Hello to all,
We have just returned from a tour of the Peloponnese and a few of the islands. One island in particular…Santorini…revealed much climbing. I would say there are about 100 routes. We were staying in Perissa at the Villa Dimitris. Out the window of our balcony spanned a huge wall of a limestone/marble mix of rock (I think). Upon further investigation we found bolted routes above the pier at the left end of Black Sand Beach. Each of the routes has an aluminum tag on the first bolt denoting the route number (San 1-7) and the grade. I got on the fives first. They were quite stout as were the 6s at the right end. In fact all the grades on the Perissa side of the mountain that divides Perissa from Kamari were quite stiff for the grade. The climbing was quite engaging and technical. The bolting was mostly well done although the first bolts were so high that it was nearly impossible to read the tags without bouldering up to the bolt.
Unfortunately several routes at the eft end were rendered inaccesable due to huge piles of beach umbrella palm fronds and various refuse from the beach bars.
Above Perissa about halfway up the wall there is a chapel. There is a side trail off of the trail to Ancient Thira that leads to this chapel (look for the wooden cross down the trail a bit). Just as you reach this chapel there is a sign board with a photo topo of about six or seven routes that have been installed on the massive and smooth buttresses and caves above and to the right of the chapel. To my eyes these routes looked utterly impossible. The topo gave no grades for any of the routes. Most were multi pitch.
Continuing up the trail from Perissa to Ancient Thira at the col or saddle to the right of Profitas Elias and down another foot path to the left of the switchbacking road one passes a spring and a chapel to the first of the Kamari sectors. This sector has several 6s that are about 15 to 20 meters in length and are quite nice, though again, difficult for the grade. Further down the trail is a second sector with mostly 5s that are excellent. Also short. There are about a dozen routes here including a couple 4s on either end of the 5s. Beyond this is a third sector of 6s and harder routes that are quite hard. The paved trail continues down to the base of the auto road.
In all we did about 27 routes on Santorini making for a very nice mix of touristing, beaching and climbing. Our favorite part of the trip.
Apparently, according to the Terrain map, there is climbing on Naxos. The map makes it look quite extensive. We never visited the area. Is there any information on the routes? Naxos is stacked with mountains and lots of great hiking.
I would be happy for any feedback or questions on the above. I hope this information is of some help to other climbers visiting Santorini.
Thank you.
Steve
