In the inevitable roller-coaster of weather, we’ve now reached the 20C tipping point where it’s actually more comfortable climbing in the shade. With Max-temp Leonidio arriving, coinciding with a rest-day for Helen, it was time to launch a mission to explore Jupiter. While this sector had been developed at the time of our last visit, the only approach at that point was a gruelling trudge up past Mars (30mins seems pretty optimistic) – combine that with the shady aspect and the fact it doesn’t really get going until 6c and I’d never had the heart (or temerity!) to try to persuade Helen along. The game-changer is the new approach from parking above the crag, accessed from the Vaskina road (watch out for the tortoise crossing!)

From here, a 5mins walk brings a view of this stupendous crag.

It’s still a bit of a steep, scrambling path down to the foot of the crag, but you’re looking at 15mins max. It’s obviously the place to be as there are at least half a dozen other teams. If you are into 40m routes, on vertical tufa and pocket-strewn rock, then this is your dream crag. The sweet spot is 6c/7a+ with 36 of the 46 routes falling into that range. Jupiter could logically be twinned with another RockAroundTheWorld favourite: Tierra de Nadie.

Tierra de Nadie – Welcome to No Man’s Land

… spot the similarities:

There are just a smattering of 6bs on the right hand side, but they’re a bit scrappy when compared with the grand offerings, so in complete disregard for received wisdom I decided to warm-up on The World is Yours, 7a. Interesting traddy climbing which I almost onsighted bar a sneaky cheat to clip.

Yorgos Bogos, 7a, gets a 4* write up and is a full rope-stretcher, with contrasting sections through the orange and grey bands and a couple of hands-off rests between testing bits.

… Gotta take them when they come!

The quirkily named “I’d Even Grow a Moustache for You…”, 6c+ or 7a depending on guide, is a bit shorter but really packs a couple of punches through tufa bulges, leaving an ambush and potential heartbreak for the last 10ft to the chain – some outside-the-box beta saved the day. Lowering off, I was totally spent, but then the greedy guzzler in my head whispered “just one more”. Amiral is a 25m 6c with a 7a extension, but my eyes were way bigger than my biceps on this occasion and I was very lucky to make it to the first loweroff. Still, not a bad day and SO MUCH to come back for!

Arguably, the perfect crag orientation around the 20C mark is east or south east, with the morning sun gently taking the chill off the rock before afternoon shade stops it turning into a sweat-fest, and Arcadia about 40mins north of Leonidio, fitted the bill.

With a leisurely start it was only the routes on the far left of the crag that were still catching the rays around noon, Diakos, 5c …

… and Satyr, 6a, were great warmups – steep and juggy fun!

… and a good opportunity for me to model the latest T-shirt from Climbers Against Cancer, featuring those immortal words translated into a couple of dozen languages to celebrate the fact that CAC brings together the whole worldwide climbing family (did you know that over 80% of the half a million quid that CAC has donated in its ten years has funded projects outside the UK)?

RockAroundTheWorld doesn’t normally do adverts, but you can get yours here: https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/shop/multilingual-t-shirt/ or if you’re outside the UK then search “Climbers Against Cancer” on your local Amazon (.com .fr .de . it etc) and you should find it. Every penny of profit goes to fund cancer research and support for those living with and beyond this disease that affects so many.

Commercial break over – back to the climbing! Now fully in the shade, Bouboulina (a generous 7a from Aris) is a compelling line up a thin orange groove. Just right, Divine Comedy (6b/c) has a STEEP extension (6c+/7b – meet you somewhere in the middle) past the huge hole. Didn’t figure it out first time, but managed second go from the hands-off knee-bar in the hole.

Sangri-La, 5c, is another superb natural line up a traddy groove.

Along with its accommodating orientation and moderate walk-in, this very agreeable crag also has benches at regular intervals along its base. Depending how you feel about cats, there’s also a couple of endearing / annoying (delete as applicable) felines in residence…

… this one even allowed Helen to share its bench, and brought her a lovely bird as a token of its hospitality!

Looking for another east-facing option, we gave Muppet Show a second chance to check out the right hand crag.

… worth it for the excellent Miss Piggy…

… and Kermit the Frog – both 6a, both quite stiff and both with beautifully crafted marker stones.

