Skalia

Skalia is a wide expanse of cliffs with a view over the village of Skalia and the less familiar—but just as impressive—north face of Telendos. There are four sub-sectors with significantly different characters: Pillar, Hotel California, Balcony, and Cave. An impressive yellow pillar with some good but sharp routes, a cave with very hard routes, and several vertical climbs. __Busy__ 1/3 __Climbing__ Varied. Depending on the sub-sector, you will find everything from low-angle walls to steep overhangs. __Conditions__ Hot. Best for climbing in winter or in cloudy conditions year-round. Protected from the north wind, but exposed to the rain. __Shade (Exposure: SW)__ Only in the morning, with the exception of the left side of Cave, which has afternoon shade. Check each sub-sector for details. __Kids__ Only moderately good at Pillar and Hotel California. No kids at Balcony or Cave. __At Pillar__, other than the impressive yellow pillar itself, you will find good routes on walls of varying angles and names like fakir plaisir and razor edge bluntly hinting at the occasional sharpness of the rock. By local standards, some of the bolting is old school. _Shade_ Until 12:00 __Hotel California__ is a short cliff made up of compact grey rock. Climbing is slabby and not always homogeneous. Unless otherwise noted, routes were bolted by Sandra & Thomas Jekel, Rebecca Blaser, and Martin Blattmann in 2010. _Shade_ Until 11:00 __Balcony__ is a vertical grey wall with long routes rising over a natural terrace with sweeping views. Routes hover between 6a–6c+ and they are very long, clean, and generally on good grey limestone, with the exception of short crumbly conglomerate sections on some. Unless otherwise noted, routes were bolted by Claude Idoux in 2012–2013. _Shade_ Until 11:00 (until 12:00 on the right side of Hotel California) __Skalia Cave__ was bolted by The North Face athletes for the 2013 climbing festival. It is a pretty, well-featured rock crescent with sections of both good and bad or crumbly limestone, and it was the pro competition crag during that year's event. The winners were Caroline Ciavaldini (women) and Alexander Megos (men). Climbing at Skalia Cave is athletic, cruxy, and bouldery, on hard and overhanging testpiece routes bolted by Jacopo Larcher, Hansjörg Auer, Iker Pou, and Siebe Van Hee in 2013. _Kids_ Not good. There are scrambling bits along the path, and the terrain beneath the cliffs is steep. _Shade_ Until 13:00. Routes on left have shade in late afternoon.