Ascents in Armeos by Lee Cujes

Wear your velcro suit!

Super cool arete in the sky. Only a couple of holds shy of the onsight. I suspect the grade will settle on this somewhat. [2]

Actually very good despite being a slab. En route to the extension.

It was a day of trying some of the newly added routes here.

Burly start slab move - yeesh! And it's pretty damn easy to end up on the wrong route up the top. Felt like I climbed a couple before getting on the right one and going to the top.

Thought this was a great addition to the sector. The crux was NOT where I expected it to be. I believe I resembled a jellyfish thrown at a brick wall.

Onsighted something! Shock! Kieran's recommendation - surprised I hadn't done this earlier.

Sun coming, only 1 onsight try possible. Boom, fail.

Easy to misread. Glad to come away with this one. Get in while the getting's good.

Got on this specifically to get punished, and that did happen. However I will say that I think a key hold has crumbled away affecting the crux sequence. It's the inset, circular crimp up and right of the potatoes. The heavily manufactured holds on this route really need glue to stabilise them.

A nice newer one. Had to do it now before it's a sheet of glass. Sneaks.

Repeat. Was aiming for Papacostopoulos mega extension to the top of the cliff. Got to p1 anchor utterly smoked. Game over man, game over.

Big feature climbing up the mega-corner visible from Telendos! Rad.

En route to the extension. A tricky bulge.

Nice sequency climbing on pockets with a couple of damp/humid holds to keep you engaged. Easy to miss holds and make it harder than it has to be.

I thought the lower slab was tough!

Sam's first "too long to lower in one go" pitch.

Sneaks.

Gear up for Sam's send.

Some good moves, but when you need to use a different colour line on the topo because its so squeezed amongst the neighbouring lines, meh, not a fan.

Short and bouldery with some knee trickery. [3]

Gearing up for Sam who crushed it, twice.

Gearing up.

One quick burn. Crux felt a bit sketchy.

I’d say 6c+.

You have to be motivated for these chickenhead razor slabs.

Super climbing. One million kneebars. 7b+ max.

Repeat. But today, it was soap. Never seen these connies on Spartan Wall.

On the way to the extension send.

Fell off the final move again at the 50m mark. Gutted. Found better foot beta.

Top went into the sun but was well motivated to not fall again. 55m of epic steepness capped with a slabby wall crux move. Yowza! [4]

Questing for the extension.

Repeat. Destroyed by traffic. Stay away now.

Had to hang all the draws on this monster in the quest for the mega extension.

Second go and actually fell just before the anchor on the first pitch. Smoked. Good fitness training though!

Got to the crux move on the onsight, 1 bolt from the top, 50m up. Just immense.

Repeat. Probably my favourite 6c on the island.

Scramble access to the Path.

Onsight to halfway, then a bit of a battle. Super technical slab/wall climbing. So impressive that this sees many onsights. People are cool.

Run up in sneakers to replace worn anchor carabiners.

Super big fight. Did this crazy mantle to find ... no holds. Nothing. Was pawing on the rock like Stevie Wonder searching for the remote. Don't know how I managed to stay on. Replaced the anchor as well, which will shortly be going on climbkalymnos.com's new route maintenance database I built for them.

This is steady and sustained tufa and pocket climbing until the last bolt. Which I decided to skip, then blasted to the anchor to discover no clipping hold I bet there is a LOT of foiled onsights on this. Those moves are seriously hard. Interesting to see many holds were artificial.

The first time, I was doing 7a moves for sure. Then Sam flashed it and I copied her beta. Much easier, and more enjoyable.

For the extension.

Fell not much higher than the anchor trying to onsight. Actually, there were several sections which for me were un-onsightable.

Lots of big moves to good holds on this extension which suited me. On one dyno from an undercling and two finger pocket, I managed to leave my fingers in the pocket during the throw. They bent the wrong way and cracked out and I somehow caught the top hold which was a lucky break. Yowza. [2]

Alzheimer's OS from 5 years ago. Getting gear on for Sam who gave it a good lash. Super route; not easy.

So this was supposed to be my long term trip project (grade does not reflect difficulty for me). Super technical. Died on it the other day; couldn't do several moves at all. Today, decided to get the gear on it, suss beta and put in a few burns. Ended up going straight up it placing the gear. One of my best efforts of the year. Stoked.

Repeat. Gearing up for Sam's triumphant 4-years-in-the-making send.

Repeat.

After Paris Texas, needed something to do. This looked promising. Fell on devious low crux.

Silly fall on low crux, 3 min rest, then try again.

Tickety tick; two 7c's in an hour or so. Great day. This route is super good and deserves more attention.