Here’s an Austrian climber trying to figure out the adjacent Waldorf, 7a. I got stuck around the same spot and decided to abandon the route and the crag in favour of a warmer option – freezing in a stiff north wind.

With the day still young, we wound our way up towards the Elona monestary, seeking warmth and a short walk-in for a second crag of the day. Pomegranate fitted the bill perfectly…

… and I was taken by the line of Spinaki, 7a, that a young German lass was top-roping. The rock needs a bit of care, but the bolting compensates sensibly, and it’s an absolute belter – imagine a 40m Pic Tor E4 before the polish.

The following day I was long overdue a rest, but it wasn’t raining and I’m a glutton for punishment. We settled on an “explore and maybe bag a route or two” agenda to check out the crags along the road to Paleochori, about 12km east of town. There’s a bunch of them!

La Maison des Chevres is mostly going to appeal to the 7c/8a brigade, but I was tempted by Finding Mono, 7a. I found it pretty quickly, but had no great inclination to pull on it (especially from cold). Luckily, a spot of drizzle gave me the excuse to bail, and probably saved the A1 pulley on my left index finger. Le Jardin Publique looks worth a future visit.

No sign of rain further down the valley and we pulled into one of the viewpoints for a late lunch and a bit of a bask. I definitely didn’t fall asleep (despite evidence to the contrary) I was just soaking up the calm amidst the gentle melody of goat bells.

Suitably refreshed the next day, we set off to explore Agios Andreas, just beyond Arcadia. It’s another beautiful spot, with a fine mix of grades from 5s to 7s. Another short approach and a complementary NE orientation to its neighbour means that you could potentially chase either shade or sun with a two-crag combo.

Helen was less than impressed with Dirty Harry, but we both thought that Fire, 6b+

… and Paradise City, 6a, were among the best routes of those grades we’d done on the trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two routes either side of the huge roof. Scarface, to the right, would require a very myopic approach to warrant 7a+, but the lower grey wall has a couple of thin cruxes. Nomad, on the left, warms you up with a tufa tussle to a rest beneath the roof before battle commences with a zigzag crack befitting of a 3* Pembroke E4. Stupendous and another route-of-the-trip contender.

With one final toasty day forecasted before the weather cr@ps out, we went in search of shade again – a bit too successfully as we ended up freezing on a breezy and hazy Frankenstine. Zaijian, a 35m 6b with just 11 bolts felt all too reminiscent of the namesake Frankenjura (you’d be better to lower off the neighbouring Juar at half height and save the top half as a more logical extension to Gudsi).

The weather-front had obviously arrived a bit ahead of schedule, and we should have been seeking Hot Rock rather than shade. Cue a revisit to the sector of that name and a grey-point of the eponymous route.

What a brilliant line, where grey crimps give way to orange tufa nubbins, and there’s barely just enough of either to keep you on the rock. The only thing that came back to me about my previous ascent was the relief in grabbing the thank-God hold at the top.

By way of a final route before bidding farewell (or surely au revoir) to Leonidio, we decided to do the excellent Kurz, a “short”(ish) 20m 6a on the left side of the wall. Around the 20m mark there was the telltale sign of a bolt stub and no loweroff. It belatedly occurred to me that I should have taken more notice of the smallprint at the foot of the route.

The meaning was clearly “now a 40m route” rather than “now has an extension”. Hey ho – despite only having 4 draws I pressed on for the further 20m, which turned out to be quite harrowing – there’s a lot of loose rock still kicking about up there. It might be a future classic in the making, but meanwhile be warned!

We arrived in Leonidio intending to stay a week or maybe two, and have ended up tearing ourselves away after three. Despite climbing on a couple of dozen sectors (in addition to a similar number we didn’t revisit from previous trips) there are still crags we haven’t touched, and of course thousands more routes to go at. We arrived with trepidation, concerned that it might have changed for the worse, and it’s certainly getting busier, but in my opinion it’s still a totally fabulous climbing destination – genuinely world-class (as demonstrated by the increasingly multinational array of visitors). If I had one wish it would be to encourage the encampment of van-dwellers clogging the streets to make use of the excellent Camping Semeli instead of pi$$ing off the otherwise generally welcoming townsfolk. £15 a night is a modest sum compared to the cost of getting your van down to the bottom of the Peloponnese (just don’t baggsy our favourite spot!)