Hiking in Kosovo

Hiking in Kosovo started with establishment of the first hiking association in 1928, and it continued with creation of different association all around the territory which was then part of Yugoslavia. After the Kosovo War a lot was done also by the support of societies such as HikingNjeri,^[1] which have worked hard to not only organize activities, but also to expose hiking to the general public via social media.

Hiking as an activity started in its true sense circa 1930, the year in which a group of friends climbed the Gjeravica mountain in Peja. This was the first time that a peak in Kosovo was climbed (there is no evidence of that). Even though people started to show interest shortly after, many mountains were near border areas and people needed special permission to visit them due to the political issue at the time.

That is the reason why people were able to actually become active hikers only after the war, especially in 2003-2005. The vast majority of the terrain of Kosovo is mountainous.^[2]

Central mountains are not sufficiently hard to climb, yet they make a good hiking trail, their height goes from 800–1200 meters. The Mirusha river splits these mountains in two groups. The first one is located in the south-west of central mountains and includes the following: Millanoviq mountains, Gajrak, Zatriq, Bajrak and Gremnik.^[3] The second group consists of Carraleva, Golesh, Berisha, Kosmaqi, Drenica, Qyqavica mountains. Surrounding mountains are located near border areas. They are harder for hiking because of their steep trails and require a lot of experience and agility. Mountains that are in this group are: east ridge mountains of Albanian Alps, Hasi mountains, Pashtriku peak, Sharr Mountains, Kortnik, east mountains of Gallak, Kopaoniku and Rogozna.^[4]