Turkey and Greece Trip

Going to Turkey for sure and hopefully Greece in Sept. any leads on for good climbing areas and partners would be much appreciated!

hey, I actually built a site specifically for these types of questions! if you go to www.climbcation.com you can change the dates to sept-sept, check the "solo friendly" filter, and move the map to turkey/greece to filter for spots there.

Personally, september might be a little bit on the shoulder season for that region, but if you were going solo I think going to geyikbayiri would be your best bet since you could find partners easily and then see if anyone was traveling to another spot in the region. Going to Kalymnos right after geyikbayiri is a pretty common route for a lot of people since they're only 1 day of travel apart.

I just came back from Leonidio in march and that place was amazing, but I think september would be painfully hot over there.

I second dsauerbrun, geyikabayiri would be great for you if you head south. So many routes! You'd likely be limited to what's in the shade. I can't comment on Greece bc I've never climbed there but I've heard it's epic.
I'm assuming you're flying into Istanbul and ballikayalar would be well worth a look. Take the train to Gebze, low cost and easy. Don't take buses from Gebze unless you know the language. Taxis are expensive (~120 TL one way) but worth it
https://aarongerry.com/2018/12/26/trip-report-istanbul-climbing-ballikayalar-turkey/

@dsauerbrun cool website!

If Greece opens up by then, I highly recommend Meteora.  Fantastic multi-pitch on large conglomerate towers, often with a pinch of spice, in an other worldly setting.  Cheap accommodations and decent food.  September should be primo though we had a shitload of rain (just bad luck I think).  Here's our old TR:  Meteora.

Edit in the pic:

Going to Greece at the end of August and staying through September. Planning on doing mainland Greece Meteora and Leonidio are on my list, I hear theres good climbing in Athens as well. Planning on heading to the islands and Kalymnos sometime in September. Also looking for a climbing partner. I do traditionally boulder and sport climbs around V4 for bouldering and 5.10 for sport. Send me a message if you want to try to link up.

I’m near Marmaris (southwest Turkey) right now and wishing I could find places to climb and people to climb with — guides I guess because I didn’t think to bring anything... Looking at the landscape it seems like there are routes everywhere but all I’ve found so far is that there are routes in Datça but no guides or companies. Anybody know of any?

It's not the area you're in but Recep who runs this place ( aladaglarcamping.com/proper… ) might have some ideas for you.  He seems good at responding to emails (also, can ping them via FB).

Thanks so much! I’ll definitely send him a message

Mathew Vennemanwrote:

Going to Greece at the end of August and staying through September. Planning on doing mainland Greece Meteora and Leonidio are on my list, I hear theres good climbing in Athens as well. Planning on heading to the islands and Kalymnos sometime in September. Also looking for a climbing partner. I do traditionally boulder and sport climbs around V4 for bouldering and 5.10 for sport. Send me a message if you want to try to link up.

Hello Mathew,

Athens may be one of the most blessed capital cities from a climbing perspective, being surrounded by three mountains with few dozens of crags and several hundreds of routes, more or less for every taste.

If you want to combine climbing with urban style vacation, you will not be disappointed.

Yet if you want a more relaxing, being in the nature kind of think, Greece has to offer several other options that you can spent days after days.

About Athens:

Parnitha mountain, hosts several crags with routes around 5.10, including (but not limited to):

• Acharneis - Mavros Pit - Kolones
  These three crags are to close one to another, all three of them in shadow in the afternoon, sometimes Acharneis can be somewhat crowded though.
• Epos Fylis
  You 'd have to go in the morning to avoid the sun.
• Korakofolia
  Has a somewhat long approach, since vehicles where prohibited in the dirt roads a couple of years ago, yet, it is one of the chilliest crags on the hot days.

Penteli mountain has its crags generally in higher altitude. Most of them are abandoned marble mines. to name a few, in order of personal preference, Dionysos, Simbligades, Podeidonas.

It may be tempting, if you stumble upon it to visit Daskaleio, but try to avoid it! corroded bolts where noticed and as far as I know have not yet been replaced!

Leaving Athens area aside, and bypassing the obvious choices (Kalymnos and Meteora) I'd recommend if you happen to be near by:

• Solomos
  a few kilometers outside Corinth, has an abundance of routes near 5.10 and had a beautiful view (I'm not sure now, after a recent nearby forest fire). Can easily be a first stop towards any destination in Peloponese.
• Nafplio
  Hosts a few crags nearby the sea, but it can get quite hot... Late September should be fine, but I guess that also depends on what temperatures you are used to :p
• Leonidio - Kyparissi - Lagada.
  Each one of them has several crags for you to visit, and even though these three areas are quite distanced form each other, I believe it could be a quite interesting road trip if you'd like to dedicate a few days to each one and then move to the next.
• Euboea island (accessible by car, a couple of hours from Athens to most of its crags)
  Has been developing in recent years. Give a quick glimpse to https://climbinkymi.wordpress.com/ . Even though I believe that 5.10 routes are somewhat limited in that area, it could be interesting combined with the beaches of Euboea on the aegean.

All the above are mainly (if not exclusively) focused on single pitch sport climbing. About bouldering, I'm afraid I cannot say much, except that Volax in Tinos island (about 4 hours by boat) is considered excellent. I've never bouldered  outside though, so apart that the view is spectacular, I cannot have an opinion (see http://www.blocheart.de/bouldern_E/EU/GR/Tinos.htm for example)

Ping me if you need any more information,

Have a nice trip :)

This is a magical and fun website

This is a serious question. How is everyone getting to Greece?  Aren’t yanks banned from the EU due to to the bang up job we did with COVID?

Frank Steinwrote:

This is a serious question. How is everyone getting to Greece?  Aren’t yanks banned from the EU due to to the bang up job we did with COVID?

Yes, currently U.S. citizens are currently not allowed to come to Greece (with some exceptions that are not of interest here).
This is a very peculiar time for international traveling...

Go to Turkey this fall.  It's wide open and the climbing is varied and excellent.  Just finished a 2 week climbing + some sightseeing trip.  A super easy trip to pull off and relatively cheap (USD is quite strong rel to the Lira at the moment).

rpcwrote:

Go to Turkey this fall.  It's wide open and the climbing is varied and excellent.  Just finished a 2 week climbing + some sightseeing trip.  A super easy trip to pull off and relatively cheap (USD is quite strong rel to the Lira at the moment).

Support Erdogan? No thanks.

Are you supporting trump if you climb in the US?

Decouple the enjoyment of the natural beauty of a place and its culture from the politics of the moment (otherwise there are very few places in the world that would meet my high bar).  Also, the money you spend as a climber or tourist makes some impact on the "mom & pop" businesses - it means nothing to the political elites.  But ultimately, it's a personal decision of course.

You have chosen an interesting destination for climbing, you can find out about the best places when you go on your excursion to Turkey, you can see great mountains in different regions that can be an ideal place to practice, I recommend that you talk to a tourist guide who will tell you about places that are not very well known but that are also worthwhile.