Brebeneskul from Bystrets

Brebeneskul (2038 m; other figures give 2035 or 2032 m) is Ukraine's second-highest summit after Hoverla. The nearest village is Bystrets, and from there a green trail leads up to the Chornohora main ridge, then the red — the Transcarpathian Tourist Trail — along it.

The green trail runs 4.5 km on a road, then on a forest road with fords to the Maryshevska meadow, past the ruins of a hikers' shelter. Above the meadow it becomes a path, climbs through dwarf mountain pine and passes the Shpytsi rocks ~100 m off the top. The green waymarks are given by OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and the Carpathian National Nature Park. Of the stretch above the forest to Shpytsi, a hiker wrote in 2022 that the waymarks there «all but vanish». Later reviews are of the whole Zaroslyak – Shpytsi – Nesamovyte loop, which follows this path from the cross at 8.9 km: in 2024 its waymarks were called «very basic», in 2025 «well waymarked except for the last stretch» and «fully waymarked».

The green trail ends at the «Below Rebra» signpost (1930 m). Per Wikipedia, it meets the red trail here; in OpenStreetMap the signpost stands ~170 m off the red, and 0.35 km of path that OpenStreetMap does not tag as waymarked leads to it. On the red — south: past the top of Rebra, ~150 m off, to the fork below Hutyn Tomnatyk and on to the saddle below Brebeneskul. The red trail skirts the summit on its slope; a crest path leads to the top itself, 0.4 km and unmarked (OpenStreetMap). The way back is the same.

The last springs before the climb to the ridge are on the Maryshevska meadow, by the shelter ruins: per Wikivoyage, the climb to the ridge has no drinking-water springs, so take water for the ascent there. On the ridge, 0.2 km past the fork below Hutyn Tomnatyk, OpenStreetMap marks springs ~60 and ~130 m off the red. The ridge's steps near Shpytsi are steep and sheer.

Per Wikipedia, 7.5 hours up and 6.5 down — 14 hours of walking in all, a long day: start at first light. Mountain weather changes fast, so carry a rain shell and a warm layer, and turn back in a thunderstorm or fog.

The longest day of the year in Bystrets lasts 16 hours, but from 22 August daylight is shorter than 14 hours, and in autumn it shrinks from 13.4 hours in early September to 8.7 at the end of November. So from late August on, part of the way will most likely be walked in the dark: carry a headlamp.

Brebeneskul is on the list of border-zone places closed to visitors without a border-guard permit, so a permit is needed. Shpytsi and Maryshevska are not on the list — a separate route, «Shpytsi from Bystrets», leads to them without one.