OUTLINE Peakbagging In Greece Topics 0. Hello everybody. My name is Andy, and I have a peakbagging problem. This talk will cover how I wound up peakbagging in Greece, some of the mountains I climbed, and some tips on Greek travel if you ever decide to try this. I. Why Greece 1. Blame it on my wifes relatives. Her grandparents are from the small town of Kalimeriani (road sign) Her maiden name is Sagos. (grave) The Sagos Castle -Christ, mow the lawn 2. Costs cheaper, folks friendly 3. Hiking like AZ (slide greece over az) slide greece map Rocky, open, western hiking, not eastern Views and lunch at top Not hiking uphill in the rain Mountains stand out. No snow hiking No high altitude No Technical 4. Ultras CO has 50 14ers - AZ & FL 0 AZ has 5 Ultras - C0 3 AZ has 5 - Graham, Lemmon, Chir, Miller & Hump Greece has 18 (50,949 half land area AZ 113,998) (Greece slides) But wait - theres more ! about 170 2K prominence peaks. AZ has about 70. Greece is infested with prominence. II. First half peak descriptions Dhirfis From sea to summit. Camped Close to trailhead - trail gains 2000 feet up ridge In winter. Do not go in April. At summit. Plane crash junk. Limestone. Survey marker (pic) Giona Moving on to interior of Greece. Still snow May 26. Do not mess with in winter Summit. DO: Blow up of plaque and translation. Smolikas Drive in - nice peaks across valley On trail to summit - good trail, no limestone. + Camping Illegal, but likely enforced only near cities. Many KOA type campgrounds near beaches. Popular with vacationing europeans. No Greeks. Hot climate, wifi, showers, often long way from peaks. Nice pool. Access usually good except military. Water and Trash Almost every small village has trash dumpsters near city limits. Wonderful free spring water. Crop this photo and others. III. Vacation from vacation - Greek Island of Milos. Ferry - wife found this most relaxing part of vacation. Village - cute alleyways. Statue - Venus de Milo - this is mini art appreciation part of talk. Beaches Quiz pic - here is another beach. If you are curious about the peak in the distance then you might be a peakbagger. That is as close as we got to the Ultra Mount Athos. No females allowed. Access pretty good in Greece, but not on Athos peninsula and military bases. Finish our side trip to Milos with a visit to the HP. (Delete ?? Viper) IV. Second half Peak descriptions Border peaks Macedonia + Seen on summits - churches Radomir + Seen on summits - Fire Houses Mention trenches and gun emplacements Fengari Statue winged victory E6 - trails across europe Level Gauge Jane - what have I got myself into ? Add pic in hot springs. (Profitas Ilias no) Crete Barrel Dogs Goat Pics, sheep pics E4 - trail across Europe Dikti Olympus Refuge Peak in the morning Cliffs of olympus Butt climbing Summit Metora - is nearby. Decent place for peakbagger. Pic far, pic near, windlass. Find out more about windlass V. Tips and tricks 1. Driving is scary Most scared is heading uphill, vehicles zipping downhill on blind corners. They take chances passing - I would pull over and let them by. Avoid city centers, and avoid central Athens if at all possible. 2. Shopping and eating out Spinach pies, Giros 3. How do you get there Flights 4. The end of trip - crashed in airport. Show and tell items - stove goat bell sight level Ipad running navmii & Pocket Earth, Google Translate, Greek Symbols, peakbagger --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not in show: Seen on summits: (No ... Wind farms) (No ... Tourists) TALK Peakbagging In Greece IntroSlide - Olympus fantasy Hi my name is Andy, and I have a peakbagging problem. This slide show covers how my family wound up peakbagging in Greece, some of the places we visited, and some tips on Greek travel. The show runs well under an hour, so if you have questions just shout them out and I'll try to answer them. You are probably wondering how a respectable Arizona peakbagger ended up in Greece. My inlaws are to blame. (introduce Christ if present) SLIDE - Kalimeriani My wife Sarah Sagos Martin is half Greek, and her grandparents come from the small village of Kalimerianoi. This slide shows her and our daughter Jane at the outskirts of town. SLIDE - Sagos Tomb Sarah's grandparents grew up in Kalimerianoi, and numerous Sagos relatives have lived and died there for centuries. This is the local cemetery, and this spells Sagos. SLIDE - Sagos castle The ancestral castle still stands proudly on a back alley. The neighbors asked us to tidy up the yard but we told them Sarah's dad was in charge of that. These photos were taken in late May, and you might have noticed the fine weather. You all know that Arizona peakbaggers are spoiled rotten. We don't hike uphill in rain, we don't step on snow, we don't have bugs biting us, and we expect a sit down snack on the top with