Greece

Meteora is truly a magical place, one feels like being in another planet or in a Miyazaki movie. Multi-pitches routes go up some of the black conglomerate pillars. The views are fantastic from the summits, you can see monasteries on top of other pillars, and you can write your name in small books 😊 Meteora has the reputation to be quite airy when it comes to the bolting of the routes. It is true, but maybe less than what we expected: the routes we selected did not feel too bad regarding this aspect. I would recommend the routes “Corner of Madness” (some trad gear is needed though), and “Egg Dance” with a committing split/jump at the top (which can be aided).

During our climb&bikepacking trip in the Balkans, we didn’t want to miss the beautiful climbing spots in the Peloponese! So as we head off Leonidio, we decided to go to two stunning climbing spots that are definitely worth the detour: Kyparissi and Vlychada. Those are peaceful and remote places with amazing climbing and the traditional greek “tufas”, where you can get gorgeous views on the Azur Blue sea. Do I need to say more?

Leonidio was one of the places I’ve wanted to visit for a long time, but never did because it felt way too far. All I ever heard about the journey to get there from Innsbruck was by plane or by a crazy long car ride (which I didn’t want to do). This year, we had a month offin February and since we are all into bikepacking, we decided to make it an ecopoint trip. First, we took the train to Venice . Then, we took the ferry from Venice to Patras, which is a 30 h trip, but since the ferries are huge and there’s a lot of space outside on the decks to move, do yoga and chill in the sun in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it felt like a holiday. Then we rode our bikes from Patras to Leonidio, which was a 3 day bike journey through the beautiful Peloponnese. Leonidio is a dream for climbers. There are so many crags that are accesible straight from the village, sport climbing and multipitches and all on beautiful orange limestone with tufas, holes, crimps,….