kirklees climbing

THE PELOPONNESE

Sport Climbing in the Peloponnese: An introduction

In the European summer, most sport climbers head for the cooler, higher, and perhaps north-facing crags... to Briancon or the north west of Spain. But Greece? Surely not a sane choice! However, contrary to good sense, it is possible to enjoy good climbing conditions amidst the obvious advantages of a glorious Mediterranean climate.

The place to look is that large lump of Greece which hangs down, literally severed by the Corinth Canal, from the rest of the mainland. This mountainous region is the Peloponnese, the original Greece, the home of the Spartans, the hearth of the Mycenaen culture. Amidst this wilderness, splattered with world famous artefacts, lie three separate and little known climbing areas. These are:

The hard-climbers' mecca is located in the west, close to the city of Patras. Here are caves of a very steep variety, tufa and snakes in abundance. Details can be found on Aris Thanopoulos' excellent web site to climbing in the Patras Area
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There is some sport climbing in the south at Langada in the wild Taigetos mountains. This is in the pass of Langada, not the coastal village. The excellent little guidebook, Rock Climbing in Langada, can probably be picked up locally as climbing development seemed to be being sponsored as part of the region's economic development.
The beautiful Argolid peninsula in the east of the Peloponnese has been extensively developed by Jim Titt and friends. Some details can be found on the Oreivatein web site run by Aris Theodoropoulos. However, for more up-to-date information, contact Jim direct for a copy of his guidebook to the Argolid. Very recently, Aris and Co have made some very interesting developments at Nafplio which look well worth checking out.

There are other sport climbing areas in Greece including the famous conglomerate Meteora (access problems at the moment - check on the Oreivatein site) and at the developments around the traditional limestone area of Varassova (see the Patras Area site). The latter area has a guidebook to its trad climbing and can be bought in some British climbing shops.

Everyone will of course now know about the island climbing paradise of Kalymnos; however climbing is now developing on other islands including Rhodes ( which appears to be sponsored by local tourism) and Crete (with a guidebook now available via the internet).

On the mainland, serious sport climbing is springing up around Trikkala (which lies immediately south of Meteora).

The German/English guidebook, Hellas, published more recently, now carries information to most Greek crags.

Unfortunately most of the 'mainland' places are hot (ie very hot) in summer whereas it is quite feasible to climb on the Argolid all through the year owing to either height, aspect or, in some instance, owing to the fact that some of the climbs are underground! The Argolid is one of the driest parts of mainland Greece (although by no means as arid-looking as equivalent parts of Spain) and winters at sea level are quite mild.

Next: Details of the Argolis and the crags at Didyma.

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