great views in every direction. And Greek conditions are similar. SLIDE - Greece compared with Arizona This slide compares Greece with Arizona, as if we had slid Greece 7000 miles west. We see that it is not much further north than Arizona. In fact the southern island of Crete, where they grow bananas, is about as far south as Phoenix. The climate is a bit wetter than Arizona, as Greece is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, but you will find hiking conditions like Arizona in many ways. I should also mention that most Greeks you will run into are friendly people, and vacation costs are generally reasonable compared with the rest of Europe. SLIDE - Greece Topography Of course a peakbagger needs peaks, and this slide shows that Greece is loaded with them. The green areas are plains with farms and the brown areas are high peaks 5000 feet and above, and there is no shortage of these. Many of you have heard of the highest peak in Greece, Mount Olympus, which is over 9000 feet tall. (shown on map) But we are still missing THE most essential item for our vacation - the peakbaggers LIST. I mean what is a peakbagger without his list ? - just a hiker. Now there are many choices here - the highest mountains, the prettiest mountains, peaks in alphabetical order from alpha to omega, etc. Its hard to know where to start. BUT there is a universal attribute we can use called prominence. Luckily for you I won't be giving my full prominence sermon today, just this slide. SLIDE - AZ prom. This shows the biggest prominence mountains in the southwest. They all drop a mile in every direction, and are called Ultras. You might note that although CO beats AZ 50 to nothing in 14ers, we lead them 5 to 3 in Ultras, with one being our home town peak, Mount Lemmon. Slide - Greek Ultras And Greece has an amazing 18 Ultras - bingo bango - we have our list. In fact there is only one country in Europe that has more Ultras, Italy which is twice as big as Greece, has 21 Ultras, just 3 more. You can see the Ultras peaks are distributed all over the country. Here is the famous Olympus. And six are on islands, three are island high points, and then 3 more are on Crete. But wait - there's more ! Slide - Greek 2K peaks If you ever get ahead of schedule say, and need extra peaks to climb, you have 170 more to choose from. The mountains shown in white drop 2000 feet in every direction, similar to Wasson Peak on the west side of Tucson. It is no exaggeration to say that Greece is truly infested with prominent peaks. So lets climb one. Slide Dhirfis Just 5 miles west of Kalimerianoi we have this striking view of Dhirfis, the island high point, dropping 5000 feet to the ocean. We camped at the trailhead Slide Dhirfis The trail climbs 2000 feet right up the west ridge, entirely on limestone, and I think the limestone continues right down to sea level. I slept through too many geology classes to understand how this is possible, but do find it impressive. Here is a photo I found on the internet of Dhirfis in winter Slide Dhirfis snow You can see that some poor devil was slogging through this stuff, but of course we waited for the snow to melt. We usually did not encounter other hikers on the Ultras, but on this peak when we were descending we mat a large group from Athens. Slide Dhirfis summit This summit had a bit of plane crash junk on top but otherwise was composed of many big limestone rocks. The square concrete monument is a Greek survey pillar, and these come with nice metal markers Slide Dhirfis summit marker A peakbagger really can't ask for more than this on a mountain top. Now lets leave the island and head into central Greece, where we visit Giona and Smolikas. Slide Ultras Slide Giona - ours This was our view of the north face of Giona at the end of May. Still a bit of snow, but nothing that gave us trouble. Here is a picture I found on the internet with a lot more snow: Slide Giona - internet The hiking route follows a trail up the valley and to this pass and then is a scramble on grass and rocks to the top. Total gain is about 3000 feet, and this was one of our bigger hikes. Slide Giona top At the top we found a nice marble memorial marker. Slide Giona marker cropped This is all Greek to me, but a friend translated it: "For our friend Dimitris who loved this place so much" Leaving Giona, on the drive to Smolikas we had great views of the big peaks across the valley Slide Smolikas peaks Now we are not going to climb those faces Slide Sarah on trail but a nice trail, still with a great view across the valley. Slide Refuge On Smolikas we enjoyed our best bush camp in Greece, at a closed refuge building. While there are many of these buildings on the mountains, almost all are closed. At this point some of you are thinking "Hey - isn't free camping illegal in Greece" Slide wild camping