Comments on: Locked Down on Varasova Mountain https://climbgreece.com/locked-down-on-varasova-mountain/ Rock Climbing in Greece, Greece Sport Climbing Guidebook, Greece Climbing News Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:42:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Harry Slater https://climbgreece.com/locked-down-on-varasova-mountain/#comment-2554 Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:42:52 +0000 https://climbgreece.com/?p=10140#comment-2554 In the middle of a very hot week, we noticed our first cloudy day in Greece was when we were in Varasova…and we thought we’d have to give this a go! This article was very helpful when we were prepping, so thank you.

We checked out the approach the afternoon before as we knew we’d be doing it in the dark and didn’t want to waste time trying to find the base of the climb.

Day of the climb we set off from the car just before 6am and were climbing by 6.40am just as it was light enough to go without head torches. We went as fast as we could and go to the terrace at 10:15am.

Finding the second half of the climb was fine (stay slightly to the right), but took longer than the 20 minutes described in the book. I agree with George’s comments on the difficulty…pitch 13 harder than 6B, not 7A, pitch 15 hard for 6A+. We got to the top at 3:45pm.

All bolts were in very good condition, and pretty close together on all harder sections. There were run outs on the easier parts, but we always felt safe. The book says 14 qds, but there was at least one pitch where you’d need 16 if you clipped all the bolts.

The descent even in broad daylight with I think what must be repainted red markers everywhere (they are currently a lot more visible than in the photo in the article) was harder than we were expecting! Tricky underfoot, steep and a long way. It took us over 2 and a half hours…we weren’t rushing, but we also weren’t taking our time. Back at the car at 6.30pm, so about 12.5 hour round trip.

Given the current excellent state of the bolting and the descent markers, would thoroughly recommend giving this a go now! As in the article, wait for a cloudy day and set off early 🙂

Thanks again for the helpful article and comment,

Harry

]]> By: George https://climbgreece.com/locked-down-on-varasova-mountain/#comment-2045 Sun, 07 Nov 2021 16:39:06 +0000 https://climbgreece.com/?p=10140#comment-2045 Hello, nice to read your story! It is things like this that stay in memory. I did the Argonauts several years back. I agree that the 7a pitch is more sustained than 6b and some aid. Probably the overall grade is less than 7a but there are several moves with grade more than 6b. The second 6a+ pitch after that is probably harder than the grade given. By the way, I heard that the belay bolts in the first 6b pitch had collapsed because of a storm some years back. Have they been replaced?

Another year my son and I climb the ridge line in Varasova-access by boat-all trad. We started late and arrived late on the top and lost our way down in the dark. The fire truck again arrived to rescue us. They found our phone number and I reassured them that we were OK. We slept on the mountain and next day we came down. We had slept 50m form the path! The firemen check on us as soon as we had arrived at the village. I climbed the ridge one more time since then but we started early this time!

Take care and with more adventures,

George

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