My Cross Country Ski Adventure in Montenegro

Cross country skiing exploration in Montenegro is in its early stages. More remains to be done. A lot more. It was amazing to be a part of it in the beginning. This is my cross country ski adventure in Montenegro.

Preparing for the Cross Country Ski Adventure

I am a cross country ski enthusiast from Southern Oregon who enjoys big powder days throughout the Southern Cascade Mountains free heeling from late November to late April.  For me, snow, mountains, and cross country skis belong together.

Last ski season a fellow winter enthusiast from Montana and I were doing some scouting with our friends at Meanderbug. We wanted to experience the unique nature and adventure of Montenegro and help our friends share the best of the country. 

We took a few days to experience the coast and some of Meanderbug’s developing village partners (the food and cultural experience here are legit) before we turned our attention to cross country. We wanted to see all of the well-known places before we headed to the mountains.  Call it due diligence or benchmarking. In short, it was cool. But as we pulled into the small mountain ski town of Kolasin, we realized we arrived just in time. This was the real adventure.

Check out our hut to hut cross country ski farm stay listings.

My Cross Country Ski Adventure in Montenegro Begins

In reality our adventure began when trying to find cross country skis and snow shoes. After lots of phone calls over a number of days, we finally found some gear to rent. That’s how early in the development phase cross country skiing in Montenegro was.

The night before our cross ski day, the snow was falling and freshening up the mountains. We both immediately knew this was going to be like none of our previous trips as we had only one day to cross ski and explore as much of the mountains as possible.

Blazing a Cross Country Ski Trail

We woke up early in the morning and strapped our skis on our packs and headed up the mountain.  The conditions were perfect at some 6 inches of fresh powder on top of about 18 inches of base.  We knew we were going to need all the help we could get as we planned to ski up and down the tallest peak we could see, Kluc. As the sun rose, we went full throttle into the unknown.

After several hours of dredging up the mountain using both skis and snowshoes and with little light left, we decided to stop.  We had reached a beautiful monastery near the top of a mountain with a great view to enjoy the sunset. We were even greeted by a local, furry friend.  After stopping for several minutes to enjoy the view and some local meats and cheeses we had purchased in town, we began our glissade down the trail we had already plowed.

What a day it was.  We didn’t achieve our goal of the summit of Kluć, but this was a great adventure.  We soaked in all we could on the mountain. Now that my cross country ski adventure in Montenegro is over, I look back on what an adventurist’s bucket list trip it was. We experienced crazy, good travel.   

Check out our hut to hut cross country ski farm stay listings.