In the Carpathians - SCP Foundation

GetLostPro 23/08/2021 (Monday) 18:11:24 #65401599

Hi! First time poster long time lurker so hope this is the right spot to put this. I’m in Romania for the summer visiting family and doing some programs at the University of Bucharest — so generally being bored out of my skull. To get some time to myself, I thought I’d do some backpacking, get into those Carpathian mountains and find something spooky to share with y’all. I’ve been backpacking through a bunch of ranges in the US and Italy, and figured it was time for me to tackle something a little more challenging while I was between classes. Plus I've heard some great stories of the paranormal about these mountains from the locals in my classes — plus it's not like I'm gonna be the one to finally find something spooky in Dracula’s castle (yes, he was a real guy – no, probably not a vampire let’s just move on) or any of the more popular paranormal spots.

In my one class, I had to sit with some weird guy who kept talking about ghosts and Bigfoot (probably one of you tbh) and he mentioned some reports in the local paper from over the weekend that caught my ear. Apparently, a hiking group got themselves lost in the Făgăraş Mountains in the Southern Carpathian region of Romania after setting out from Câmpulung to scale Vârful Moldoveanu, one of the higher mountains in the region.

This was the mountain they were supposed to climb.

A few days later, they were found at the foot of the mountain, half-starved and delirious — Reporting wild stories of a mountain pass and an impossible jungle which were mocked in the press and dismissed as the ravings of the traumatized by authorities. Apparently only a few of the survivors were seriously injured, and, of those, only one was near Bucharest – where I’m staying.

Now, I'm not usually one to go chasing stories but there was something about this story that really got me invested. I started reading news clippings and asking anyone who would chat with me about it just to find out more. Until, eventually, I decided to find and visit this survivor at the hospital. Thing is, her name wasn’t listed in the reports — probably to discourage strangers from visiting, just like I wanted to. But I was in luck because one of my classmates — Elena (I’m not including her surname or the hospital for obvious reasons) — knew her and was kind enough to set something up!

Yesterday I paid her a visit with flowers and some chocolates — I know, I know, cliché — but she didn’t seem to mind, no one else was listening to her story. She told me there was a mountain pass deep in that range that had been closed off, maybe by the government or some other group. According to her, her and her friends had gotten lost while trying to push too long after sunset and they found themselves at the entrance to this little valley — she called it a pass at first, but it seemed to have no exit from what she talked about, so I don’t know. The things she mentioned tho — wild jungle flora, some sort of ruin and abandoned government facilities, and other stranger things (I’d rather not repeat because I figure it was the pain meds).

Her memory was all messed up — probably from the trauma and exhaustion — but she showed me (on a map) the route they were supposed to take up until they got lost. Anyway, wish me luck, I’m gonna take a few days to check out the area.

D4RKNITE 23/08/2021 (Monday) 18:30:12 #0371270

Wow! Good luck op! Don't forget to hide your location so whatever government can't track you down! Send pics when you get there!

MuppetFetus 23/08/2021 (Monday) 18:59:03 #1116532

Great thinking! If the government has been there once they're prolly waiting to shut anyone doing their own research down

skeptickill3r 23/08/2021 (Monday) 19:20:57 #00667541

OH SURE, you’re just gonna find sum place rumored for years but totally undiscovered on your free weekend… I’d say good luck, but fuck off with this poser shit. And all you who are encouraging this lunatic need to go outside too instead of just imagining a haunted hike

HecateJones 23/08/2021 (Monday) 19:23:17 #77516625

Hey skeptickill3r, don’t insult posters. If you have a counter argument or constructive comment, then great. But keep it civil.

HOGSLICE 23/08/2021 (Monday) 19:47:12 #19288745

HELL YES! THAT HIKING GROUP IS SOME BETA SHIT BUT HIKING IS BAD ASS. GO GET EM BROTHER! FIND US ANOTHER ALPHA MOTHMAN AND GET SWOLE DOING IT!

—HOGSLICE

GetLostPro 24/08/2021 (Tuesday) 07:02:27 #65401599

Hey skeptickill3r

Does this convince you?

Chill the fuck out.

I’ll have an update soon.

skeptickill3r 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 06:54:12 #00667541

Called it, no update for two days? Fake news. Anyway, what is this sign supposed to tell us?

Ghostfr3ak 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 10:22:47 #58732149

Damn dude, why don’t you let the OP explain. If we never hear nothing, what does that do to you?

How many people gotta ask you to chill, bro?

GetLostPro 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 13:29:41 #65401599

Honestly, I can’t believe I found it… this place is nuts. And I don’t understand how no one has found this place before, there’s no graffiti or trash anywhere, unlike every abandoned place I’ve been to on previous excursions. Lemme give some more information for the remaining skeptics:

I followed Elena’s route for the better part of a day before having to camp. Luckily there’s a way station at the foot of the peak, even though it’s a hike to get that far. Early the next morning I continued on the route as best I could manage, but after the way station her instructions were strange. She was half out of it on medications, plus she was malnourished and pretty seriously injured by the end so I guess it makes sense the directions wouldn’t help past a certain point.

