Mountaineering in Macedonia has a long story. Everything started with the development of the Yugoslavian Mountaineering Association and the systematic school approach. In Yugoslavia, where Macedonia was a republic, the Slovenians led the mountain sports, including high-altitude mountaineering and alpinism. Many of the mountaineers in Macedonia went to Slovenia to exchange knowledge, learn skills, and hear stories. That’s how some Macedonian mountaineers found themselves on a Yugoslavian expedition to the Himalayas or the Alps with a strong, dedicated and experienced team. After some time and gaining knowledge and experience, Macedonia had its first national expedition to Everest in 1989, where the first Macedonian, Dimitar Ilievski, stood at the top of the World. Unfortunately, Dimitar Ilievski died on the descent from the summit of Everest, marking one of the saddest days for the Macedonian mountaineering. There were many other Macedonian expeditions to the Himalayas and the Alps, some of them well-documented and many of them not. Since the tragic expedition to Everest, Macedonia faced a grey zone in the mountaineering development, meaning there were not many people professionally involved, and there were no schools for mountaineering and alpinism.

Things nowadays have changed, and now we have a small but dedicated community of mountaineers and climbers who are willing to take risks and explore mountains that were not climbed by Macedonians before. Still, in Macedonia, it is very rare to go the Hymailsys without oxygen and climb in the Alps without a guide, but there are groups of mountaineers and climbers who do the opposite and push the boundaries of Macedonian mountaineering.

Macedonia is a mountain-dominating country. The country has plenty of mountains above 2000 meters, and the summit of Big Korab, with its 2764 meters, stands the highest. Korab is a beautiful mountain massif located in eastern Albania and western Macedonia. The Korab mountain range extends around 60-70 km from the Debar valley in a north-south direction between the river valleys of Black Drin and Radika. The massif itself has very steep and wild peaks with pure alpine surroundings, and usually, the mountain range of Korab is not so crowded, meaning it will provide you with freedom and absolute remoteness. 

I have personally been to the summit of Big Korab many times, in summer and winter. In the year 2022, I spent bivouacking at the summit with my friend Nikola for New Year's Eve. This mountain is a great training playground for us. We often go ski-touring to its surroundings and spend time exploring the possibilities of this mountain. The approach to the peaks in winter is not straightforward, but with a little bit of willpower, everything will appear, and all the roads will be clear.

From Macedonia, the route, especially in summer, is very well-marked and gives you the pure pleasure of climbing. It is 10 km long to the summit and 10 km back. The starting point is the Strezimir village, which we can consider a valley, but if you have an off-road 4x4 car, then you can easily arrive at the tower of “Pobeda,” which is a border police building. From there, the marks are everywhere, so missing the route is almost impossible. 

In winter, the route from Macedonia is the same, with only one key difference. In summer, you have a traverse which goes around the summit of Kepi Bard, but in winter, this traverse is very dangerous, and the only logical way is to climb the summit of Kepi Bard and follow its ridge to the saddle of Korab from where you easily climb the summit. If you are going with skis, keep in mind that there will probably be 2–3 sections where you will need to take off your skis and put them on your back since you are exposed to a mostly rocky and dry ridge. And that's when the Albanian route became more attractive. The Albanian route in winter is a magical one, especially for ski touring. I have done this route, and I can say it was an incredible ski pleasure. The route goes very logically from the village of Radomir, and after the first part, which is mainly through the woods, you will appear at a huge amphitheatre from where you can spot Korab. Here, you have absolute freedom to decide how you wanna go, but, in the end, all roads go to Rome, so that means you will arrive at the saddle of Korab, where people usually leave their skis and go by foot to the summit. But leaving the skis will be determined by the weather conditions, and if the conditions are good, you can climb it with the skies to the summit. This route offers you a ski-touring trip to the summit and back to the car if the snow does not melt in the lower part of the mountain.