Maja Jezercë

Maja Jezerce in the background

Summit Nordenbdep2

The Jezerca (Albanian Maja e Jezercës; Serbian Језерски Врх / Jezerski Vrh ) applies with 2694 m above sea level. A. than the highest mountain completely located in Albania and is the highest peak of the northern Albanian Alps. The Korab on the border with Macedonia is the highest mountain in Albania.

Location

The mountain top, which is only about five kilometers from the border with Montenegro, lies between the valleys of Valbona Shala to the east and the west. The whole floor between the valleys of Shala, Valbona and Ropojana and Maja Roshit ( 2522 m above sea level. A. ) is called Jezerca massif, in addition to the Jezerca tip yet surveys such as the Maya Popluks ( 2569 m above sea level. A. ) and Maja e Alise ( 2471 m above sea level. A. ) to the west, the Maya Rrogamit ( 2478 m above sea level. A. ) in the east, the Maja Kolajet ( 2498 m above sea level. A. ), the Maja Malësores ( 2490 m above sea. A. ) and Maja Bojes ( 2461 m above sea level. A. ) in the northwest and the Maja e Kokerhanës ( 2,508 m above sea level. A. ) and Maja Etheve ( 2393 m above sea level. A. ) in the north.

Because of the high mountains and upstream ridge surrounding the Jezerca, they can hardly be seen from the valley and only a few elevated points outside of the massif.

The mountain can be climbed with little climbing from the north or west. The Jezerca is usually climbed from the Montenegrin Gusinje or Theth in the Shala Valley from over the Qafa e Pejës.

Apart from certain areas north of Jezerza peak of the mountain block is part of the two national parks of Theth and Valbona.

Topology and geography

The Jezerca is a large rocky peak from dolomitic limestone. There is almost no vegetation on it. To the north, east and west of the top of the mountain falls off in large cirques that were formed in the Ice Age glaciers. Today, located in the northern Kar Buni i Jezercës at an altitude between 1,980 meters and 2,100 meters above sea level a roughly 400 -meter-long active glaciers in the eastern Kar Llugu i Zajavë two even smaller active glaciers. In the winter, lots of snow, which melts away to little exposed areas only in very dry years falls.

Name

The name means lake Jezerski Vrh peak. The origin of the Serbian name is likely derived from some cirque lakes in the lower part of the cirque Buni i Jezercës between the mountain and the border. From the Communists of Albania Jezerca also received the name Maja e Rinisë ( Mountain of Youth), but never sat down abroad.

In older trip reports we find the name Pupluks and Jezerca Pupluks. On today's cards is with Maja Popluks a mountain peak in the massif Jezerca referred a mile southwest, obscuring the view from the valley to the Jezerca.

Climbing history

The first recorded ascent was made on July 26, 1929 by the British climbers Cyril Montague Sleeman (* 1883, † 1971), WT Elmslie and LA Ellwood. But Sleeman himself writes that they were the first people on the summit were not.

"We reached the summit at 8.45 clock. Once there we found a recently built stone man -. Created no doubt by the Italian surveyors group over which one had told us in Theth "

While some authors claimed that should not be clearly emerged from their descriptions, in which mountain massif Jezerca they had climbed, it is clear to others on the basis of directions and a photo, that the British had reached the summit.

The Italian surveyor had mapped the area in 1929 and it climbed many high peaks and built on them for surveying purposes cairns. It probably had many first ascents, but were not documented.