I tried to keep my bearings by always knowing where the peak was, but halfway through Wednesday I’d gotten myself seriously turned around. There’s so many crags and cutouts in those mountains, it’s hard to go in one direction very long before having to climb up or down, and that’s a good way to lose your way.

It was close to sunset, my anxiety was piling up, and I had gotten completely turned around of where I was in comparison to the way station. I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back down in the dark so I decided to push on and set up camp at the next clearing. Eventually I found myself in a gorge, the high cliff face cutting out most of the late afternoon light when I saw the shallowest of flaws in the face of the rock wall in front of me. It was no more than a shelf, maybe enough room to stand on, about sixty meters up the side of the cliff. But what drew my attention was the glint of light. The sun was just barely touching that section of the cliff face, but nothing natural would have caught the light in that way. I decided, probably against better judgment, to climb it and see what the glint was from. I tried to memorize the face of the rock, so I could find my way up there but I couldn’t wait too long or lose the light entirely. Probably I could climb down the face and camp at the foot, without too much trouble. Probably.

I think it’s important to explain I’m not an expert climber, I’ve got experience and can hold my own, but the sheer wall in front of me was intimidating nonetheless. Either way, I needed to see and I didn’t have the time to think twice so I got out my divots and rock hammer and started working my way up. I had a harness and rigging, so I could take precautions, but it started to get darker and darker faster with each few meters. This is exactly what they tell you not to do. But I'd committed already so there was no way to go but up.

I reached the shelf just as twilight was setting in, my breath was ragged and I was covered in scrapes. But I could see what had caught the light. A tripod. Here, on a shelf no wider than the length of my arm, someone had jury rigged a camera tripod with some rigging and a divot like the ones I was carrying and it had gotten covered in some weird plants I couldn't identify in any of my books on the area. No camera of course, but there was just enough metal exposed to have caught the light. Dumb luck I found it.

Felt pretty stupid tbh. Here I was risking my ass, and all it turned out to be was some asshole trying to find a good angle on the gorge for a post on social media. I turned on my headlamp, thinking I’d never get down before the light failed completely, and then I saw it. The flaw in the rock face continued inward, no more than fifteen centimeters wide, right where the tripod was mounted. I’d come this far, so fuck it. I tied my pack to the rigging and made sure it was secure then slipped into the flaw working my way inwards.

It was impossible to see from the ground, having such an obtuse angle that you’d have to be on the shelf to see it go into the rock face. I’m not a big guy, but it hurt squeezing into that crevasse. I was constantly worried about getting stuck and starving to death but it never got much narrower, and I was able to work my way into the space slowly but surely until it opened up.

Look at this shit.

Suddenly I was in a much wider space, surrounded by high rock faces. It was all draped in shadow but I could see a rusted out fence and the warning signs I posted above. Obviously, the skull gave me pause but shit, what the hell could it be? No way this was some minefield from some long ago war in the mountains that nobody had ever heard of or recorded, and it’s not like someone could have used this tiny valley for storing hazardous shit. Past the ruined oxidized gate, the area opened up to an untouched grassy field, despite the events of a few weekends ago that I thought would have definitely left some kind of trace, and, on the other side, a bunker disguised in the side of a hill and surrounded by so many trees.

It was a forest, but IN a gorge, situated above another gorge. I could look up and see the pink sky, knowing the sun was minutes from setting.

I spent the next hour or so ferrying my supplies, going back and forth through the tiny crevasse (as I couldn’t fit my pack in one trip) and then collapsed on my sleeping bag, there at the mouth of the dark gorge.

Next day I slept in hard, woke up almost midday. Just fucking exhausted, I guess. But I got up to take some photos in the light and was shocked. The valley was much bigger than I’d originally thought in the dark, but with sheer walls on either side… probably no wider than a standard football field back home in Kansas. And the whole thing was dense with trees. Trees that didn’t look natural to the area at all. And over the wind I could hear howling above the rock walls towering above me 150 meters or so, I could just hear this whine. High pitched, like electrical stations. Not that there was any electricity here.

I decided to check out the bunker and then make my way down and get back to town once I literally could not stay out much longer. In the meantime, if anyone can translate this sign posted above the entrance to the bunker and tell me anything you know about it I would really appreciate it. More in a bit.

BubbleBoy 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 15:24:59 #0019254

-> Departamentul de Anomalii

I've never heard of this! Anyone here know what this is? I asked my Romanian grandma what this could mean and she guessed it was probably some military thing. Were there any other signs around? Great find OP!

skeptickill3r 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 16:04:48 #00667541

Well color me embarrassed.

