Raduc

  • Raduc
  • 2082 m
  • Primary factor 670 m
  • Albania / Macedonia
  • Location: North 41.34444, East 020.52666
  • Difficulty: YDS class 2
  • Explored on July 13. 2013, Did not summit.

Information:

How to get there:
Raduc is a border peak between Albania and Macedonia located a little north of lake Ohrid. This description will use the city of Ohrid as a starting reference.
Drive in the direction of Albania, that is, head for the road that curves around the north shore of lake Ohrid. As you leave the city of Ohrid, hitting E-65, start to measure, update when passing points that are well identified. Drive 5 kilometer to the intersection where your route splits fromE-65. Continue towards Albania, at kilometer 11.9, make a 90 degree turn onto a new road heading north. (Road 418 on maps, however no such signs.) At (or near) kilometer 21.0, there are two roads that fork left. You should take the second road. Now, at kilometer 23.8, make another 90 degree turn onto a smaller, paved road. This is before your road heads uphill and there is a pretty large (several floors) building just before the turn. Driving uphill, the route now runs directly through a local village, you are in this village around kilometer 28.0 - 28.5. Leaving the village, you should see this sign at a road fork near kilometer 29.5. The paved road continues right, while this route takes the left fork.
This road is (2013) rough, a 4WD, high clearance vehicle is much to be preferred. The road may be driven with care by an ordinary (small) car. Continue 10.5 kilometer, that is, to kilometer 40.0. You are now in a broad saddle near the Albanian border.
Unfortunately, I decided to park and explore a bit on foot. According to my GPS, I was about 2.5 kilometer from the the summit and slightly more than 600 vertical meter below. The road had some large local ponds of water, most likely harmless to drive across, but better safe than sorry with my little car.
Route description:
According to Google Earth, you get to a road fork, the right fork of the road will make a big bend to the right and gain more elevation. It should pass a point where there is limited vegetation (on your left) and this is likely a good place to park, (see my map) hike up to the ridge, which is also the national border, then along the ridge to the summit. The distance to the summit should be about 2 kilometer, almost all in open country. Also, I discovered what is normally a route marker along the road. It may very well be that these markers will lead to a definite point where a trail will leave the road and head to the summit. The ascent therefore looks straightforward on easy terrain.
Comments:
I was busy around our hotel and in the city of Ohrid until around 1500. It was tempting todo a little exploring, just checking if one could drive high enough on Raduc in order to make the visit possible within the little time that remained before dinner. However, as described above, the last road is rough and one must drive an ordinary car extraordinary slowly.
As there were some large ponds of water on the road, most likely very harmless to drive through, I parked and continued a bit on foot. I first came to a very old sign declaring this area to be a border zone. I guess the sign can be ignored as out of date. A bit further along, I came across two local men collecting firewood. I asked about the route to the mountain (mostly by signs as they did not speak English), they confirmed that one should continue along the road. I then hinted that I could pay them if they would give me a ride in their car (more suitable then mine!) to near the top. However, the man indicated that I probabely should walk. In any case, it was not quite clear if he understood what I tried to ask. I continued a bit further, but decided that it would get late before I could return to the hotel unless I turned around. There was no cell phone service, so no way to tell Heidi about a possibly later return. Thus, there was really not enough time available to complete this project. However, this exploration should provide a pretty definite description on how to climb Raduc.
Here is a map indicating my explorations.
Here is a brief summary of the peaks climbed on this trip.

Resources: