Easter in Albania

[klar]

So I spent Easter hanging out in Valbona Valley/Albania with a couple of good friends. The TGR pros were discovering the Balkans during that time but neglected to visit this spot because the heli on offer wasn't rad enough or something. Everyone was like "Haha you dumb, TGR."

C/P from blog cause clicking sucks, pictures under the big block of text.

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When you spend 10 hours ski touring in rain, then graupel, then heavy snowfall and finally light snowfall with strong wind, looking for a pass you don't find because you are in a storm cloud, with a heavy backpack (you were trying to do a three day traverse) you know one thing: you are alive. You know this because you are soaked and when you stand still for more than two minutes you start shivering. On the other hand you are uncomfortably soggy and warm while moving, sweat mingling with melted snow in the saturated fabric of your expensive merino base layer, designed for precisely this kind of aliveness.

From a skiing perspective, if we are honest, the mountains here are far from ideal. Dramatic towers and jutting buttresses of crumbling limestone frame dream lines above massive cliffs and dense forrest parted only by funneling slide paths of doom. Initially everything looks inaccessible. With time options emerge and ways are found but mostly the first impression remains valid. This is not an easy range. Maps are not very trustworthy, not that it would help much.

The jumbled mess of the Albanian Alps was birthed from crashing tectonic plates. This is true of mountains in general but perhaps things crashed particularly hard here. Storms roll in fueled by the warmth and moisture of the Mediterranean sea. Air is ripped violently upwards, frontal precipitation and orographic lift combine to drench us. Graupel forms when water particles are lifted and dropped again, freezing and melting and freezing and falling. We shake pellets of graupel out of creases in jackets and flinch at thunder claps in the snowstorm. Snowflakes need time and a delicate balance of temperature and vapour pressure, spindly crystal arms growing, drifting in clouds. Later the temperature drops and they float out of a black night sky. Bjeshkët e Namuna, the Cursed Mountains, are the wettest region of Europe.

This was my second visit to Valbona Valley. The first time it snowed for a week and we saw nothing but trees. On this trip the weather was mostly pretty reasonable and I feel like I now understand the lay of the land well enough that a third trip could be much easier. The list of projects grows with each glimpse of a new valley behind a new ridge line, as it always does.

Driving north from Tirana Yago said how bizarre it was to be road tripping here in this oddly forgotten corner of Europe with a German girl that dreams of Patagonian glaciers and an Austrian who is, at heart, an Andalucian Flamenco dancer. We listened to his collection of Chacareras as rainy hills flew by, driving trance interrupted only by occasional potholes and confusion at rare intersections.

As we scrambled through brush and around waterfalls he pointed out the similarities to the Patagonian brush and waterfalls we love so much. Que saudade por la Patagonia! It takes a special kind of person to appreciate the hilarity of type two fun, not only after the experience but during. Random giggling fits certainly help morale when you are trying to determine which way is up in a whiteout. I believe we did well.

We tried to learn a few words of Albanian and Adenis kindly obliged us. I can say bor (snow), diel (sun) and falaminderit (thank you).

Long day. Clarisse's foto.


Language is so inadequate sometimes, and not only when you are trying to have deep philosophical discussions in Spanish (which you don't really speak). In Albania we had Portugese Saudade, a relative (not a twin) of Japanese mono no aware and German Wehmut. All three of us are hopeless romantics of the slightly melancholic kind, even though we would rather not admit it.

When I came home Kyle was hanging out at our place. He has another untranslatable word tatooed on his wrist: Sisu a finnish expression "similar to equanimity, with the addition of a grim quality of stress management". I suppose I understand why he likes it but I would much rather have my mountains full of serendipity, serenity, and yes, I'll take saudade too.

My strange mountain friends, how can we be so alike, yet so different?

Moving pictures with confused soundtrack because that's how it was.


Town of Bayram Curri. Not without its charms.


Cars are either shiny black mercedes or rotting beaters.


