Greece Sept 2007 Write Up

So, just got back from Greece about five hours ago and thought id update you guys with what went on. Everyone had a great time and got plenty of climbing done as well as the occasional drinking session in Club Loca where Richard found out that him and Ouzo don't mix to well him. Ha ha. At least it only took him THREE days to recover from the hangover. Lightweight!!!!

Dave and Rob roping up in Kastelli.

Anyway back to the climbing after a mix up with transport which resulted in a few laughs the highlight of which was when Rob crashed the scooter into a wall why trying to prove to the bloke he could drive it. the guy then resulted in taking out his anger on me as if i was Rob's dad. First class effort by Rob. Nice one. This meant i had a scooter (oh yes) and others shared a car and we headed down to Kastelli to kick off the week with some easy to mid grade climbing. Unfortunately i went into holiday with pulled muscles in my hand so took the first day easy with a few easy climbs which also meant i was able to tick off the whole of that sector which was pretty neat. I also managed to a couple of 6a's which i had not done before. Richard and myself suffered in the heat the first day and found out the hard way that climbing in 40c wasn't much fun. meanwhile Dave and Rob had headed round the corner to a cave to try out a couple of 7b overhanging routes which looked pretty neat. we hooked up with them looking very burnt about an hour into there session. They had met a German guy who had just soloed one of the routes and spent the afternoon climbing with him. we managed to get the saying of the holiday off this guy because every time he made a move and liked it he told us "We must taste it". Brilliant. Li stern out for it at Rev as its quite catchy really.

Next day we decided on a bit of multi pitch climbing and headed to Sector School for a competition. Two routes which run next to each other at the same grade of 5c at a lenght of 125m meant we could split into teams and race up the two lines losing team buying the beers tonight. So Dave and Myself where one team and Rob and Rich the other. Dave and myself got the route called Platon and the other team got kalymnos 2000. Me and rob went first for each team and raced up joining the first and second pitch together and after a little cheating on there side by stealing my line meaning i had to wait for a bit we reached the chains and brought up our partners. Dave and rich led the next two pitches and as i followed i broke off a hold which i still have which scared the hell out of me. If its slightly harder now you can blame me!!!! The race ended with Dave and myself clear winners sitting onto before Rich and Rob. The view was amazing.

Rob and Myself at the top of the multi pitch climb.
Just gotta get back down now!

The next few days were spent climbing at various sectors with Rob and Dave really turning up the heat with some amazing climbing of 6c+ and 7a's. Dave gets the award for the biggest fall at Sector Ghost kitchen with an impressive 8m lob whilst trying to work the moves on an 6c+. Good effort mate. Finally he managed to clip the chains just before night fall. grades kept falling as Dave and Rob tore apart various sectors climbing up to 7a with Rob managing the highest redpoint of 7a. Fantastic work.

Days went past and more sectors were visited with various results and always plenty of laughs out of rich. We were able to hook up with Neil Gresham, one day at sector Oddesy were we had a cool chat and watched him breeze up a 7c. Amazing climbing. We all visited club loca one night with rich getting plastered and riding the back of some guys scooter home and then deciding it was to hot so jumped in the pool!!! We also got introduced to the crazy ways of the local taxi drivers when one decided to crash into the side of our hire car and then laughed, waved at us and drove off. Oh well!!. After eating like kings for the week in every restaurant in town and tearing apart some of the local crags it was time to say goodbye for another few months. Everyone made some great climbs and personal bests were broke.

there are some more photos and videos on the Right of this page. Nice one guys and thanks for a brilliant holiday. Laters.