For the trail · alpventurer.com/great-rudoka
Great Rudoka 2’658 m/alt, adventure in southern Kosovo
Great Rudoka 2’658 m/alt · Kosovo
- Difficulty
- Challenging
- Season
- Early June
- Water
- River along the route; carry around 2 litres
- Parking
- Free
In short
Great Rudoka is a 2,658 m peak in the Sharr Mountains, on the Kosovo and North Macedonia border. The hike starts at Hotel Arxhena near Brod and covers 19 km with 1,238 m of ascent. It is a long meadow route; carry around 2 litres of water.
The route
- Distance
- 19.0 km
- Ascent
- +1,238 m
- Descent
- −1,164 m
- High point
- 2,658 m
- Lowest point
- 1,505 m
A Brod: 41.96468, 20.71186▲ Great Rudoka: 41.91853, 20.77649
Walking time, without breaks
- Relaxed11 h
- Average8 h 50 min
- Fast7 h 5 min
How steep
- Under 8% 6.6 km
- 8 to 15% 4.2 km
- 15 to 25% 5.3 km
- Over 25% 1.6 km
In two parts
- Up to Great Rudoka 8.9 km · +1,134 m
- Back down to Brod 8.7 km · −1,135 m
What to pack
Every hike
- Water: about 3.5 litres (half a litre an hour)
- Rain jacket
- A warm layer (fleece or light down)
- Sun cap, sunglasses and sun cream
- Boots or trail shoes with good grip
- Phone with the map offline, and a power bank
- Small first aid kit
- Headlamp, in case it gets late
- Some cash and your ID
For the summit
- Hat and gloves: it is colder and windier at the top
- Walking poles, for the way down
For a long day
- Lunch, and a snack for every two hours
- Salty snacks or electrolytes
- Blister plasters
The guide
The Great Rudoka 2’658 m/alt, unofficially the highest peak of Kosovo (officially is Gjeravica 2’656 m/alt). Located in the border between Kosovo and Macedonia, and it is part of the Sharr Mountains. A long hike in a meadow terrain. A great adventure in the south part of Kosovo.
How to get there
The starting point for this trail is the village of Brod in the south part of Kosovo. Brod is part of the town called Dragash. To go to Brod, first, you need to go through Prizren, then to Dragash through a lot of villages. In Dragash you can find the last supermarket, therefore there you can buy food. After Dragash, you follow the signs to go to Hotel “Arxhena”. Hotel “Arxhena” is the starting point for the hike. There you can park the car, and use the Restaurant. During the winter Arxhena is a ski resort too. It is an amazing ski piste!
About the Great Rudoka hike
You start the hike from the hotel, through a signed trail. There you can find a river, which is a great water source, then you go through the river uphill, in a meadow terrain. After around 4 km of the hike, you will see an amazing waterfall, which is called Celepino waterfall, and it is a very hidden gem in Kosovo:
Then you will go through the spring of this waterfall and continue going uphill, where you can see a lot of other peaks, which make this hike even more beautiful. The terrain is signed. The last part of the hike is going up a hill, which is around 200 m.
The peak is located on the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. On top of this peak, you can enjoy the view of a lot of mountain peaks in Sharr Mountains, if the weather is clear you can see the Mount Korab 2’764 m/alt as well, which is the highest peak in Albania and Macedonia. I would suggest hiking to this mountain in early June because of the beautiful colors of nature. Also, the mountains are half snowy half meadowy.
The total distance for this hike is around 19 km.
This is a long hike, therefore for this hike you need around 2 liters of water.
Points of interest:
Starting point: Brod, Kosovo
Starting altitude: 1’488 m/alt
Highest altitude: 2’658 m/alt
Elevation gain: 1’238 m/alt