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Return to Odyssey
Sep. 22nd, 2016 10:35 pmAfter a slightly slow start this morning — some people were clearly still recoverying from the excesses of yesterday's cocktails! — we scootered out to the crag, skipping the usual supermarket stop on the way.
Once up there, Izzy and I were planning to warm up on Mikrotera Kalamarakia but ended doing Haryvdi because it was free. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a total nightmare. Izzy took two goes to get up to the second clip after having serious worries about just how polished the bottom part of the route was. I seconded and confirmed her opinion: the bottom was like glass and without good feet, the second clip felt very exposed.
After the horrors of that, I belayed her on Haryvdi and went off to lead Nausicaa Nausicaa. The long slab route was really charming and enjoyable with good feet and some non-obvious hands. Partway up I encountered someone climbing Mon Amour who seemed to be in a bad position: off her route, without an obvious bolt to clip to, and with a big fall looming if she feel off. It turned out that the person who put the draws in the route had skipped a bolt and she'd got lost as a result, so I clipped her into one of my bolts until she lowered to a safe point, unclipped her, and carried on with my route.
Eve on Nausicaa Nausicaa:
The main aim for the day was to allow Hayley to take a crack at The Beast, which she'd stormed on top rope last year. She warmed up with Imia:
And because the route shares an anchor with The Beast, she was able to put quickdraws in the harder route on her way down. With everything set, she then began her assault on the 7b:
After Hayley redpointed it, Andrew decided to give it a go too:
While this was going on, I seconded a short, very boulder 6b+ with some serious coaching from Tom. The route featured a couple of crossover moves in the middle, which involved shifting from one layback position to another, with a powerful move through a big tufa formation in the middle. It took me a few goes to get, but once I'd cracked the crux, I stormed the last section. Later in the day I was gratified to see a couple of Australians climbing it and making a horrible mess of it — certainly my Newberry-assisted beta was far more elegant — and basically thrashing their way up.
Once I'd finished the 6b+, I gave Imia a crack, making it a fair way up the route before running out of beans. I ended the afternoon with Odisseo, which I quite enjoyed, even though I didn't quite top it but instead interrupted Gav's conversation with Hayley about falling by chucking myself off.
We finished the day in Marci Marc cave, with Izzy almost topping Lucky Luca. She panicked when her feet were in the wrong position on the very last move and failed to clip the anchor, but the other moves looked super smooth. Andrew powered up Amphora, finishing it with an amazingly slick bit of clipping: he popped a quickdraw off his harness, clipped it to the anchor, clipped the rope, clipped the rope into the anchor, unclipped the rope from the QD, unclipped the draw and had it back on his gear loop in one completely seemless movement; it was pure poetry in motion.
After finishing up, we went back down for showers before heading to Prego for dinner. I went for a really good pappardella alla norma made with local Kalymnian goat cheese. I'm pretty sure that Andrew went for pasta and I have a feeling Izzy went for some sort of seafood, but I can't really remember what the others went for.
Once up there, Izzy and I were planning to warm up on Mikrotera Kalamarakia but ended doing Haryvdi because it was free. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a total nightmare. Izzy took two goes to get up to the second clip after having serious worries about just how polished the bottom part of the route was. I seconded and confirmed her opinion: the bottom was like glass and without good feet, the second clip felt very exposed.
After the horrors of that, I belayed her on Haryvdi and went off to lead Nausicaa Nausicaa. The long slab route was really charming and enjoyable with good feet and some non-obvious hands. Partway up I encountered someone climbing Mon Amour who seemed to be in a bad position: off her route, without an obvious bolt to clip to, and with a big fall looming if she feel off. It turned out that the person who put the draws in the route had skipped a bolt and she'd got lost as a result, so I clipped her into one of my bolts until she lowered to a safe point, unclipped her, and carried on with my route.
Eve on Nausicaa Nausicaa:
The main aim for the day was to allow Hayley to take a crack at The Beast, which she'd stormed on top rope last year. She warmed up with Imia:
And because the route shares an anchor with The Beast, she was able to put quickdraws in the harder route on her way down. With everything set, she then began her assault on the 7b:
After Hayley redpointed it, Andrew decided to give it a go too:
While this was going on, I seconded a short, very boulder 6b+ with some serious coaching from Tom. The route featured a couple of crossover moves in the middle, which involved shifting from one layback position to another, with a powerful move through a big tufa formation in the middle. It took me a few goes to get, but once I'd cracked the crux, I stormed the last section. Later in the day I was gratified to see a couple of Australians climbing it and making a horrible mess of it — certainly my Newberry-assisted beta was far more elegant — and basically thrashing their way up.
Once I'd finished the 6b+, I gave Imia a crack, making it a fair way up the route before running out of beans. I ended the afternoon with Odisseo, which I quite enjoyed, even though I didn't quite top it but instead interrupted Gav's conversation with Hayley about falling by chucking myself off.
We finished the day in Marci Marc cave, with Izzy almost topping Lucky Luca. She panicked when her feet were in the wrong position on the very last move and failed to clip the anchor, but the other moves looked super smooth. Andrew powered up Amphora, finishing it with an amazingly slick bit of clipping: he popped a quickdraw off his harness, clipped it to the anchor, clipped the rope, clipped the rope into the anchor, unclipped the rope from the QD, unclipped the draw and had it back on his gear loop in one completely seemless movement; it was pure poetry in motion.
After finishing up, we went back down for showers before heading to Prego for dinner. I went for a really good pappardella alla norma made with local Kalymnian goat cheese. I'm pretty sure that Andrew went for pasta and I have a feeling Izzy went for some sort of seafood, but I can't really remember what the others went for.
