Mar/16

Snowy winter on Mount Pip Ivan

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Nature, Regions, Travel

Chernohora is the highest ridge in the Ukrainian Carpathians and Chernaya Gora, also known as Pip Ivan, is one of the highest of its vertices (2,020 meters).

The mountain is located in the south-eastern end of the mountain range, on the border of Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions. Mount Pip Ivan on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexander Kotenko.

Pip Ivan Mount is known mainly for an abandoned observatory called “White Elephant”, which stands at the very top. Every winter, snow and ice cover the walls of all the buildings of the observatory and, from a distance, it looks like a great white beast.

The observatory consisting of a five-story hotel, household outbuildings, and a telescope tower was opened in 1938. In 1939, this territory was captured by the Soviet Union and an alpine geophysical observatory, the first in the USSR, and a weather station were established.

During the Second World War, the Hungarian troops came here and had an observation post at the top of the mountain. After the war, the observatory was not reopened and remained abandoned.