Arapi

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Arapi
The south face with the last evening light in July, the top is hidden behind the left pre-summit

The south face with the last evening light in July, the top is hidden behind the left pre-summit

height 2217  m
location Albania
Mountains Albanian Alps
Coordinates 42 ° 26 '45 "  N , 19 ° 45' 21"  E Coordinates: 42 ° 26 '45 "  N , 19 ° 45' 21"  E
Arapi (Albania)
Arapi
rock Triassic and Jurassic Limestone
Normal way East shoulder of the Qafa e Pejës
The cauldron at the northern end of the Shala valley with the mighty south face of the Arapi seen from Theth

The cauldron at the northern end of the Shala valley with the mighty south face of the Arapi seen from Theth

Template: Infobox Berg / Maintenance / BILD1

The Arapi ( Albanian  Maja e Arapit , sometimes Albanian  Maja e Harapit ) is a mountain in the Albanian Alps in northern Albania . The mountain is only 2217  m above sea level. A. hoch, with its 800 meter high south face, it is one of the most prominent rock formations in the area of Theth .

location

The Arapi is north of Theth, a remote mountain village in the Shala Valley, which is surrounded by the highest mountains in the Albanian Alps. The Shala valley ends north of Theth in a large basin, which in the west by the walls of the Radohima ( 2568  m above sea level ), in the east by the Jezerca massif ( 2694  m above sea level ) and in the north by the Qafa pass e Pejës ( 1705  m above sea level ) and the rock walls of the Arapi.

The Arapi - also called the Matterhorn of Albania - is located on the edge of the Theth National Park and is one of the landmarks of the National Park and the village of Theth.

description

Hikers below the north face

The Arapi rises from a large saddle between the mountain ranges of Bjeshkët e Namuna and Jezerca, which rises from Qafa e Pejës to the west to Radohima. The south wall drops steeply into the Shala valley. It doesn't end right at the top; this is set back a little and only visible from a distance from the south. To the west and north, the mountain also drops very steeply around 200 meters to the saddle. The east shoulder to Qafa e Pejës is significantly less steep .

The mountain and the surrounding karst saddle are formed from rugged limestone from the Jurassic and Triassic ages , interspersed with sinkholes and caves .

Origin of name

The name Arapi can be translated as Mohr , Dunkler or Arab .

caves

There are several caves in the karst rock of the Arapi and the surrounding area.

At the lower end of the south wall is the entrance to the longest horizontal cave in Albania. Bulgarian researchers have explored its length at 2585 meters. The depth of the cave system is 346 meters. 15 animal species were found inside the cave.

Alpinism

South face of the Arapi

The ascent over the east shoulder with steep alpine meadows can be mastered without technical difficulties, even if orientation in the karst terrain is not that easy. From the pre-summit above the rock face ( 2050  m above sea level ) to the summit it takes less than half an hour.

The south face is considered to be the highest rock face on the Balkan Peninsula . It was climbed for the first time in summer 2010 by big wall climbers , mostly from Germany . You needed 18 pitches for this . The west wall and north wall are also suitable for shorter tours.

Obersteiner names the Austrians Georg Heinsheimer, Heid, Egon Hofmann and Heinrich Schatz from Innsbruck  and Linz as the first climbers who are said to have climbed over the east shoulder in 1930. In their reports, however, no corresponding ascent is noted. At the same time, Italian surveyors and British mountaineers were in the area . It is possible that one of these mountaineering groups also climbed the easy-to-reach Arapi, which is on the way; However, there is no evidence. It is also quite conceivable that Albanian shepherds or hunters climbed easy-to-climb mountains like this via the easy-to-walk east shoulder even before the foreign mountaineers.

In 1959 and 1960 mountaineers from Albania and the GDR were on the Arapi, who opened up several routes on the north and west face. A first ascent on the edge of the south face was also made. In 1985, two Albanian mountaineers climbed the south face for the first time, but bypassed the most difficult places by evading to the outside.

Web links

Commons : Arapi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Maja e Arapit, Geoquest climbing guide. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Geoquest Verlag, August 2010, accessed on February 20, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b c d John Ely: Maje e Arapit. In: SummitPost. September 18, 2010, accessed February 7, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Christian Zindel, Barbara Hausamann: Hiking Guide Northern Albania - Thethi and Kelmend . Huber Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-940686-19-0 .
  4. ↑ International Caving Expedition Maja Arapit 2009. August 2010, accessed on September 4, 2010 (English).
  5. ↑ a b Bernhard Bauer, Ludwig Obersteiner, Rolf Richer: To the development of the North Albanian Alps . Yearbook. In: Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Association . tape 67 . Publishing house of the German and Austrian Alpine Club, Stuttgart 1936, p. 216-229 .
  6. ^ Haid, Georg Heinsheimer, Egon Hofmann , Heinrich Schatz: North Albanian Mountains . Trip reports. In: Österreichischer Alpenklub (Ed.): Österreichische Alpenzeitung . Volume 52, series 1103. Vienna November 1930, p. 199 f . ;
    Egon Hofmann: Albania Expedition 1931 . In: Österreichischer Alpenklub (Ed.): Österreichische Alpenzeitung . Volume 53, series 1115. Vienna November 1931, p. 327 f .
  7. ↑ a b Georg Heinsheimer, Egon Hofmann, Heinrich Schatz: A mountain trip into the north Albanian mountains . In: Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Club . tape 62 . Verlag des DÖAV, Innsbruck 1931, p. 158-178 ( article online ).