During my 2012 visit to Albanias Cursed Mountains, imposing Maja Jezerc stood out in the distance viewed from the summit of Zla Kolata situated on the border with Montenegro and that countrys highest point. On this recent trip the Queen of the Accursed (2694 m ASL and the highest peak entirely within Albania as Mt Korab is higher but shared on the border with Macedonia) was definitely the number one hiking objective. Most people tackle this mountain from Valbon with a shuttle from their guesthouse to the start of the hike at Rrogam, a tiny farming hamlet with a few places to stay. After getting dropped off at the end of the Valbon valleys pavement I started hiking down the 3 km gravel road (actually a dry, rocky river bed) in the hopes of finding a place to stay closer to Jezerc. In Rrogam 45 minutes later I stopped at the first farmhouse, Guesthouse Danjeli, and used my Albanian language skills to settle on €20/night for 2 nights including dinner and breakfast as well as a couple of shots of raki, cups of tea and Turkish coffee, with snacks consisting of homemade bread and feta cheese made from the couples small herd of sheep. The
first night was really cold and the hike to the summit was going to be long so I crashed very soon after a hearty dinner.
After an early breakfast I was pleasantly surprised that Kolas wife gave me a packed lunch for the hike – more of the delicious bread and cheese and some veggies from their garden. The sky was clear, the air brisk and I set out just after 7:30 a.m. quickly reaching the junction after the Te Simoni tea shop and last water stop from their spring. Untreated groundwater in the Balkans is pristine due to the regions limestones natural filtering properties. The other fork at the junction heads up to the pass on the long way to Theth, a super popular trek that Ill have to tackle on another trip. The sign at the ‘T said 4 hours to Jezerc which matched what Kola had told me (5 hours from Rrogam, ~1 hour to Te Simoni). The trail headed up the valley below Maja Popluqes while Jezerc remained out of sight. After a grueling stretch directly up a steep slope before crossing one of Popluqes long ridges, the trail continued on rock and tedious
Run the fairly narrow ridge straight up. Even though it was a little exposed it was far more enjoyable than the earlier uneven terrain, hard snow patches, and scree.
scree to another valley below Jezerc still surprisingly containing a few difficult to cross patches of hard snow made all the more nerve racking since I was foolishly wearing my running sneakers. The last hurdle was the intimidating fixed line near the summit, an aid to ascending a short stretch of easy 4th class climbing.
Just shy of 5 hours after leaving Rrogam I tagged the summit where the views were incredible – across Valbon to Kolata and even as far as Velika Rudoka and Đeravica, both in Kosovo. I briefly chatted with a couple of Polish climbers who had ascended from Vusanje, Montenegro which is an even longer trip. Since the return trip was going to take nearly as long as the ascent due to the rough trail, I opted to bolt after only ~15 minutes of summit time. It was still pretty hot, I was nearly out of water, and the trail in spots was more difficult on the descent. By the time I reached Te Simoni just before 4:00 p.m. I was totally parched and guzzled mass quantities of spring water. I rolled in to Rrogam at 4:40 p.m. which was exactly 4 hours after leaving
The guesthouse had a hot water shower, dinner was delicious, and I slept soundly after the thoroughly exhausting day. Even though the furgon from Valbon (500L to the Koman ferry or Bajram Curri) was not leaving until 10:00 a.m. I departed after an early breakfast with another packed lunch in the hopes of hitching quicker to Bajram, the end of the road from the Valbon valley and origin of transport to Tiran. No luck but Bajram had a great WiFi enabled caf at the bus staging area where a turbocharged espresso went for 60L.
