One year of Up the Mountains. It turned out suspiciously beautiful

On October 11, 2025, we organized our first official hike under the name Up The Mountains (UTM). We knew a little about mountains. About how to build a social enterprise, a little less. But we had enthusiasm, a few good ideas and enough optimism to get to work.

A year later, on October 10, 2026, we returned to the mountains to celebrate. Where else? We chose Rimetea (the most beautiful village in Romania, if you ask us), gathered our cherry trees and hit the road.

Up the Mountains turned one year old!

And, since we still have the opportunity, we thought we'd take a look back. Because we look ahead quite often. :)

One year, a few numbers and a lot of cool people

We never set out to organize the most hikes or take the most people to the mountains. But after a year, we realized that a few things have come together that we are very happy about:

• Over 30 organized hikes and more than 60 days spent in the mountains. We did the math and it seems we spent quite a bit of time at home.

• Over 200 cherry pickers who chose to come with us. Some only once, others so often that we even started to know their favorite snacks.

• Over 15 mountain ranges explored , from all corners of the country, from accessible trails to more demanding alpine tours.

• Our first international adventure , in Slovenia, where we discovered some spectacular mountains and found that in other countries the climbs are also uphill.

• Two team buildings , in which we tried to demonstrate that people can build beautiful teams even away from meeting rooms.

• Collaborations with mountain guides from Cluj, Bucharest, Brașov and Timișoara. People from whom we also had a lot to learn.

We also launched a new version of the website, started the "Go for free on your birthday" campaign, and came up with all kinds of ideas to make mountain experiences more accessible and interesting.

Some things turned out exactly as we planned. Others taught us that, just like on the mountain, sometimes you have to change the route.

A year in which we tried to do a little good

From the beginning we wanted Up The Mountains to mean more than beautiful hikes.

We are a social enterprise, which means that 90% of our profit goes to social causes , especially to children from vulnerable backgrounds and to Alex Benchea, the blind athlete and mountaineer whom we greatly admire.

We know we can't change the world in one hike. But we believe we can change something, step by step.

For Children's Day, we organized a tour with proceeds donated to children in an orphanage. It was one of the experiences that best reminded us why we started this journey. And we would love to turn it into a tradition.

We also had the courage to launch our first crowdfunding campaign, through the Consolid8 program. We set out to raise 50,000 lei. We raised 56,714 lei, from 34 backers , exceeding our goal by 11%. Honestly, we weren't at all convinced that we would succeed.

But people surprised us. And thanks to them, we gained access to an additional grant of 10,000 euros for the development of our social enterprise.

We ended up telling about what we do in Ziarul Financiar . For two guides who usually feel more comfortable on a trail than in the pages of a business newspaper, it was an interesting experience.

But beyond funding, projects, and press appearances, the most important thing remains the same: to be able to take more people to the mountains and use what we build to help others.

About people. Because in the end, that's what it's all about.

We knew a little about the mountains before we founded Up The Mountains. We are both UIMLA internationally certified mountain guides, so the trails, orientation, and safety part was quite familiar to us.

But I've learned a lot about how to build a community in the last year.

I've met people who came alone on their first hike and left with new friends. People who thought they couldn't reach a certain peak and discovered they could. People who came for the scenery and came back for the atmosphere.

We laughed a lot, had surprisingly good conversations at altitude, and discovered that sometimes the best moments of a hike don't even happen at the summit.

And, because we don't want to just talk about ourselves, we leave here some of the messages we received from you.

Alina Jiman:

"We rise above our fears with each new experience or exposure. We are able to do this by being properly guided. Radu and Andrei provided support and care from one end of the group to the other on every tour I joined."

Claudia Baciu:

"Wow… what an experience with them! My first hike with them, in a long time, was definitely wonderful! [...] I met wonderful people, had gorgeous landscapes, laughter and good mood! I felt safe and at ease with them!"

We admit, we really enjoy these messages. Especially since we are generally better at joking than receiving compliments.

And now, where to?

All the way up, most likely. :)

We have many ideas for next year. We want to develop programs dedicated to people from vulnerable backgrounds, prepare more experiences for families with children, and organize thematic tours, both in Romania and abroad.

We want to explore new places, work with good people, and do what we already do better.

But there are also some things we don't want to change.

We want to keep the groups small. Let's have time for each person. Let's do our job responsibly, without taking ourselves too seriously. And let's never forget that the mountain is much more beautiful when you have someone to share it with.

We knew we liked the mountains. With you, it was a surprise.

If we had to choose one thing to be grateful for after the first year, it would be the people.

Those who came with us at least once. Those who came back. Those who recommended us to friends, supported our projects, wrote us a nice message or made us laugh when we still had about 500 meters of elevation difference to climb.

We don't know exactly what next year will look like. We have some plans, of course. But if we've learned anything so far, it's that the best things aren't always the ones planned.

Thank you for the first year, cherry growers! 🍒

See you on the trails.

Andrei & Radu

Founders Up The Mountains