routes.gr

To whom it may concern,

I would like to ask to You with question about route presented on the photo. This is left rib of southern wall Kouvelos in Parnassos massif. This route has been climbed by my colleagues: Jerzy Pepol and Tadeusz Skupniewicz 12 VIII 1976, difficulties V (UIAA), length of route: about 700 m.

Link to the photo of wall with the route mentioned:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ej ... directlink

The route seems to cover route more or less No 2 at the photo of southern wall of Kouvelos available via the following links (if wall presented at the both photographs is the same):

http://www.routes.gr/?Lang=el&Page=Clim ... s-Kouvelos

or

http://www.routes.gr/?Lang=en&Page=Clim ... s-Kouvelos

The crag of Kouvelos in Parnassos, is located here: Kouvelos

The crag visible at the photo made by Jerzy Pepol is probably 1,5Km SW from the main crag (point A in the map is the main crag).

Was this route new at the datum mentioned?

With best regards

Piotr Minkiewicz
Olsztyn, Poland


Ps. I would like to thank Dimitris Mavropoulos for information received to date.

Some corrections/additions to the above:
1) I think the photo has nothing to do with main crag of Kouvelos and routes Nr 1 - 2
2) If it represents a section of Kouvelos, it must be somewhere to the west
3) Piotr mentioned in his mail that the climbers were climbing in "Papadolaka" of Parnassos

I will try to find in my records some panoramic views of Kouvelos, with all sections, not only the main crag and publish them in order to find were this "Papadolaka" is located. But we are not sure if it is in Kouvelos.

I respond on behalf of Dimitris who is currenlty unable to access the forum.

In the picture below you can see a panoramic view of the whole Kouvelos face:
Kouvelos face

The main face (shown on http://www.routes.gr/?Lang=el&Page=Clim ... s-Kouvelos) is the one included in the red frame . Climbing activity has also been recorded on the left side

Following the instructions of Chr. Belogiannis and G. Voutyropoulos, and using Google Earth in conjunction with Parnassos' map, we publish the following image which shows:
- Kouvelos main crag in yellow
- Mavra Litharia peak in blue
- Papadolaka in green
- The place we are looking for (were the Polish route resides?) in red.

The peak above the Polish route is Petritis (1923m) and belongs to a long south-east face which is called Neromana. Two Greek climbers, G. Michailidis and N. Vasilakis were the first to climb a route there, on 1963, but we are not sure if the Polish route is the same, since the photo in the book "Ta vouna tis Roumelis" were we found the information is printed in low resolution.

Is there any other opinion?

And this must be the exact location: Polish route in Google Maps

After correspondence with Dimitris I can say that two routes climbed by my colleagues from Olsztyn, Poland in Parnassos massif in 1976 appear to be new.

First of them is the route at southern wall of Petritis mentioned in previous posts:

[/img]

Fig. 1. Scheme of route at southern wall of Petritis by Jerzy Pepol and Taedusz Skupniewicz, 12.08.1976, V-. Drawn by Jerzy Pepol

The second one has been climbed at southern wall of Kouvelos (main crag). Link to the photo of this wall is placed by Dimitris in one of previous posts. The route covers probably route no 12, named Sfyri tou Ton from 1999. The ascent mentioned in guide would be thus first classic, with new variants. My colleagues have found old piton in 1976, but there is no published information about earlier climbs or attempts at this route.

[/img]

Fig. 2. Scheme of the route at southern wall of Kouvelos climbed by Jerzy Pepol, Tadeusz Skupniewicz and Jerzy Truchanowicz, 15-16.08.1976, V, A1. Drawn by Jerzy Pepol


Thank You for help Dimitris.

If both routes are really new I would like to add author's proposal of names:

Petritis - route "Meeting with Parnassos"

Kouvelos - route "Night Bells"

It's English version. How is it in Hellenic?

I would say, although they do not sound very well in Greek:

For Petritis

"Sinantissi me ton Parnasso"

or

"Parnassou Sinantissis"

and for Kouvelos

"Koudounia tis Nihtas"

or

"Nihterina koudounia"

Thank You

Piotr

After discussion I can add that there was difficult to establish univocally which fragments in lower parts of routes "Nyxterines kampanes" (version of name given by Dimitris) and "Sfyri tou Ton" overlap and which are separate. Both routes will be thus presented as as separate items, but with annotation about possibility of overlap in lower parts.