At Karanfil, one of the mountain massifs of Prokletije near Gusinje, not far from the valley Grebaje, there is a several thousand years old glacier, about which we know very little.
A famous hiker and guide to numerous expeditions that have been coming to the heart of the mountains in recent years from various meridians, Ahmet Rekovic, explains that the glacier is "far from the eyes and hands of anyone who could hurt him."
"This old glacier seems to be lonely there, located in Lower – Veliki Kotao. The snowman, as the mountaineers call it, is thousands of years old. This was confirmed by scientists who had been conquering him five decades ago, but with whose death as if the interest in recording and studying it from the professional side died as well," Rekovic told “Vijesti”.
According to him, as in the words of many other mountain lovers, the Gusinje glacier is located at the lowest altitude in the Balkans and perhaps even wider area.
"This glacier was formed at an altitude of only 1,600 meters. It's beautiful, there is no such beauty anywhere," says Rekovic. He explains that the glacier at the foot of the South Peak of Karanfil is accessible only to those skilled ones with assistance by the guides, and they can climb to it.
Previously, you needed to get from Gusinje to the valley Grebaja by an asphalt road seven kilometers long.
"Then from the last meadow in Grebaja, to the glacier, for those who want to see this miracle of nature they need to walk for only one hour and a half to get to it."
Rekovic tells the story of how the "view" just rests on the glacier 400 meters wide and about 800 meters long.
"As if someone hid it under the rock Koplja, whose vertical is about six meters high. The thickness of the ancient ice never, even at the time of the indescribable heat, drops below fifteen meters, which is its height at the end of August. Otherwise, the glacier is over thirty-meters-high in spring and ideal for skiing during the summer season," says Rekovic.
He points out that when one from the plus 30 degrees summer comes in the so-called scattering, at the place where the glacier cracked, he can hardly withstand the coldness which exists within it.
You should see that beauty, the shades of the colors of ice, that speak of its age. This glacier deserves to be studied in detail by geologists and other scientists."
Rekovic does not know the answer to the question of how many meters the glacier grows in the winter. "Then there are blizzards at Prokletije, and the whole mountain is covered with snow and ice. While most of the snow melts during the summer, the sun could not do anything to this glacier for thousands of years.
The old mountain hiker recalls that the massif Prokletije represents a mountain wreath in the eastern Montenegro, Kosovo and northern Albania.
Encyclopedia records say that Prokletije is a tall mountain wreath on the southeastern edge of the Dinara Mountains.
Gigantic massif has a total length of 417 kilometers. In fact, the unusual ridge, rich in crystal-clear mountain rivers, lakes and valleys above which proudly dominate the crumbling wreaths, makes the natural border between Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania.
The highest peak of Prokletije, Jezerski peak 2,694 meters above sea level (Albanian Maja Jezerce), is located on the territory of Albania and is at the same time the highest peak of the Dinara mountains.
Text by Tufik Softic, on February 10th 2019, read more at Vijesti
