia Matis, who lives locally. She proved to be an excellent choice - intelligent, engaging and full of local knowledge.

We parked by a barn a few hundred metres up a stony track above the end of the tarmac road, in the upper reaches of the strung-out village of Rogojel. Following the route marked with red on a white background, we continued on the track as it wound up through hay-pastures into the extensive conifer forests on the flanks of the mountain. After several kilometres, we emerged into a wide open meadow with a number of houses situated on it - the largest the Cabana Vladeasa, a mountain hut open all year, with drinks, food and accommodation. After a tasty fruit tea in the company of the large friendly dog who lives there, we took a fainter trail steeply up behind the hut, heading for the tree-line on the north ridge of the mountain. There we joined another stony track that swung south past a minor summit onto the north top of Vladeasa, on which was situated a large wooden house with meteorological equipment. A viewpoint on the west side afforded fine views over the rest of the Apuseni Range, with Lake Dragan below. Camelia told us that on clear days the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia could be discerned. Today it was too hazy to see that far.

We continued south for several hundred metres up onto the southern top, marked with a marker post and a few stones. We ate our lunch out of the chilly breeze on the summit meadow, before heading back to the weather station. One of the employees there told me that the south top, which had the marker, was 0.5m higher than the northern one, on which the weather station is situated. The southern top is therefore the true summit of the mountain.

We headed down by our outward route, stopping to rest at the hut again, where we were greeted by the resident dog.