Leonidio – our home for 3 weeks

February 14, 2018|Florence Grünewald

The words that probably best describe this place are: charming, idyllic and compact.

Where do you go first when you're climbing in Leonidio?

The right choice would be the cozy little café "Panjika" in the heart of Leonidio. The double cappuccino with divine cookie accompaniment became our daily ritual after a long day of climbing. The gathering of many climbers from all over the world created a very relaxed atmosphere for us. This included a wide variety of board games, as well as weekly jam sessions to join in.

When we weren't hanging out at the Panjika Café, we spent the rest of our time on the charming, mostly overhanging tufa lines above Leonidio. The sector that fascinated us the most is called "Twin Caves". The route selection starts at 5b and goes up to 8b+. Another reason why we kept returning to the "Twin Caves" was that each of us had our own personal project there. In addition to our challenging projects, we also climbed other fascinating lines that caught our eye.

Flo on her first 8a "Fata Morgana"; photo: Jonathan Shen

All in all, in our opinion, Leonidio has something for every climber, whether it's the difficulty or the desired climbing temperature: You can either freeze your butt off in the "Elona" sector in arctic temperatures or "sweat out" your projects in the blazing sun in the "Twin Caves". We naturally preferred the sun and were thus able to successfully check off our goal of escaping the winter in Germany and flying home tanned instead!