In mid-January, Andreas Parparinos and I climbed many new routes on the amazing south face of Timichcha (1,972m), which is clustered with large buttresses and towers.

In the town of Ighrem we found a very basic room to make our base camp. On January 10 we went to Timichcha and climbed the first new route, taking a crack system on the left hand side of Buttress No. 2: First One (110m, HS 4c). The next day we climbed the right hand side of Buttress No. 2: Cyprus Kourkoutas (140m, VS 4c). After descending we quickly climbed up the east ridge of Tower No. 3. On January 12 we drove north of Ighrem to Ait Makhlouf (1,686m) and climbed the far left side of the east face (150m, S 4b). On January 13 we returned to Timichcha and climbed crack systems on the right side of Buttress No. 3: Cyprus Monkeys (160m, HVS 5b). On January 14 we climbed Tower No. 1 up cracks in the center: Xaloumi Crack (80m, VS 5a). And on our final day we climbed Big Tower by cracks and chimneys on the left side, which provided a great adventure: Kerasaki sti Tourta (150m, E1 5c).

We numbered features on the Timichcha massif starting from the left as you look at them from the main road coming from Ighrem. The rock is generally good and is ideal for ground-up traditional climbing, with many good cracks. We did not place any pitons or bolts, and I suggest future climbers help to keep this magical place “clean.” In January it was cold at night but pleasant during the day. It seems to always be windy.

Constantinos Andreou, Cyprus