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Dajti Mountain

Summary: Dajti Mountain with 1665 meters dominates Tirana (at 160 meter elevation). It is visible when one approaches Tirana from any side, and often maintains a snow cap in the colder months. There is a road leading up to a plateau at about 1050 Meter, or one can take the cable car. There are many restuarants and it is nice to simply hang out on the plateau to escape the heat of the summer. However, for all its proximity to Tirana, it took us quite a while to figure out how to climb it from the bottom (to the plateau), or from the plateau to the summit. We made several attempts just looking for the trails, and we could not understand that there was no guidebook or other hint where to go.

We have broken up the hike from the bottom to the summit into three parts: The first part is a trail from the village of Linze to the asphalt road on the Dajti plateau, a climb of about 800 meter. From here one can return the same way, or get picked up by car, or take the cable car down. The second part is from the plateau to the summit of Tujanit, which is the northern summit of Dajti and generally considered to be the hiker's summit. The third part leaves the Tujanit trail in the saddle between Tujanit and Dajti summit, and leads to the main summit of Dajti, which is somewhat ruined by old radio towers and trash. This summit is normally closed to hikers, but one may try to negotiate access with the workers at the radio towers.

From Linze to the Dajti Plateau:

Maximum altitude:	1057 meter
Minimum altitude:	279 meter
Cumulative height:	769 meter
Cumulative length:	4.77  kilometers
Difficulty	moderate
Time:	about 2 hours
Date of this record	June  2011
Download GPS info:	To Dajti Plateau

From the Dajti Plateau to Tujanit: 

Maximum altitude:	1528 meter
Minimum altitude:	1058 meter
Cumulative height:	470 meter
Cumulative length:	2.35  kilometer
Difficulty	easy
Time:	1  hour
Date of this record	June 2011
Download GPS info:	To Tujanit

From the Tujanit trail to the top of Dajti:

Maximum altitude:	1620 meter
Minimum altitude:	1349 meter
Cumulative height:	271  meter
Cumulative length:	2.24 kilometer
Difficulty	moderate
Time:	3/4 hours from leaving the Tujanit trail
Date of this record	June 2011
Download GPS info:	To Dajti Summit

General location and approach: Dajti is the huge mountain east of Tirana. We leave it to your ingenuity to find the road to the plateau, or the ground station of the cable car. For the trailhead in Linze, follow the map - there now is an obvious tarmac road up to the place where we parked the car.

Other Information:

Part 1: It is possible to even get closer to the mountain by driving up to the hamlet of Shermini, and find the trail from there. This shaves off more than 300 altitude meter from the climb to the Dajti plateau, but misses the point which presumably is to climb Dajti. There are some old signs and paint markings along the trail, which are however difficult to find. The trail itself is well visible.

Part 2: The secret of hiking from the Dajti Plateau to Tujanit is finding the mounatin road that was used to erect the radio tower on Tujanit. Your best bet is to follow the tarmac road north and seek out the old hotel (near the cable car station) on the Dajti plateau. Walk through the backyard of the hotel and follow a moe or less visible path into the saddle between Tujanit and Dajti proper, crossing a mountain road a few times. From the saddle, the mountain road leads straight up to Tujanit. When hiking from Linze, just cross the tarmac road and continue until you hit the mountain road that winds up into the saddle. You may wish to cut short several switchbacks until you read the saddle and turn left on the road to Tujanit.

Part 3: Having reached the saddle between Tujanit and Dajti summit, a road leads in switchbacks to sevral houses and radio towers near the summit. In summer, it is possible to cut short several of thise switchbacks. Enquire whether you may scale the last 50 meter up to the summit.

GPS and trailmaps: The map and trailinformation is generated by www.wikiloc.org, based on GPS information collected from the actual hike. Waypoints can be downloaded to a GPS device from Wikiloc. If necessary, use GPSBabel to convert GPS data to different formats. For more hike descriptions by Palmtreetreeproduction, browse this website or visit Wikiloc and search for "Palmtreeproduction". You may also find nearby trails from other authors.

Google Earth: You may also view the trail in 3D by clicking "view in Google Earth" when on Wikiloc. You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer.

Images: Click the button at the end of the page to view the slides in full screen