About the route
Theth to Valbona is the best-known day walk in the Albanian Alps, the Accursed Mountains of northern Albania (Bjeshkët e Nemuna), and the first stage of the Peaks of the Balkans loop. The path climbs out of the Theth valley to the Valbona pass and drops into the Valbona valley on the other side.
Our line starts at the church in Theth, at about 750 m, reaches its highest point, about 1,800 m, after 7.7 km and ends at Rragam, where the road up the Valbona valley ends. That is why it measures 11.4 km while guides quote about 14 to 17 km: most of them measure to Valbonë village, about 6 km further down the valley along the road. Published heights for the pass itself range from about 1,760 to 1,800 m.
The app shows about 1,380 m of climbing for this line. It is one of our first routes and its heights have not been smoothed yet: in the forest the elevation model measures the tops of the trees, so that figure is probably too high. A rough smoothed estimate gives about 1,120 m, in line with the roughly 1,175 m a trail guide gives for the longer walk to Valbonë village.
You can walk it either way. Theth is one bus ride from Shkodër, so many people start there; those who come up Lake Koman by ferry to Valbona often cross the other way, to Theth. The pass is about 1,050 m above Theth and about 700 m above Rragam, so starting in Theth means more climbing and a long descent at the end of the day. The usual season is mid-June to September; snow can lie near the pass into June, and summer afternoons often bring thunderstorms. There is no mobile signal on much of the way, so save the route offline before you set off and leave a trip plan with someone who knows when you should arrive.
How we got the numbers
Distance and climb come from the line itself, with heights from the Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model (30 m) and climbing counted once the height has changed by 3 m: these are the figures the app shows. This route was added before we smoothed heights. In forest the model measures the top of the trees, so the climb above is probably too high: a rough smoothed estimate gives about 1,120 m one way. When the route is rebuilt, the app and this page will change together.
Walking time follows the DIN 33466 rule used by the German and Austrian alpine clubs, on the figures above, without breaks. The difficulty is the rating the route was given by hand when it was added to the app.
28 % of the line itself runs on slopes over 30° in the elevation model; slopes above it are not counted. This describes the terrain, not today’s conditions, and it is not an avalanche rating.