Mountain Safety

HOW TO MITIGATE RISKS ON YOUR HIKING TRIP

Travelling in mountainous regions can involve certain dangers. Please make sure to always leave well prepared and take local conditions into consideration! With the increasing numbers of visitors, more accidents happen every year, some deadly.

Be aware that there is no professional rescue service as you would find in the Central European Alps. From our own experience, we don’t recommend to purely rely on public services. The best help is often close at hand. If you encounter problems, try talking your local contacts, your guesthouse or tour operator.

While helicopter is available for emergencies, bad weather conditions and lack of knowledge about the terrain and places can negatively impact the effectiveness of rescue operations.

Risks

If you are not an experienced hiker, don’t overestimate your ability. This is especially true for routes that leave the valleys and travel into alpine territory. Some of the following risks can be mitigated by choosing to travel with a local guide who knows local weather patterns and the terrain. 

  • Changing weather conditions: even on a sunny day, always check the weather forecast and leave with appropriate apparel
  • Crevasses and caves: the largest part of the Alps consists of limestone that can be resolved by water creating shafts, crevasses and caves that can be many meters deep - always walk with care crossing karst territory
  • Disused mines and bunkers: while interesting and inviting to explore, these can contain poisonous gases or be unstable
  • Unexploded ordnance: Enver Hoxha created huge stockpiles of ammunition and the Kosovo conflict left blind bombs and mines in the border areas. While officially cleared, we recommend staying on visible paths especially when hiking in the Sharr Mountains. For specific questions contact the Halo Trust.
  • Snakes: most accidents that require treatment are related to snake bites - antidote is available at the health centres in Theth and Valbona - find the phone numbers to the right (no English spoken)

In any case, you should save or write down the contact details to the right in addition to those of your country’s embassy. If you are a citizen of the EU, all member embassies are required to offer consular protection, this extends to emergency situations.

Albania

Please note: In case of an emergency all foreign tourists receive first aid and medical care free of charge.

  • 112 general emergency response
    126 road police
    127 ambulance
    128 fire brigade
    129 police
  • In the Alps, the local health centres (ambulanca) can be reached under:
    Theth: + 355 68 5004 559
    Valbona: + 355 67 3014 55

The two largest privately-run hospitals of the country are both located on the outskirts of Tirana along the highway to Durres and listed below. Most towns have their own hospitals but most often lack equipment.

Hygeia Hospital
Tirana-Durrës highway, km1, Fushë Mëzez
+355 4 2390 000
+355 4 232 30 00 (emergencies)

American Hospital
Pranë Spitalit Ushtarak, Laprakë
+355 4 235 75 35

Montenegro
  • 112 emergency response center, coordinates the entire region and all actions between police (122), first aid (123) and fire brigade (124)
  • +382 40 256 084 mountain rescue service of Montenegro
Kosovo
  • 112 emergency response center