and you're right, it is illegal. And if you plop your tent on the beach next to the Mykonos Grand Hotel you could be looking at penalties, fines, maybe trials ?? Our wild camping was discreet, and confined to areas near trailheads of peaks in the interior of Greece. But to camp legally in Greece you can find many pay campgrounds Slide - brochure These are KOA type campgrounds, and cost about $20 to $30 a night, depending on how many are in your party, and if you are travelling light by bicycle or hauling a camper. These campgrounds are popular with vacationing Europeans, but you will see few Greeks - I'm not sure why. The campgrounds have showers, wifi at the office, water, and a place to wash dishes. But they usually don't look as pretty as this brocure Slide - our camp and you can see that when they are full you will have many neighbors. This shady awning is vital - almost all the campgrounds are located near the beaches, and my biggest gripe is that they are hot - especially when you just drove down from the cool mountains. However when the sun is going down they get prettier. Slide pool at camp I should mention that other peakbaggers in Greece use different accommodations. Petter from Norway prefers hotels, and in the backcountry he is good at locating small inns in nearby villages. And at the other extreme Rob from England sleeps in his rental car at the trailhead. And in fact Jane preferred to sleep in the back of our minivan. Anyway, back to wild camping, or just general travel in backcountry Greece, there are a couple nice bonuses compared to the US. Slide - spring water The first is the traditional countryside stone fountains. These are found in many mountain villages. Cool, tasty water - and FREE ! This sure beats running into McDonalds restrooms for free water - not that I'd know anything about that ... And the second bonus is trash disposal. At the entrance to most villages is a handy dumpster - no need to hoard trash until you visit a gas station. The next peaks we will talk about are a couple peaks right on the Greek border. Slide Kaimaktsalan and Radomir. Kaimaktsalan is on the border with Macedonia. We had pretty foggy weather on this hike, and could tell we were getting close to the Slide Chapel top when the chapel came into view. This is located right at the Greece & Macedonia border, and was the scene of a battle in WWI where thousands died. Slide fence chapel The chapel fence is made of bomb casings and barbed wire, and there are some military monuments nearby. You will find churches and chapels on top of may peaks in Greece. Here is an example at a mountain in Crete, with a Greek Orthodox chapel right at the very top. Slide, chapel on peak And here is a pic of the interior of that chapel Slide, interior of chapel No one was there, and the door was unlocked, which is typical for these chapels. There is vandalism and graffiti in Athens, but no so much in the countryside. I should mention another type of structure that you will sometimes see on Greek peaks Slide fire tower a fire lookout. This one was manned when we visited Slide fire tower abandoned and this one was not. Back to the border peaks - the second one is Radomir, Slide - signs right on the border with Bulgaria. In fact a lot of the hike is a road walk in Bulgaria, and these signs are in Bulgarian, not Greek. Slids - road This slide shows the road you walk on in Bulgaria. The international border follows the ridge, right under where the photo was taken. Slide - summit This top is a peakbaggers dream, with two trig markers. One is the usual Greek style column, while the other is a little house for the marker, which is at ground level. The column has a shaft down the middle for a plumb bob line. Now lets leave the interior of Greece and do some island hopping. Slide Fengari map There are six Greek Ultras on islands. The first one we went to was, Dirfis, was on an island with a short bridge to the mainland, but the others require ferries or planes to reach. The island of Samothrace is in the NE corner of Greece, and has a HP called Fengari. The blue line on this map is the European E6 trail, similar to the long trails in the US, which runs from Finland to Greece, and the trail on Fengari is marked E6. Slide - our ferry to Samothrace This was our ferry to the island. We've taken several ferry rides in Greece, and enjoyed all of them. Sarah considers them a vacation from our vacation - a nice way to just sit back and enjoy leisurely travel. I think they are reasonably priced, though figuring out schedules and prices can take a while online. Slide - preparing to dock, view of Fengari. This was out view as we got close to the Island. The peak rises over 5000 feet and we have to hike most of that, which is a big hike for us. The weather does not look bad, but that night was very windy, and