Plug and Play - Leonidio - Greece

 Greece, it has a couple of great things, the people and the oranges.
And, above that, all the great climbing spots!
If you want to go to a friendly and relaxed country, this is it! The hospitality of the Greece people is just stunning and you will have a chance to make life time friends everywhere, if you want.
Maybe one reason is the good weather and the great food. Because here you don't need to starve of walk back hungry from the restaurant. Not the best way to keep the sport climbing shape though, but you will climb happy!!

The Greek Cuisine, very tasty!

Of all the climbing destinations in Greece, Leonidio is not the most unknown for sure. But the area is huge and most of the time you can find good quiet spots and sectors. As long as you avoid the sector of Mars, specially on the week-ends.
And, if you chose to go on the multi pitch routes, you will most likely be way alone with your rope partner.

Once in Leonidio, there is really no need of a car if you just climb on the walls above the town/village. For the other sectors and areas as Kyparissi, it is needed though.
But, there is a bus from Athens to Leonidio, so check it out before. It might be the best choice.
Because renting a car in Greece may be cheap, but take care of which company you rent from. These guys can be very "un-Greeky"

After a few days of cragging up on 30-50m routes, singel pitch climbing, we quite soon got a bit freaked out and wanted some real climbing on a bigger multi pitch route.
The following day we headed for the classic, Aghios Lemmy, a Mötorhead honor route for mr Lemmy. And a really pleasant climb up solid rock over 8 pitches. Which you easily can link a couple of together.
The neighbor "Tanaïs" is a bit harder but also a super nice climb, not to be missed!

Plug and Play, hard to miss!

After these two warm up climbs we looked up a somewhat older route on the wall of Kokkinovrachos, Plug & Play. A 180m, 7 pitch route straight up in the middle of the big wall above town. Looked like a great day out. A good choice since its a pure south face and on this day with quite a few clouds, perfect!
A 30 minutes walk from the apartment took us to the base of the face. It is easy to find since there is signs! and the flag on the top makes a good sign post.

A real sport climber belay!!

The first 6b pitch is already this a very nice climb. And a bit more old style graded.

Pitch two, 7a+, goes over a vertical wall with nice and sharp holds always on good quality.
For the next pitches to follow it is the whole time on steep rock and very enjoyable climbing. Sue friction since not so many has climbed it, and a bit of distance between the bolts so it doesn't feel to much like a "holiday route"
As always on a longer route there is some parts whit lower quality and in this case the last pitch is more of a "just getting to the top" cause it has to be there. But, the views are just brilliant overlooking the whole area.


And with a bit of luck, you might see any of the locals around as well on the approach!

(An other route not to be missed on this sector is "Saïme" a 4 pitch route on very interesting climbing!)

One of the greatest meetings!

Area
Leonidio - Kokkinovrachos

Topo

Equipment
2x50m rope
13 QD´s
2-3 carabiners for the belays
Rappel the route

(in general for the area, a minimum of 70m rope is needed, many times a 100m rope makes the routes easier. In sectors like Jupiter the routes are up to 50 or even 60m, if you climb the extension

One really sad thing with Greece is all the rubbish that are thrown, everywhere!
So make sure to bring some bags and collect!

// Happy climbing