Ascensioni in Europe da 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.

Two mini-routes split by a cave rest, but still great - some awesome tufa features.

Three goes today. Best go getting foot to the stal, but failing to sink the knee in.

Ceiling. Bouldery first half then kneebars to glory. [2]

Total classic, reminiscent of a good pitch at Spartacus. Crux ended up being very different than appearances and chalk would suggest.

Lovely pockets up the left side of the cave. Slightly awkward up high.

Mega effort from Sam in the dark with headtorch.

Easy climbing on pockets to a Moonboard boulder problem. Spoogey as hell today. [2]

End of day project shopping. Failed to solve the crux.

Super steep. Plenty of kneebars. Ace.

Not sure about the downgrade personally, and it's only going to get harder with the polish. Quite happy to have Owen and Roger's beta!

Very tricky start boulder where it helps to be either tall or flexible.

Desperate first try, surprising second try send, especially given the conditions - hot, humid, no breeze. [2]

Not the best.

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.

Looooong. Sneaks.

The reputation slab! I even put climbing shoes on for this one.

First day out after being sick, wanted to ensure I stayed in 3rd gear on this. When it was all said and done, Owen commented "Looks like you had to drop it back to 2nd and rev the guts out of it!"

Steeper than appearances suggest!

Cool sequency section through the steep.

Ripper steep climbing at this grade.

Sequence was so hard to spot on the onsight. Route felt really hard on the first attempt, then very simple and no issues second go. Packs a lot of climbing into a short route.

What can I say it's a banger.

Totally unique up and out a hole in a big cave, and up headwall above.

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.

Two ways at the top and hard to clip bolt in the middle. Which way will you choose?

Yeesh. What a start!

Kind of mega, up and through the largest overhang. Bolt to bolt. Hard crux at the lip.

The only dry route on the sector today. Fell at the last possible place you could fall on the OS, of course Monster pitch.

Pretty cool - some interesting gneiss-like rock on this section.

Mostly in the eye of the beholder.