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North Macedonia Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Areas in North Macedonia

Demir Kapija 0 / 7 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 7

Kadina 0 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2

Lake Matka 5 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 9

Mavrovo 0 / 9 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 9

Ohrid 1 / 6 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 7

Prilep 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Explore this area in 3D

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Elevation:	1,649 ft
GPS:	41.7303, 21.676 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	18,411 total · 139/month
Shared By:	jdokmo on Jun 20, 2013 · Updates
Admins:	Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

North Macedonia is a small, mountainous country in the southern portion of the former Yugoslavia. The entire western half of the country is mountainous, with the Dinaric Alps running along the border with Kosovo and Albania. Climbing in North Macedonia is mostly limestone, but varies greatly in nature. Mavrovo Cave features difficult, overhanging sport routes, Demir Kapija is limestone sport and trad in a Mediterranean, desert-like setting, and Solunska Glava is a massive glacial cirque with trad routes up to 900m. Local climbers have done most of the development, but the community here is very small and there is still plenty left to explore with significant potential for new first ascents. Given the general shortage of information about the climbing, even cragging days sometimes feel like adventures!

Getting There

North Macedonia is located in the southern portion of the Balkan Peninsula, just north of Greece. If you are outside of Europe, the most direct flights usually go from Frankfurt to Venice to Skopje, or you can explore plenty WIZZ AIR lines that relate to and of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Inside Europe, you can drive via E-75, or as an alternative to take a train or bus to Skopje. However, there are few "direct" road or rail lines in the Balkans, largely due to the rugged nature of the terrain that causes roads to twist and wind over mountain passes. Distances are deceiving - if you land in Vienna, do some climbing in Slovenia's Julian Alps, and then decide to drive down to Skopje, you're looking at a 10+ hour drive. That said, once you get here it's easy to get to most of the climbing areas in the small country with less than 2 hours of driving. You can even get to Albania's Valbone valley in about 3.5 hours.