GetLostPro 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 16:21:05 #65401599

Continuing from my last post, I got back the next day and as I walked around snapping pictures of the area, I noticed that there were a lot of bees all over the place. Like, a LOT of bees. And a LOT of beehives. I stopped counting after 20ish, because there were just so many. You can hear them everywhere too. Which isn’t the same whine I heard at night when I first got there but once I noticed how many bees there were it was impossible to not hear the constant buzzing beneath the whining. Every tree I passed, every single one, had a hive in it. Some even had multiple. It was unnerving. The buzzing was so loud, and added to that electric whine, my head was pounding within minutes.

I just tried to put it out of my mind. I’m not allergic or anything, but it's still stressful and I bet it doesn't even matter – if you got stung by that many bees way out there, you’re dead. I went into the bunker to get out of the way of the bees. In the bunker's entrance, there were skylights in almost every room on the top level – the glass having broken long ago – and there was a massive mosaic within the entryway.

Weird thing to be in a military bunker.

Beyond that first room, every passage was filled floor to ceiling with even more hives. I didn’t get any pictures because I could barely push my way in for fear of brushing up against the hives and angering them but they looked like a typical hive, just… bigger and more complex in a way. I don’t know how deep the bunker went, but everything I could see was filled with these hives. And I swear to god, some of the hives looked like buildings. Like old temples or ziggurats. Honestly, it was hard enough walking around outside hearing the droning of the bees overhead, but in that closed space it was a nightmare. I felt my heart race, suddenly covered in a slick cool layer of sweat, and my head pounded from the inside. I haven’t had a full-on panic attack before, but I think that’s what it was…. I couldn’t breathe. Just needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

Above is the audio I was recording at the time – well it’s the audio from a video but I panicked, and the footage is a trash fire, so I just stripped out the audio. Just listen to that shit, and that’s just what could get picked up by my trash phone mic.

Took me a good ten minutes to get my shit together after that. I wish I had something to show you of the hives but I just- I couldn't go back in there. And no, I wasn’t high then and I’m not now.

Fuck. Even just listening to that recording is giving me flashbacks. Will continue this in a bit.

Ghostfr3ak 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 16:38:07 #58732149

Damn… you alright? Be careful out there, don’t get hurt just to get some pics. Bees can be killers in groups and that's if these are normal bees…

GetLostPro 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 17:01:46 #65401599

After a while, when I could breathe again, I figured I‘d go deeper into the valley. Moving away from the bunker there was a rough path between the trees that led to another structure, sorta like a gate. It was just this free standing thing, with two walls trailing off towards the edges of the gorge. No doors in two outta three of the gateways, one was stopped up tight. Looked so out of place and yet… not.

Beyond the gates the forest continued with a stone tile path moving through the trees. But the trees on the other side of the wall were different. Closer together, insanely overgrown.

Different than the shrubs I’d seen on the ascent up the mountain. Had to be above the tree line, but I’m not sure. Either way, these trees seemed more like an orchard or jungle. And yeah, I don’t mean these are my guesses. I mean that they literally looked like both. There were fruit trees I didn’t recognize and ground cover that looked like what I’d seen in rainforests. And everywhere the buzzing of bees and that high pitched whine in the air. Louder now.

Then there were these fucked up peach trees. It’s honestly hard to think straight up there, they can’t be what they look like. Looking at the pictures now, it’s not so obvious but… it’s like they were looking at me.

I could barely see straight with that noise constantly drilling into my skull. The trees and the path through the gorge seemed to go on forever. At one point I was convinced that the trees were closing in on me despite me staring directly at them. A bunch of times I even thought I could see movement in the trees out of the corner of my eyes but there was clearly nothing there but me. Well, me and all the goddamn bees.

Kept walking for hours but it's blurry, the light didn’t really change. I don’t know, I was going out of my head. Anyway, I tripped and fell face-first into a huge set of steps rising through the forest, carved into the stone. I wasn't going back into that bunker without some extra protection, so I pushed forward through the dizziness and exhaustion and throbbing headache. And climbed.

At the top, I collapsed against a tree while clutching at my aching head, and my fingers came away bloody. I panicked yet again – was there some terrible hazard here after all? Those skulls on the sign were flashing across my eyes as I tried to remember what the signs for radiation or hazardous waste should look like.

But it was just a nosebleed, maybe from the exertion in the high altitude. I honestly don’t know since I didn't even think I had touched my face beyond grabbing at my temples. What I do know though is that after I checked my face I fell backwards in relief and braced again against that tree with my hand, to steady myself. As I touched the tree, the leaves began to come alive with images like a fever dream.

A woman wearing a tiara on a high plain,

soldiers surrounding her,

a red and gold coat flapping in the wind.

Then a ritual or ceremony in a mountain temple.

