High Scardus Trail Stage 03 Brezovica - Prevalla

The starting point of Stage 03 of the High Scardus Trail is located as described at the signposts just below the Molika Hotel in the Brezovica ski resort. You hike west below the hotel and follow the rough gravel road briefly uphill to a stone house. Above the stone house, a trail begins that takes you along the wooded slope at a roughly constant altitude to above a small valley. Now follow the markings a few metres down into the valley and hike down the other side of the valley on a path. Cross the stream again to its left and continue uphill. The terrain through which the path leads (partly marked with wooden poles) becomes steeper and steeper. You will now see a signpost at the top of a saddle - this is reached via a very steep grassy slope, through which a narrow path leads close to a small stream (unpleasant when wet).

From the saddle, you do not continue uphill to the south, but cross the slopes overgrown with blueberry bushes and alpine roses to the west on a narrow path in an easy uphill and downhill walk. Before you reach a huge cirque, the path becomes narrower again, the slopes to be crossed steeper and it goes downhill for a few metres through boulders. This passage requires sure-footedness and is to be avoided in wet conditions - after that, however, you have completed the most technically demanding passage of the High Scardus Trail!

In the cirque below the "Black Rock" peak, the trail first goes slightly upwards without any tracks, before you continue westwards at a constant altitude in the middle of the cirque and finally traverse on tracks through alpine roses and boulders to a ridge. Here, far to the west, you will see your stage destination Prevalla at the pass of the same name for the first time. Now continue to cross the slope at a constant altitude along tracks to another ridge. Here, a little below in the forest, you will see a hut, an open shelter for emergencies. However, you do not descend directly to the hut, but keep to the trail tracks near the ridge downhill through sparse pine forests and later in a slight left turn to a trail junction. The marked trail to the right leads directly down to the road to Prevalla and is the aforementioned shortcut of the stage - however, you follow the trail to the left through very beautiful pine forests slightly uphill again to the previously mentioned shelter hut.

From the hut, follow the path uphill through the forest and you will reach a small valley without trees, which you hike uphill. At a suitable point, take the ridge to the right of the valley and cross the slopes through alpine roses and over boulders to the south. After a while you will reach a crossroads and take a short detour to the lake "Liqeni i Jazhincës", 50 m away.

Back at the crossroads, take the left path towards "Forester's Hut". Again 50 m later, however, you leave the obvious path and follow the markings through trackless terrain to the left. You will reach the left side of the valley, which you continue to follow downhill through meadows until you reach a "meadow gully". Follow the tracks that slowly begin here through the gully and the increasingly clear tracks on the left side of the valley downhill into the forest. You reach a wide path, which you hike down to the left to a gravel road. Here, turn left again and walk down towards "Forester's Hut" until you are relatively close to the road towards the Prevalla Pass. Here you follow the signpost to Prevalla on the left, very steeply up through beautiful forest to a forest road - a somewhat tough climb at the end of a long stage. Now, however, pleasantly follow the forest road in a gentle up and down to the right, through a beautiful valley and on the other side of the valley continue along the forest road - finally a little uphill again - to a place above Prevalla. The road surface changes to asphalt - you hike this road downhill to the road junction in the middle of the tourist settlement directly at the Prevalla pass. You have just completed one of the most demanding stages of the High Scardus Trail!