the encyclopedic entry of Hoverla

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Hoverla

Hoverla mountain (Говерла, Hoverla; Hóvár; Hovârla; Goverla, Czech and Slovak: Hoverla, Howerla, Говерла ) at 2,061 m, is the highest mountain in Ukraine and part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain is located in the Eastern Beskides, in the so-called Chornohora region. The slopes are covered with beech and spruce forests, above which there is a belt of sub-alpine meadows called polonyna in Ukrainian. At the eastern slope there is the main spring of the Prut river.

The date of the first ascent is unknown. In late 19th century the mountain became a notable tourist attraction, especially among tourists from nearby cities of Galicia. In 1880 the first tourist route between the peak of Hoverla and Krasny Luh was marked by Leopold Wajgel of the Galician Tatra Society. The following year the first tourist shelter was founded there.

In the 20th century and especially after 1991, when Ukraine gained independence, thus losing cheap access to the many mountain region of the former USSR, the mountain has been increasingly gaining popularity as an extreme sports site. Some routes are classified as 1A in the winter period (from late autumn to May), according to the USSR grading system. Nowadays because of its prominence too many unskilled extreme-lovers are taking attempts to climb it in winter, resulting in regular frostbites or even deaths.

In October 2007 the new Right pro-Russian Eurasia Party-affiliated “Eurasian Youth Union” vandalized the official Ukrainian state symbols that had been placed on the summit of the Hoverla mountain. According to the group, they “renamed” the mountain “Stalin’s peak”. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU identified two Russian citizens, Alexander Bovdunov and Valery Mantrov, and Leonid Savin, a Ukrainian of Russian ancestry, as suspects in the attack. In July 2008, Savin, the prank's suspected mastermind, was arrested in Moscow and his extradition to the Ukraine is now pending .

Hoverla is ascended every year by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. His climb in 2005 came after doctors gave him medical clearance, following his dioxin poisoning the previous year. In 2008, he once again ascended Hoverla and re-inaugurated the previously vandalised Ukrainian national symbols on the mountain top.