All so goddamn fuzzy.

Only afterwards realized I should have pulled out my phone to take a picture. Felt like I was on something. But as I stumbled away from the tree, it faded. Headache, nosebleed, and fucking hallucinations. I was gonna go back, I needed to get my head clear. But then I turned and really looked around me.

There was a small clearing with a ruined structure, supported by rotting wooden beams and constructed of stone blocks. As I approached, my head pounding and my nose continuing to bleed, I swear I could feel eyes watching me.

I decided that was it, I was leaving that fucked up forest. But I didn’t get the chance.

Suddenly, a loud crash behind me, and a shuffling sound, as if something was rushing towards me. Threw myself through the ruins’ gate and crouched against the green stones shaking and I’m not ashamed to say, fucking blubbering.

The whine and the bees and the asshole stomping around outside – could barely think straight.

The footsteps were way too loud. Like something super heavy was out there. My ears rang with the high-pitched whine, which was louder here – heart pounded in my throat. Tried to get my bearings and look around the ruins, seeing a stone altar at the center, with etchings covering it.

To the side of the courtyard, there were these planters with massive flowering ground plants, like snapdragons and cattails smashed together. The flowers were vibrating as I crouch walked towards them and the sound increased as I got closer.

Standing over the flowers, static made my hair stand on end and my teeth hurt. But no chance to figure it out because the footsteps outside the walls were right behind me now, where the wall was lowest. And I could see them.

Looked like someone wearing a tree costume or something, like someone out of lord of the rings… fucker was on stilts or something, the arms gripped the edge of the wall with one hand while reaching for me with the other.

I darted to the side and stumbled away, the hand (made out of goddamn wood) hit the plant I had been looking at and – WOOSH – just like that, it’s burning, like a cartoon character sticking a fork in an outlet.

Fucker screamed as their costume started really catching – sound knocked me on my ass, like nothing I heard before. I clutched my aching head and tried to move back to the door to the courtyard.

And I got the fuck out of there. Ran as fast as I could. All the way along the path, down the stairs and back towards the bunker I could hear the wailing. Smell of charred wood added to my headache, and I felt nauseous. I dragged myself to the crevasse, grabbed my small camp and found a fallen log to hide behind. Must’ve passed out. Woke up hours later, face and shirt covered in blood from the nosebleed.

Was nearly dark again as I finally climbed down the rockface and found my way into the surrounding hills. Wandered for hours, just losing my shit… finally found the way station as the sun came back up.

A ranger found me there a couple hours later, collapsed against the way station, and air lifted me out to a nearby hospital which is where I’m writing all this from.

The capillaries in my nose and ears have all burst, and my inner ear was irritated, plus they said I was somehow now potassium deficient and was suffering from long-term neurological degradation - despite never having had any of these issues prior.

Gonna assess me with a psychologist in the morning.

Wanted to make sure I got my story down here before they took my phone away.

I just want to get back up there, with better equipment and a camera to document the weird shit. There's still a whole other room to explore in the bunker and I need a closer look at that altar.

I don’t know. Whole fucking experience messed with me, but I think I’m definitely going back up. Maybe get my hands on a gun. Asshole in the costume wouldn’t think it was so funny then, huh?

I’ll update in a while; let you all know what the doctors say.

skeptickill3r 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 20:13:57 #00667541

WTF come on…. That’s some dramatic shit.

Ghostfr3ak 26/08/2021 (Thursday) 20:17:08 #58732149

I can’t believe that, yo you need to be careful shit sounds nUtZ. Let us know you’re alright!

skeptickill3r 30/08/2021 (Monday) 08:42:02 #00667541

Ain’t heard nothing. Either full of it, or dead. Even money.

Ghostfr3ak 30/08/2021 (Monday) 14:19:20 #00667541

This is fucked up. Hope he didn’t go back up there.

skeptickill3r 30/08/2021 (Monday) 15:04:11 #00667541

Come on, you’re not buying this shit are you?

HecateJones 01/09/2021 (Wednesday) 09:32:58 #77516625

STAFF POST - Closed

Another user reached out to staff concerned that OP had not responded to the requests for an update. Staff has reached out to OP but has similarly received no response.

But in examining the post in question, it is clear that this post has included digitally altered images. As this is a clear violation of Rule #3 (“Do not use illustrations or edited photos to prove your case, unless you can defend the use. Specifically, images altered to convince of the reality of a paranatural event or object is a bannable offense.”) the Disciplinary team discussed the issue and believe the following penalty is appropriate. It is unacceptable for users on the Watch to perpetuate a fraud in this way, the purpose of this forum is the search for hidden things and not a place to trick your fellow user. We are discussing whether to delete the post entirely.

In the mean time:

GetLostPro user #65401599 is banned for one year from posting on the forums.

Do not reply to this or any other post in this particular thread.