was one of our worst camps. The tent started to lift off the ground and Sarah abandoned ship and fled to the minivan. Slide - winged victory This is a good time to show we have some appreciation for things besides mountains. You might have heard of this statue, the Winged Victory of Samothrace (pic stolen off internet). Well it was unearthed in 1863 on this island. Slide e6 trail OK, enough ancient Greek history, getting back to our trail it took us to the top of the peak here Slide top of peak Actually this point here, even though it has a trig column on it, might be a false summit. A peakbagger knows how crucial it is to step on the very highest rock and always has his sight level handy. Slide - sight level This slide shows the sight level in action (not on Fengari) On Fengari we decided another bump might be higher, and here we are. Slide of us at top Right now Jane is probably wondering WHAT have I got myself into. She cheered up a bit back at the TH, where there are nice hot springs. For our last mountain in the show we will cover mighty Mount Olympus, a vendetta peak for me. Slide view of north peak. I'd tried it in 1990 and ended up lost at some bump in the clouds. Olympus is quite a bit different from the other Ultras we visited: 1. It gets much, much more visitors. 2. You can't bush camp in tents at the trailhead. 3. There is 6000 feet elevation gain. 4. It requires some scrambling in cliffy terrain. 5. It is about 10 miles from the sea, and frequently clouds up early in the day. Slide refuge There is one trick to beat the clouds - stay at this refuge, which we did. Then you can pack lightly, as they have blankets, food and water at the refuge. You do need to make reservations in advance - we did this the preceding day. Slide - early morning On summit day at end of June this was our view of the peak from the refuge. No clouds, and almost all snow gone. The route involves traversing through these cliffs. Just weeks before a climber had slipped on snow here and died. Slide - west side cliffs This is our view of the west side cliffs later that day. The triangular high point has people on it, and clouds are coming in. Luckily we don't have to climb this side. Slide - bottom climbing This is the easier side, and although there are plenty of holds the terrain is quite steep for a long distance below, so it is easy for folks scared of heights to get spooked. Did I mention that Sarah is scared of heights ? Here she is demonstrating the 5 points of contact on 3rd class terrain technique. Slide summit In any case after some pep talks from Jane, Sarah was able to make the top. To finish this talk I'd like to discuss some tips for visiting Greece and Europe in general. Slide cliff dive To get there you are likely going to fly, though a bit more comfortably than these guys. Slide great circle route Your plane will take a great circle route, and pass near London. Paris, Rome on the way to Greece. This can be handy if you want to see other places - for example we did this in Ireland. Slide - Greek drivers By far the scariest part of Greek peakbagging for me is the driving. Greek drivers have been described as Anarchists in a hurry. When one of these manic tailgaters is behind me I'll pull over and let them by. Sometimes they zip by and turn off in the very next driveway, which is always good for a laugh from my co-pilot. And my other driving tip is if at all possible avoid big city centers like downtown Athens. Slide - Goats Once you leave the big city you can encounter unusual items on the road. Sarah's favorite souvenir is a bell that fell off one of these critters. We brought it for show and tell. The roads can be quite narrow in places. Slide - narrow road And the mountain roads can be quite narrow as well. Slide Mountain road. In fact that is what scares me the most. Driving up some narrow mountain road with limited visibility ahead. Some local comes speeding down the mountain and you pray that you can pull over enough to let him by whiz by, without running off the road yourself. Greeks erect small shrines by the roadside to commemorate lives lost, or in some cases lives saved in a bad accident. Slide Kandilakia While this one was located near a summit, it gives an idea what they look like. Well, enough nightmares, on to shopping Slide LiDL We tried several grocery chains in Greece, but this was my favorite. Of course I like Wal Marts so you might want something more upscale. In these stores I make a beeline for the bakery and load up on spinach pie - spanikopita. It is inexpensive and will keep unrefrigerated for a couple days. No more sardine sandwiches for lunch. Slide Giros For fast food you are not going to find any chains, but the Giros shops & vendors are inexpensive (sorry vegetarians) And that wraps up our show - any questions ? Slide - Sarah & Jane