Mount Mahura (Shepit)

Mahura is a 1,313 m mountain in the Pokuttia-Bukovyna Carpathians, on the Dovhyi Hrun ridge. It lies in the Vyzhnytsia district of Chernivtsi Oblast, south of the village of Dolishnii Shepit. To the west is the Shurdyn pass (1,173.5 m); to the south-east the ridge leads to Mount Lunhul (1,377 m) near the Ukrainian-Romanian border. The villages of Ruska and Foshky are also nearby.

The slopes of Mahura are steep and only partly forested, so the summit offers wide views over the Bukovynian mountains. The name «Mehura» is also found on maps and in local use.

How to get there

Our site has no marked route to this Mahura yet. The mountain is unusual in that a road runs up to the summit, to the Kovcheh tourist base; on foot it is convenient to climb from Dolishnii Shepit or from the Shurdyn pass. Do not confuse this summit with the other Mahuras of the Carpathians — the name is very common in the mountains.

Water, shelter and safety

Our map shows the Kovcheh shelter about 500 m from the summit, a picnic shelter and a spring above Dolishnii Shepit about 1.1 km away, and captured springs near Foshky and Dolishnii Shepit about 1.3 km away. The open slopes give no protection from wind or lightning: in a thunderstorm head down into the forest. In winter the road to the top may be impassable. In an emergency call 112 or 101 — the mountain rescue units of Bukovyna work around the clock.

Interesting facts

• An unusual tourist base, Kovcheh («the Ark»), has been built on the summit — a rare case in the Carpathians of a road leading right to the top.
• Mahura and neighbouring Lunhul are summits of the same ridge, Dovhyi Hrun; the Romanian border runs just south of Lunhul.