seeking beta on climbing near Thessaloniki, Greece

[Thinker]

I may have the opportunity to head that way later this year.

 

Any leads?

[allthumbs]

I tried to help you with a Google search but all I came up with was:

 

Áðáãïñåýåôáé ç áíáðáñáãùãÞ ôùí éóôïóåëßäùí Þ ôùí öùôïãñáöéþí ìå ïðïéïäÞðïôå ìÝóï ÷ùñßò ôçí Ýããñáöç Üäåéá ôïõ åêäüôç.

Ï ÷þñïò ãéá íá ôïðïèåôçèïýí ïé éóôïóåëßäåò ðáñá÷ùñÞèçêå äùñåÜí áðü ôçí tripod.com. Ï ðáñï÷Ýáò ÷þñïõ, åìöáíßæåé áõôüìáôá óôï åðÜíù ìÝñïò êÜèå éóôïóåëßäáò, êÜðïéåò äéáöçìéóôéêÝò êáôá÷ùñÞóåéò ðïõ äåí åßíáé äõíáôüí íá ôéò áöáéñÝóïõìå.

 

[sk]

Seems like Rock and Ice had an article about climbing in Greece last year or the year before. You might try past issues... a place to start any way. HAVE FUN IF YOU GO! and post picture and a TR. The R&I article made it sound totaly awsome

[Jim]

I spent 3 weeks in Greece a few years ago. You're up there pretty far north - I spent most of the time in central and then southern Greece. Meteora may be a place you want to check out, there's interesting climing on these funky towers, some with Monestaries atop them. Of course you can't climb some of them. The routes are bolted but I thought they were run out.

 

Down on the Peloponnese Peninsula there's some interesing limestone right on the coast at Napflio in the shadow of a Byzantine fort, with some moderate routes. Watch out for the odd cactus sprouting from the cliff. I've heard that Mt. Olympus is a fun scramble. We also did Mt. Ilias, which is the highest peak on the Peloponnese. Sometime in July (18th or so?) there's a festival for the patron saint of the peak and a hundred or so die-hards come up from surrounding villages and bring up water, food, and icons up for an overnight celebration. Missed that by two days.

[Thinker]

Thanks Jim and Muffy. I did see last years R&I article on Kalymnos, quite the little sport climbing island paradise, and certainly another place on my wish list. As Jim noted, Thessaloniki is quite far north on the mainland. One website I found noted that Thessaloniki is an 'active sport climbing center'. It should be an interesting search.

[Geek_the_Greek]

If you need any translations of Greek web sites or whatnot, send me the links and I might be able to help. To view these properly, you'll probably need to select a Greek-compatible font.

 

Ditto on what Jim said about Meteora and Olympus, but I don't know about Thessaloniki.

 

Opa!

[allthumbs]

Thinker said:

Thanks Jim and Muffy. I did see last years R&I article on Kalymnos, quite the little sport climbing island paradise, and certainly another place on my wish list. As Jim noted, Thessaloniki is quite far north on the mainland. One website I found noted that Thessaloniki is an 'active sport climbing center'. It should be an interesting search.

 

what about "thanks trask" you asshole

[Geek_the_Greek]

Looks like there's some cool limestone sport stuff near Trikala, in North-central Greece (about 100-150 miles from Thessaloniki).

 

Clippin in Trikala

[Thinker]

trask said:

what about "thanks trask" you asshole

 

Trask, I'm truly afraid to read the translation of the info you found...

 

GTG, what little pearls of wisdom did Trask turn up there?

[David_Parker]

You will not be too far from Mt. Olympus, a fun and worthy adventure. It is a three summit mountain and the technical one (the 2nd highest) is Stephano. There are numerous 3-4 pitch rock climbs up the east? face that bring you to the summit. Plenty of loose rock! We stayed in a high hut (like in the alps) just below and to the side of the face. From the summit, you can walk down a ridge to a notch and then scramble up the common tourist summit which is about 10 feet higher. I may even have a topo of it! I'll look. I also have a friend who did an article for rock and no-ice on climbing in the meteora. Sounded like the best place to go in Greece. Greece is very nice and I found if you got away from the tourist areas, the people were super friendly and always wanting to feed you! We were in a VW buss, so it was easy to get off the beaten path. Watch out for the Retcina, metaxa and "moon-juice". It's all creeper!