Pangeo mountain has 40Km length and 20Km width and it stands alone, between the prefectures of Kavala and Serres. Its dense and green forests are starting from a fairly low altitude and consist of oaks, beeches, chestnuts and firs. At its foot, lost in nature, there are very beautiful small and picturesque villages that offer rest and tranquility to the visitor.
The mountain has four peaks and the highest is called Mati (1956m). Our goal is the climb to Avgo summit which although it is the lowest (1835m) is the most beautiful and the one with the best view. It is approached by several routes from almost all sides of the mountain, but the shortest is from the southeast and the village of Akrovouni because there is a road that takes you to the old ski resort (no longer works) and the plateau of the peaks. From Thessaloniki we go to Kavala and we take the exit to Eleftheroupoli. The first village we meet after the exit is Akrovouni. From there we follow the road signs for “Forest Village” or “Ski center”
USEFUL INFORMATION
Distance from Thessaloniki: 134 km
Toll: 5,10 €
European Number of Emergency: 112
Fire Brigade Dept: 199
Medical Emergency: 166
Kavala Mountaineering Club: phone 2513007492 www.eoskavlas.gr
Avgo Summit (south face) (1863m) , Pangeo Mountain
Route Information
Description: Hiking (1st part) trekking (2nd part)
Difficulty: Easy at the 1st part, demanding at the 2nd part.
Route Length: 5,7 km
Water in route: Yes.( In the 1st part)
Duration: 2 hours and 52 minutes. (Ascent with stops)
The route took place at APR 2022
Team members: 11 adults
We were here in Akrovouni some years ago when we had organized a climb to the North face of Avgo summit. At that time there were no signs indicating the road to the mountain. But now fortunately there are. So we follow them driving up to the “Forestry cabins” which is the place where our hiking will begin. The road is good at the beginning but as we go up it gets quite bad. Compared to our previous visit it is almost abandoned, quite narrow so that in some places two cars cannot pass together and it also has large holes. So you need to be very careful especially if you have a conventional car and not a SUV.
From the village the snake shape road leads us slowly to higher altitude. Right and left we admire the beauty of nature. Now we are in the heart of the mountain and the sun rays hardly reach us through the dense forest. At about 16 km and an altitude of 1200m, we see in our right hand a large plateau and a wooden house, while little further other roofs are standing out. We are in “Forestry cabins” and this is the place where we will park our cars and start the hiking. Unfortunately the situation of the place has not changed at all since the last time we were here. This wonderful place with its 7 wooden cabins, like a small village, is completely abandoned and almost ruined. We park our cars, we load the backpacks, we take the necessary photos and we are ready to start our hike.
The first part of the route is the easiest one. It does not have large inclinations and altitude differences and it is the road that continues from “Forestry cabins” and goes up to the “valley of Orpheus”. This is the name of the plateau that is in the heart of the mountain and is surrounded by its 4 peaks. We will go up to the refuge of EOS Kavalas “Argyris Petaloudas” (1514m) where our first stop is. There is no path through the forest and as much as we wanted to carve one, the time we need for the summit is pressing us. So we prefer the safety of the road. The road that has nothing to envy from the path since it climbs through the wonderful forest gaining height smoothly. We walk in a sea of oaks and beeches. About the middle of the route to the refuge, we meet the first snow.
Forgotten by the heavy winter, it covers the sunless places. A little further we meet a fountain and it is a good opportunity to fill our flasks. The landscape is starting to change as we go up and the firs are now dominating the forest. We have walked for about 1 hour and 4 km when we reach the refuge, where we are having a pleasant meeting with members of the Greek Rescue Team who had come up here for training.
The view from the refuge is fantastic. The forest is deep green all around us and in front of us, in an one an only opening, like a window in nature, we can see the whole Strymonikos gulf. We rest for a while trying to regain strength because the hard part of the route is in front of us.
The second and most difficult part of the route starts behind the refuge. There it is the beginning of the path that goes to the summit. Our course is north as it goes through the dense fir forest. The snow and the fallen trees make our way a little bit hard in several places. But the path leads you by itself and you can hardly get lost. At about 400m we come out of the forest to the alpine zone and the imposing view of the peak and its majestic south face is revealed in front of us.
We continue on the path that in a while meets a forest road. The road goes around the east side of the summit cone and ends at its northern foot. Since we want to climb the south face, we take advantage of the road, walking on it a little bit more, just to find a better climbing field and then we go cross. There is no path anymore and the ascent is free. The peak is above us and we traverse east trying to find a better way to continue the climb. The inclination has now begun to increase. This situation, as well as the low dense vegetation of hardy shrubs, is confusing our steps and delays us significantly. We continue to climb and the view becomes more and more imposing. As we said at the beginning, the mountain stands alone without bordering any other mountains. So the view offered by its ascent is unique, like the view from an airplane. After several traverses we are reaching the middle of the summit route. We stand on a natural rocky balcony to relax for a while.
Below we can see all the coasts of Eastern Macedonia from Halkidiki to Kavala and in front of us there are the islands of Thasos and Samothraki, Mount Athos and the whole Aegean Sea. We start to climb again. The inclination is now quite steep and we are continuing with slow steps to our goal. Overcoming in a while the last difficult meters, we can see now the edge of the metal cross (landmark of Avgo summit) and the small cement column that marks the altitude. We are at the summit after approx little less than 2h. From here we can see almost everything. Thasos island in the south, Halkidiki in southwest, Mt Athos and the mouth of Strymonas River.
At the east there is the bay of Kavala and the plains of Eastern Macedonia. At north there is the town of Drama, Mt Falakro and almost the whole plain of Serres with Mt Orvilos in the background. Admiring that kind of view we remembered the lyrics of a song “When you look the earth from above it looks like a painting” and whatever we write cannot describe the beauty of the images that we are looking at. We are resting for a while, we take the necessary photos and we start our descent from the same route going first to the refuge and then back to the “Forestry cabins”.
In conclusion, having climbed the north (older trek) and also the south face of Avgo summit, we would say that the south face is much more hard and if the climb is done in winter time there will be the need of extra mountaineering equipment.
Our day ended beautifully, recalling the moments we lived, in the town of Eleftheroupoli, where we made a small detour for the “traditional feast”, before returning to our home town, Thessaloniki.