We'll meet in that Greek place!!

Ok, so the title is really unrelated to the rest of the post but it made me laugh. A text just now from Barry, “So, 730 Greek place suit yas?” It made me giggle!! Of course, I knew exactly what he meant and replied “Yup, sounds good”, but afterwards thinking, aren't we in Greece, aren't most places Greek?? 

Beautiful evening glow!!

After a very chilled out (slightly too chilled out - with all my books finished, not much else to do in Masouri when its too cold to go swimming) rest day we headed up to a newish sector called Kalydna. The routes were sharp and uncomfortable. I chose the first pitch of “Fragment” to start the day off. An easy 5c? Hmm, maybe it was easy moves, but it was fairly full on, sharp and very run out all the way to the top. This we followed with "Late Evening Light", a 6a+, actually had a really nice top section, sweet moves onto a short tufa to the chains, but it was hard to forget the pain of going through the sharp crozelly mush that was the bottom of the route. 

With bad weather comes beautiful light afterwards

After we succeeded on these two routes, it was a fairly unanimous agreement to head to Panorama, where we got on a sweet 6c, Neptune KL, only one star in the book, but we both thought it was great! Andrew onsighted it in style, his first 6c onsight. I managed to get about two thirds of the way up on the onsight attempt, but got pumped out. I managed to finish the rest of the route, though taking a couple of rests. I had a second attempt on top rope to work the moves, but at that point I was tired and the sun was coming onto the crag. 

Sunset over Telendos

We came back the next day with the intention of getting back on that route. We started with a warm up 6a Eureka, it was ok, but a little sharp (maybe my girly fingers are giving up on me). This we followed with a cracking 6b "Uncle Ernie" which we both got onsight. Since "Neptune KL" was occupied we decided to try our hand at "Gwundernase", a 6c described as an excellent wall climb with tufa blobs. That it is. Andrew held it together and got it onsight, 6c number two. I managed to get to the fourth clip, down climbed to the ground, had a rest and then headed up again, only to fall at the fourth clip anyway, bummer. It took me quite a while to work that section out, very thin crimps on crozzelly rock, up to an undercut and a sidepull. Eventually I worked it out, and continued to the chains, another route to come back too with some fresh energy. We finished the day on Lothar Scie, a sweet 6b+ that I should have onsighted but I just had no energy at that stage.

Eoin Kennedy in Panarama

So, I felt my energy levels were waning and it was midpoint in our time in Kalymnos, so we opted for a two day rest day. Heading to Kos town for the first and the second just chilling out in Massouri. Kos town is nice place to spend an afternoon, though after a few hours you've seen it all. Cool castle and old roman ruins though. 

Sights of KOS

We woke Thursday to a very stormy, very wet morning. A cloud covered crag and not an end to the dismal weather in sight. A chilled out coffee for the morning, we thought we'd re-evaluate the situation in the afternoon. Still raining at about 3 o'clock, I'd given up for the day, but then the sun came out and all the boys were itching to go up. Hmmm, a stormy swim on the beach would have suited my just fine, but hey!! So at about 4pm we headed up to Panorama, the gods, they really must have been with me that day, as I hopped onto one of my 6c projects "Gwundernasse" as a warm up and managed to flash it. This also was the second attempt on the route. We then decided to go try our hand at "Cyclops", another supposedly 3-star 6c, but the spaced bolts on the upward trending traverse freaked me out a little, I did, however, managed to lead it, but I can't say either clean or graceful.

Barry O'Dwyer on Neptune KL in Panarama (6c)

Andrew on Uncle Ernie in Panarama (6b)

Back to Panorama the following morning, but my head wasn't in it - this was not helped by the rather large amount of red wine the night before or that all night the crag was sitting in a mist of cloud, and although it looked dry, the tufas were muggy and damp. I top-roped "Neptune KL" my other 6c project, and I was not a happy camper on it to say the least, slipping and sliding all over the place, I even managed to pull off a rather large hold. I somehow managed to keep hold of the piece of rock, but being 10 meters up I wasn't sure what to do it - I ended up chucking into a clearing and watched it bounce a good ways down the hill (don't worry we checked for random passersby - no one was in the firing line). That whole experience didn't do much for the confidence. I'm not even sure if I want to go back and redpoint it. 

Unknown climber on Agealus in Granda Grotta

Odyssey was the choice of venue today, we warmed up on a route we'd done previously and then attempted a 6c, one that looked fairly vertical - bad choice for Carole as there was a horrendous reach 2 bolts from the chains, there was no way for me to do it with out dino'ing or something. My little arms just didn't have the strength for that on the ground let alone 20 meters up. From there we hit "Dionysos", a 7a I'd my eye on after watching a couple of people one. I managed to lead it all the way to the chain, with a number of rests. I then top-roped it again (need stamina for this one) and did it in fewer sections. Its a great route, I wonder will I have the stamina to do it though... it get rather steep at the finish. I'll definitely keep trying it a few more times. 

Thanks to Barry, a couple of climbing shots of me, working Dionysos 7a in Odyssey