The Mountains of Greece - Trekking in the Pindhos Mountains

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Updates
• Reviews
• Further Reading

View Sample Route Map

Route 2 - Ascent of Piramídha (2507m) from Víniani (500m) via Reká ravine

---

Walking time: 7hrs 30mins
Distance: 16km
Waymarks: None
Height gain: 2007m
Height loss: 0m
Difficulty: 3

---

This is the classic ascent route and the first part of the traverse. It is very much neglected nowadays – wrongly, in my view, for it is a wonderful route – in favour of the more accessible and shorter northern approaches. Immediate access is from Víniani. The Reká ravine begins barely 1km from the village. On foot it can be reached either by the E4 link from Parnasós via Km51 (see end of Route 1) or, following the road, from Ámfissa via the village of Prosílio. The most convenient approach is by taxi from Ámfissa.

The only reliable source of water before the refuge is the spring at Mílos about 2hrs into the ravine.

Head out of Vínianí along the road in a northwesterly direction. Where the riverside meadow ends the ravine begins (20mins); you cannot mistake it. The gravelly, dry bed of the river fills it from side to side. Occasional red paint marks show the way, although there is no real need as the ravine guides you for the next 4hr. Soon you are enclosed within a narrow trench some 300–400m deep. Trees and shrubs lean out precariously from the nearly sheer walls. It is hard going, with the loose gravel shifting under your feet. The ravine twists and turns, climbing all the time. You realise how quickly you have been gaining height by the presence of firs right down at the edge of the riverbed.

After about 2hrs (2hrs 20mins), and just after a series of bends, the ravine opens out a little, with a terrace of flat firm ground on the R for the first time, with fir trees growing along it. Some 20mins later you come to a wide bowl-shaped opening in the ravine, with a narrow wooded defile ahead and a steep tributary gully running down off the heights R (campsite). The main riverbed swings sharply L. There are the remains of a watermill; this is Mílos – the mill. A spring about 100m to the R above the path feeds a rusty metal pipe visible in the ravine. There is a large red tap symbol painted on a cement block, but it cannot quite be seen from the path.

The path is clear here, running along the top of a low retaining wall. Follow it into the defile ahead, keeping to the R bank. At the further end (2hrs 45mins), cross to the L side of the gully and zigzag steeply up an open stony slope. At the top it levels out and you find yourself once more trudging along the gravelly riverbed under the firs. About 50mins later (3hrs 35mins) there is a great red cliff L, dripping with water and verdant with hanging plants. Clamber up the scree to its base and you will find plenty of water (at least until early summer).

About 20mins beyond the red cliff (4hrs) emerge from the shade of the firs into a wide sunny place where the sides of the ravine at last recede. Here is the first glimpse of the summit ridge of Ghióna, a long grey wall of rock towering ahead, jagged with numerous peaks over 2300m. To the L (south) of this line of peaks – and standing somewhat apart – is the tower-like peak of Profítis Ilías (2298m). The riverbed here describes a substantial curve to the L. On the R of this bend is a hard flat terrace, where a stream debouches from a narrow wooded gully. Do not continue up the main river. The path for the Ghióna refuge climbs up the spine of the wooded spur dividing the course of the main river from the new tributary gully, pretty well bisecting the angle of junction (1535m).

The path strays a bit L and R of the spine of the spur. A 20min climb (4hrs 20mins) brings you out above the treeline in a patch of meadow, where a clear path bears R (north), keeping close to the treeline all along the base of the summit ridge. The pink-roofed refuge is in view all the way, reached in about an hour (5hrs 20mins; 1750m). There is a separate hut next to it where you can shelter, and water in the gully just above the refuge. The area is known as Láka Karvoúni.

Above the refuge, the summit ridge rises to its highest point in the Piramídha peak (2507m), before dropping to the north into the col of Skasmádha (to dheeyáselo tees skasmádhas), then curving round to terminate in the lower peak of Plativoúna. These two peaks and the col together enfold the corrie or láka which lies directly behind the refuge.

From the refuge, head north up the streambed and then up the grassy lower slopes of Plativoúna towards the crags at its RH edge (5hrs 55mins). There you pick up a path which takes you up L across the screes below the crags past tall jagged outcrops to the Skasmádha col (6hrs 35mins; 2180m).

Another path climbs just east of north to the col below the east flank of Plativoúna in 45mins and thence down through the sheepfold at Kritharólaka. It cuts across the track to Kaloskopí, touching it again at its easternmost loop and joining up with the path described under Route 3 below close to the spring of Kría Vrísi (1hr 40mins).

From Skasmádha bear quite sharply L or west, then southwest, climbing steadily up a rocky slope to hit the ridgeline just south of the summit (7hrs 30mins; 2507m). The view is superb, with Mt Íti to the north, the distinctive conical shape of Mt Veloúkhi far off to the northwest and the heights of Ágrafa beyond, the merest fudge of blue at this distance. To the west you look sheer down into the deep valley of the Mórnos river with the long craggy ridge of the Vardhoúsia massif opposite.
To continue from Skasmádha towards Sikiá or down towards Kaloskopí, reverse Routes 3 and 4 below.