Traumpfeiler (Pillar of Dreams)

This route is a mega classic and a must do if you're climbing the grade. You can expect pitch after pitch of quality steep climbing right to the summit with typical but reasonable runouts for the area. Additional protection is most useful on the crux pitch but you could get by without it if you're feeling solid. And although this route is called 9 pitches it is easy to link any of the pitches. In fact when John and I climbed it we were able to do it in only 4 pitches.

With a 60m rope we linked the first two, then we linked 3 through 5, 6 and 7 and finally 8 and 9 (for a total of 4 pitches). Long runners are useful for this and the rope drag was pretty minimal.

It has been confirmed that you can climb this route with a single 70m rope (the rappel will work out as well).

As of September 2022, this is some info about the different pitches (all bolts are RINGS unless noted otherwise, and every single pitch anchor has 2 rings):

P1: 3 bolts. First bolt is quite a few meters up (see the pictures: one has a blue arrow pointing at it), and then you need to traverse left for a few meters before looking up to find the second bolt.

P2: 4 bolts.

P3: 3 bolts. Its anchor will leave you hanging.

P4: 1 bolt. Getting into the offwidth is cruxy. This anchor also leaves you hanging.

P5: 2 bolts. It might be a good idea to link P3, P4 and P5 to avoid the hanging anchors.

P6: 2 regular bolts (not rings).

P7: 3 bolts. Easiest pitch: you can basically run up.

P8: 3 bolts (1 regular bolt, 2 rings). Wonderful resting spot for a lunch break at the anchor.

P9: 3 bolts (1 regular bolt, 2 rings). You probably want to avoid clipping the second regular bolt (it's another route), go up the flake on the left instead to reach the ring further up. The flake is probably the real crux that sets the grade of the route.

In general, for finding the bolts, you want to follow the path of least resistance. Also worth noting: we had cell service once we reached the second pitch: it greatly facilitated communication.

At the top of the rock, you'll find a sheltered book (with some pens) which people have been signing and leaving testimonies into.

There are 5 anchors for the rappels (first one is only about 12 meters long, others may be linked depending on your rope length), at the South-South-West side of the rock. The very last rappel pitch is apparently a 5.11b: feel free to try the Top Rope, if you still have energy.

Once you hit the ground, you'll be in a little shrine area: head climber's right, down the path, passing a door embedded in the rock, and following handrails.

From ground to ground (climbing up, and rappeling down), this could take anywhere in between 4 and 9 hours, depending on your experience.

Shade beta: if you start at noon, in September, you might be doing pitches 2 to 5 in the sun. If you are confident in your timing, maybe you could delay by an extra hour or two if you are concerned about the sun.

Route begins approximately there: 39.720092, 21.627940 (enter these GPS coordinates on Google Maps to see the point). The first bolt is quite a few meters up high, and approximately 1 or 2 meters to the left of the biggest rock you see on the conglomerate face.

There are two ways to approach: from the North, or the South of the route.

To approach from the North:

Traumpfeiler is located on the north side of the Heiliger Geist formation. The best approach is to park on the main road north of the route at a large pull out below the Ayiou Nikolaou Anapavsa Monastery. From here, walk south around the left side of a crop field on an obvious trail. The trail crosses a dirt road and continues toward the Heiliger Geist. When you start nearing the north end of the formation keep your eyes open for a trail that heads right into the brush and drops into a streambed. A short climb up the other side of this stream bed should put you right at the base of the climb.

To approach from the South:

You can park near the Kastraki village's Memorial Park (https://goo.gl/maps/Z11m9zuGGpjHiAsK9), and then walk toward a little bridge with some potable water station (follow the dried water pathway, up toward the rock formation: https://goo.gl/maps/tXSvHRzb1GkMLQ1H8). Keep walking on the trail, eventually heading up a little gulley separating the two main rock formations. Eventually, if you reach the base of the rock where there is a little metal handrail bar (this is the way up to the little shrine from which you'll walk out when you rappel down from the route), you've gone a few meters too far up the trail and need to trace back to find the trail that was going straight forward.

If there is a large cave with some wood scaffold looking structures in it up to your right then you're in the right spot.

To descend walk south along the top of the Heiliger Geist until you get to the southern end. Look for a single eyebolt to the left (east) that is in an obvious water runoff. Make one single rope rappel (approximately 10 meters long) and one double rope rappel down this water chute to the ground. (Note: I'm almost positive that this could be done with a single 60m rope using intermediate anchors but we didn't try since we had two ropes. It has been confirmed that you can do the rappel with a single 70m rope. In total, after the initial short rappel, there are 4 anchors before the ground). Once on the ground head left (east) past a metal door that goes into a "room" in the rock and follow the obvious trail to town.

To get back to your car follow the roads through town staying right until you get to a dirt road. This should be the same one you crossed when you first started the approach. A mobile application like "AllTrails" could be helpful to orient yourself in the trails.

Bring about 12 quickdraws, a few stoppers in the medium sizes and .5 to 2 Camalot size cams. If you're linking pitches bring more draws, more gear will be useless. All the anchors are large ring bolts and a lot of the protection bolts on the route are the same. A few newer bolts have been added making it more reasonable to leave your cams and stoppers behind if you're feeling confident.