Summit · Prokletije · 2,403 m
Hajla
Our verdict
The mountain above Rožaje, on the Kosovo border, with a long grassy ridge and a sharp drop on its northern side. It is the most accessible 2,400 m summit in the east of the country and the one the town itself walks.
The honest part
The ridge is the international border with Kosovo. The approach roads are gravel and rough, and the northern face is far steeper than the walk up the southern slopes suggests.
When to come
June to October. This is high, cold ground — the record shows a 30 cm base on two-thirds of January days and a mean daily high below freezing from December to March.
- Summit day
- Views
- Wildflowers
- Snowshoeing
Where these are
How far, and how much up
From the nearest place you can park, Hajla is 3.68 km of walking and 861 m of climbing, starting at 1,624 m.
- Distance
- 3.68 km
- Ascent
- 861 m
- From
- 1,624 m
- To
- 2,302 m
Measured along OpenStreetMap’s own path network from the nearest node you can drive to, with elevations from the Copernicus DEM sampled at a hundred points. Ascent is the total climb including the dips, not the difference between the two ends. A 90 m model smooths short steep steps, so treat it as a floor.
No walking time, on purpose. Distance and ascent are measurable; a pace belongs to the walker. Every “four to five hours” on the web is somebody’s guess wearing a number’s clothes.
The way up also loses 183 m, which a net figure would hide.
When the snow lies
Hajla is usually clear of a 30 cm base from May to Nov. Outside that window, plan for snow on the ground.
Across the record the ground came reliably under 5 cm around April 18 and went back under snow around December 2. Those are medians of eleven years, not a promise about this one.
| Month | Over 1 cm | Over 30 cm base | Mean depth | Daytime high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 96% | 67% | 44 cm | -4.9 °C |
| Feb | 95% | 65% | 53 cm | -2.5 °C |
| Mar | 89% | 50% | 49 cm | -0.4 °C |
| Apr | 58% | 28% | 25 cm | 3.9 °C |
| May | 11% | 3% | 2 cm | 8.6 °C |
| Jun | — | — | — | 13.6 °C |
| Jul | — | — | — | 16.5 °C |
| Aug | — | — | — | 16.7 °C |
| Sep | — | — | — | 12.1 °C |
| Oct | 10% | — | 1 cm | 7.5 °C |
| Nov | 35% | — | 3 cm | 2.4 °C |
| Dec | 84% | 32% | 20 cm | -2.3 °C |
The winters vary more than any average suggests. Across 10 winters Hajla carried a 30 cm base for a median of 94 days: 0 in 2019 and 141 in 2021. Eleven winters is a record, not a climate, and nothing here is a trend.
| Winter | Days over 30 cm | Deepest |
|---|---|---|
| 2015–16 | 18 | 41 cm |
| 2016–17 | 33 | 56 cm |
| 2017–18 | 129 | 114 cm |
| 2018–19 | 106 | 97 cm |
| 2019–20 | — | 25 cm |
| 2020–21 | 135 | 150 cm |
| 2021–22 | 141 | 114 cm |
| 2022–23 | 44 | 67 cm |
| 2023–24 | — | 29 cm |
| 2024–25 | 94 | 79 cm |
Temperatures are corrected to 2,302 m, the terrain height at the point we query; the summit is 2,403 m. Snow depth is not corrected — it is a grid cell about nine kilometres across, so read it as the massif rather than the summit.
Reanalysis from ERA5-Land (Copernicus), served by Open-Meteo.
Hajla, in facts
The mountain
| Summit | 2,403 mOpenStreetMap peak node, ele 2403 (Q2194967) |
|---|---|
| Massif | Prokletije |
| Kind | Summit |
| Record height | 2,302 mThe elevation the temperature record is corrected to. The summit is 2,403 m. |
Getting up it
| Trailhead | The Štedim and Hajla approaches above Rožaje |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | A hike |
| Road | Gravel from Rožaje |
| Parking | Roadside |
| Bus | Not checked |
| Marked route | Yes |
Up there
| Hut | Planinarski dom Grope, 0.9 km away |
|---|---|
| Water | Springs mapped within 4 km |
| Food | None |
| Toilets | No |
| Shelter | Not checked |
| Mobile signal | No |
Hazards
- International border along the ridge
- Steep northern face
- No mobile signal
Facts last checked against their sources on September 30, 2026.
Where these facts come from
- OpenStreetMap natural=spring and amenity=drinking_water nodes within 4 km for the water field
- OpenStreetMap tourism=alpine_hut and wilderness_hut nodes for the nearest mountain hut and its distance
- OpenStreetMap peak node for the elevation and position
- Open-Meteo ERA5-Land archive 2015–2025 for the snow and temperature record
