Mt. Korab

We were close to Mt. Korab before. It was in December 2020, when we shortly visited North Macedonia. But winter had already laid it’s hands on the upper parts of he mountains, covering it with layers of snow, making it impossible to reach. We even had a hard time to spot the mountain because of the clouds.

This time we tried to see and reach Mt. Korab from the Albanian side. On the Albanian site the mountain can only be seen if you hike up to it. The beginning of June, so we expected green alpine meadows to walk through.

We drove from Peshkopi to Radomire, and then a bit further up the valley to find a camp spot. Just as we thought “let’s go back down a bit” a local, Muharrem, told us we cold drive up the mountain further to find some camp spots. We followed this advise and although the track was a bit rough we were not disappointed: a very nice view and close to the walking trail to the Korab.

The hike was very nice but tough: from our starting point we still needed to cover 8 km and 1200 m (one way) of altitude to reach the summit. As we gained height, the amount of snow increased.

At a certain point we were walking almost continuously through the snow. Walking through snow is twice as hard, like wading through mud and every step you slip a little back. Shortly after we reached Burim Uji the clouds closed in and the wind increased. We had been waking uphill for 4 hours now and were very, very tired. And we still had to cover a distance 2 km and a height of 400 m steep uphill through snow. And then all the way back. We decided to turn around, maybe we’ll make it all the way up next time. By now there wasn’t a view to enjoy any more either.

Instead we enjoyed the walk back. Beautiful waterfalls and streams everywhere and several lakes. As soon as we left the snow behind we walked through meadows with lots of pretty flowers. We arrived back at the van late afternoon where we relaxed and for a while Muharrem kept us company. The next day we drove on in the direction of Gramhs.