Location: North 43.77610, East 021.89331 (GPS at the summit)
Climbed March 17, 2013.
Difficulty: YDS class 1
Information:
How to get there:
First, locate the main Hwy. E75 that runs south and connects Beograd to Nis.
Approximately two thirds of the way from Beograd, you will find
the village Paracin. Turn left (east) here onto Hwy. E-761 (also named 5 and 22) towards Boljevac.
Drive about 40 kilometer, you will descend into a valley and
have the mountain in front, then
gradually on your right hand side. Turn sharp right onto Hwy. 120 which will take you into
a smaller valley right next to the mountain. A small village named Rtanj is located about 7 kilometer
away. Drive through most of this village, then fork right down a substantial hill. Follow this
smaller road until it becomes a 4WD road. Park here, without blocking any road or access.
This is the trailhead,
location N43.76653, E021.93557, elevation about 615 meter. A 4WD vehicle may continue
a short distance to the end of this forest road, see below.
Route description:
From the trailhead, start walking along the forest road. It bends right and climbs
gently as you reverse the initial direction. Higher up, another forest road forks left,
ignore this and continue straight. Quite soon, at location N43.76613, E021.92656, the road
ends at elevation 735 meter.
A trail continues straight ahead. It is marked with red and white paint (circles and stripes).
Continue uphill on this trail. The trail is quite good and easy to follow. Higher up, you reach
a small plateau or brink where what looks like some old track merges with the trail from your
left side. The village of Boljevac is
visible to the east.
This location is N43.77024, E021.91310, elevation
about 1000 meter. The mountain
is now straight ahead.
Continue to follow the marked path until you reach a trail fork
at location N43.76810, E021.90380, elevation about 1069 meter. Here, the trail to the summit forks
right, well marked. First, the trail ascends gradually along a long climbing traverse going left.
Subsequently, there are several switchbacks
as the trail generally keeps a rather moderate rate
of ascent. Avoid using the short-cuts that some people have created, their use will cause more
erosion and looks ugly. Follow the trail the last few bends as it climbs to the well defined
summit. The summit has a ruin of a small chapel that was
built in 1932, but later destroyed.
Comments:
I made this climb with Atle Loneland. It was a beautiful, crisp day with blue sky. We started
out at 0920 and arrived at the final trail fork at the base of the mountain by 1035. The final
climb took 1:10, as we arrived on top by 1145.
Very good view, (the north ridge) a bit windy, but clouds were obscuring
the very distant views. We could
see back down into Rtanj and the trailhead, the
downhill road was easy to see, but the car was more hidden from view.
As it was cold, we left after 10 minutes and hiked back down to the car in
1:10.
This hike can certainly be strongly recommended. A nice, easy to follow trail from the small
village and all the way to a nice summit.
My GPS measured the summit to 1575 meter. This is significantly higher than the map elevations.
Resources:
Images
Siljak as seen from the east. A very nice pyramidal shape.