Kukaj, hamlet above the main valley.


Yago points out all the things you could see if there was no cloud.


Mordor.


Yago invents new form of drytooling that does not require ice axes.


Freeskialpineering 101 with Clarisse.


Weather turned to shit just in time for our descent.


Skiing in Mordor.


Dawning blue.


Nothing to see here.




View of where we were the day before.


Reaching Valbona pass. Town of Tethi in the bg. Unline Valbona, the road there is not functional in winter and people are effectively cut of a few months.




Looking out Valbona Valley


Gorgeous morning, light drizzle


The carvings in the trees are names and dates left by bored soldiers doing border patrols during the final years of the Hoxha period.



Lovely weather.


Another blue morning.






Out of the woods.









Looking over into Montenegro


Skiing over into Montenegro






Back to the Albanian side.


On the border.

[klar]

Mighty Jezerca in the background.




Heading home





Apparently cows aren't supposed to hang out in the cemetery.


Moody last day.




Down the other side. Yago hugging the rocks on a slightly iffy entrance.


And opening it up.


Heavy snow in Bayram Curri to see us off.


Couple of hours on a stormy beach.


This looked very chilly.


Final 3am airport parking lot gear explosion.

[abraham]

Holy crap that's cool. I had no idea Albania had mountains like that! Looks like a fun + interesting trip.
I've heard from a family friend that various government groups here pay well for people who speak Albanian, especially if they are not actually Albanian themselves.

[LightRanger]

That was awesome. Fantastic peaks.

[garyfromterrace]

Well, that was 20 minutes of my life that I didn't mind using. Klar, you are my hero! Just amazing words and photos.

[hutash]

Very excellent TR, thanks for posting that. It is great to see people get after it, especially in knew and exotic location.

I think it is even cooler that bold women like you are doing it. You are an inspiration to many out there....thank you.

[mrwaffles989]

God damnit. Gonna have to add Albania to the infinite list. Love eastern euro, although never been to balkan states. FML, your making me wanna ski. Gotta log off for about 6 months.

[klar]

Holy crap that's cool. I had no idea Albania had mountains like that! Looks like a fun + interesting trip.
I've heard from a family friend that various government groups here pay well for people who speak Albanian, especially if they are not actually Albanian themselves.

Definitely cool mountains and one of the remotest corners of europe. Really interesting country, they were completely isolated till the early nineties. Seems to be booming and changing rapidly now. You still see all those odd little mushroom bunkers around. Albanian seems like it would be a huge pain to learn but it would definitely be beneficial. English doesn't get you very far in the smaller towns.

[Grape_Ape]

How did I miss the TR?

Very nice.

[hop]

Looks like less snow than when we were there but I'd trade that for alpine vis/access in a heartbeat. Such a cool place.

[klar]

Looks like less snow than when we were there but I'd trade that for alpine vis/access in a heartbeat. Such a cool place.

I think that is mostly because we were there in february last time and this time it was april. North sides had plenty of snow to the valley, south side getting a little thin on the lower couple hundred meters. Not as much new snow as last time, obviously. Although it started snowing the day we left, which caused some problems getting out the valley. The have a snowplow now (!!!). It saved us. Let's make that return trip happen

[e dub]

this is so cool. i'll be not far away come June, tempted to do some mtn climbing there--had no idea there were legit mountains on that peninsula. thanks for the geology and terrain descriptions, and for taking us there with you.

[lionelhutz]

How did I miss the TR?

Very nice.

My thoughts exactly!

I love that on TGR, anywhere that I find interesting on Google Earth and start reading about, somebody here has been too and rocked. That's awesome. Albania and Kosovo are rocketing up the list of places to go in either summer or winter. I bet those mtns would be pretty righteous to just hike through in the summer.

[AKbruin]

Amazing. Never knew Albania had mountains like that.

[HansJob]

as always, spectacular! thanks klar.