This summary provides a quick overview and easy access to information
on the peaks climbed on my trip to Albania in October 2007.
Copyright Petter Bjørstad, June 2004-2008
| Date | Height | Name | Primary factor | Location | GPS elevation | |
| October 1. | 2694 m | Jezerce | 2169 m | N42:26.524, E019:48.770 | 2697 m | |
| October 2. | 2764 m | Korab | 2036 m | N41:47.416, E020:32.803 | 2767 m | |
| October 4. | 2373 m | Valamara | 1526 m | N40:47:646, E020:27.911 | 2377 m | |
| October 5. | 2121 m | Kendervices | 1666 m | N40:17.186, E019:51.014 | 2118 m | |
| October 7. | 2076 m | Schneeberg (in Austria) | 1326 m | N47:46.019, E015:48.266 | 2078 m | |
| ***** | **** | ***************** | **** **** | **** **** **** **** | **** **** | |
Albania, general observations 2007
Background.
Albania is a small country with an area of 28.750 square kilometer. The country is
70 percent mountains, many areas are very rugged and inaccessible.
Albania has 6 ultra prominent mountains and they are all highpoints in each of 6 major administrative
units, called a quark, (a county) of which Albania has 12.
The population is about 3.6 million.
The people of
Albania are quite homogeneous, with only small minorities. They are mostly Muslim, but
with Christian communities in the north (Roman Catholics) and in the south (Greek Orthodox).
The people of Albania are quite pragmatic and tolerant wrt. religion, there has been little
friction. It should be noted that they protected Jewish people in a very successful way
during the Second World War. Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha, an ultra-fundamental communist,
for almost 40 years. This rule brought development to a halt and the country to financial ruin.
Hoxha kept his nation busy by the construction of about 700.000 reinforced, concrete bunkers spread
across the country in anticipation of a foreign attack. These bunkers, most very small "family style",
are very noticable for anybody travelling in Albania. Albania returned to democracy in 1991, and despite
severe problems the country has made substantial progress in the last fifteen years. Albania is now a
candidate for membership in the European Union and its path forward seems quite promising.
How to get there.
The main airport is located just north of the capital Tirane.
We flew from Vienna, Austrian airline had two daily departures each way.
One may also enter the country by car from Greece (south), Macedonia (east) or
Montenegro (north). Finally, one may get to Albania by ferry from Italy (west).
Roads and Driving.
The general infrastructure in Albania is likely the least developed in all of Europe.
One can only imagine what the roads might have been like if the country had built roads instead
of bunkers for 40 years under Hoxha.
If mountaineering is your purpose, then invest in renting a robust
4WD vehicle. We had a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, expensive (Euro 800/week from Sixt),
but worth every cent.
Our roadmaps purchased just weeks earlier were highly inaccurate. The
maps show roads that definitely do not exist, they show villages that are only a few houses
while ignoring much larger places. Furthermore, the road classifications (typically red, yellow and
white roads) may be totally wrong. We drove several hours along a true "4WD class road" that our
map showed as a "yellow road" (meaning quite a major road). On top of this, there are of course
many smaller roads that exist, but are not on the map.
There are very few signs, many critically important intersections are without a single sign or
hint about which way to go. Villages typically do not have a sign giving their name. Thus, often
a driver has few or no clues whatsoever about where he has arrived or about which road to take.
Watch for sheep, goats, donkeys and cows everywhere. We met a shepherd with about 100 sheep in the
middle of a main (two-way) paved highway around a corner well after dark (at 2000). Pitch dark, not a
single reflector. On our way to Kukes around 2130 we ran into a recent rockslide that had hit
the highway, rocks scattered everywhere across the pavement, some several rocks being hundreds of
kilo each.
You will quickly notice that at least 95 percent of all cars outside of the main cities, are
vintage (20-30 years old) Mercedes Benz. Several Albanians explained this consistently. Mercedes is
the only car that survives the (terrible) roads for any length of time. This is indeed an example
of Darwin's selection principle in practice, after some years the only cars left on the roads were
Mercedes. This was observed and people wisely continued to only buy Mercedes ever since.
We soon adopted the rule that if a Mercedes passenger car could go there, then we should be able
to drive our Pajero Sport 4WD truck as well (and a little bit beyond). Paved roads that have
disintegrated into deep holes and lots of messy patchwork are often worse to drive than a genuine
dirt road. Several villages cannot be said to have road access in any normal definition of
this word anno 2007.
Food, Lodging and prices.
There are quite a few restaurants and hotels scattered all over, that is, most towns will have
some. There are even more in the bar and cafe category. Lunch and dinner for two would generally
cost about 1000 to 1500 lek. (The local currency is lek, one lek is about the same as one (Euro)
cent. ATMs are available at most banks and a town with a hotel typically also has a bank.
Lodging for two in standard hotels ran from 2000 to 3000 lek. Fuel (diesel or gasoline) cost about
130 lek per liter. In Albania, they have two qualities of diesel, just "Diesel" or "Eurodiesel", the latter
cost a bit more and is supposed to be of better quality.
People and Language.
People are generally very helpful and friendly, however language is often a problem.
Many local people speak Albanian only, however there is often somebody around that
speaks English, the trick is to run into such people when you really need them.
The Albania Ultras.
In many ways, the main challenge for us was to travel to the mountains and identify good
trailheads that would make these climbs possible. It is hoped that the information provided
here will make these mountains more accessible and turn them into attractive hiking goals for
more people. They all provide very fine viewpoints and more tourists will create
new opportunities for the local communities.
It is my hope to add similar information on the two peaks that have not yet been visited.
Return to Petter's mountain page