Psiloritis range

Peaks: Psiloritis/Mount Ida (2454), Stolistra (2325), Agathias (2424), Vouloumenou (2267)
Area: Mount Ida, Crete
The highest peak in Crete, and a rare recent example of 'good form' with me feeling as fresh as a daisy throughout. After yesterday's outing, I drove across to the Rethymno hinterland - tortuous roads through very distinctive villages. The most distinctive of all is the one I stayed in - Zoniana - which became internationally infamous a decade ago as 'drug-dealing shepherds' (according to the Telegraph) opened fire on police with kalashnikovs. The village is notoriously hostile to authority and is said to resemble 'Godfather-era' Sicily in its clannishness. It was certainly distinctive, with many men still dressing in black shirts and an insular air (bursts of gunfire marked what I was told was a 'pre-wedding' celebration last night). This morning, I drove to the neighbouring village of Livadia and took the winding and unsignposted road up to the Lakkos Mygerou, a typical remote Cretan chapel combined with mountain refuge. I was dreading this drive, expecting it to be impossible in a hire car. In fact, it was a delight - well-surfaced, not scary, empty, and winding up through glorious, remote scenery. It felt biblical and reminded me strongly of parts of the Middle East or North Africa: the low sun lit the conical hills to perfection, and Lakkos Mygerou itself had a magical atmosphere. Another high Cretan plain, enclosed by mountains, with the moon above the summit of Psiloritis. As with most of these high pastures on Crete, the lack of running water (and wind) meant it was absolutely silent apart from the sheep bells and occasional calls from shepherds. Psiloritis itself has several names - the modern Greek takes precedent, but 'Mount Ida' (spelt many different ways) is common, and the actual peak is often referred to as Timios Stavros, after the tiny chapel on its summit. I set off up a well-trodden path, surprisingly so, and was delighted to discover that I was on something of a flyer. I felt better than I have for months, and covered the ground very quickly. The path weaves up to join a broad spur above a rough cwm, and finally emerges at a wide col below Vouloumenou. Here, several paths join including the E4 and the path from the Nida plateau further east. The rest of the route is superb - perfectly angled for running, up a broad ridge with a nice high mountain atmosphere as it climbs to 8000ft. The dominant peak is a perfect dome of bare rock - very exposed to the elements and massively higher than anything surrounding it, meaning that you can see all of Crete from the summit, from Dikti in the east to the Lefka Ori in the west, and 'sea to sea' across the width of the island. These kind of 'helicopter' views are rarely the best, but the sheer scale of this combined with the stunning clarity of light made it pretty special: particularly the views of the White Mountains and the tiny villages towards the south coast. I'd met a Dutch-Cretan former Swansea City footballer on the way up and caused a stir with my rapid (66 minute) ascent to the summit - he phoned his dad, a Livadia native, to let him know! We were joined by his girlfriend and two Swedes, quite a crowd for a Cretan mountain. To the west, my eye was caught by Stolistra (I didn't know its name at the time), a little summit at the end of an additional spur with clouds boiling up from the valley below. I felt so good that I decided to run to the top of every summit I could see, everything on the broad Psiloritis ridge. As it happened, it was a long descent on scree to a col but hardly any re-ascent required to gain the small top (which was indeed right at the end of the range in a great position above the spur). It was ferociously windy at this point, enough to knock me over twice. Oddly, despite the ease of ascent, I later clearly saw Stolistra from several points on the island, including the beach at Georgopolis - a very long way away. The re-ascent back to the chapel slowed me a bit, but not too much, and I then had it to myself. After another snack, I pelted along the crest of the ridge, over a minor summit, past a snowpatch, to the pathless climb up Agathias. Again, I didn't know what it was called at the time, having no decent map. This gave brilliant views back to the main peak and across to Dikti. I cut the corner, steeply down to the E4 junction, which I left immediately for the superb broad ridge out to Vouloumenou: this was great, perfectly runnable again across a kind of blocky limestone pavement. The summit was poised above Lykkos Mygerou and the brown dusty valleys adjoining it: again, it reminded me of the Sinai more than anything else. Further below, I could make out Livadia and my 'home village' of Zoniana, seemingly directly below. I spent a little time relaxing, but still felt really good with bags of running left in my legs, so just ran back to the valley and car flat out. I then had the challenge of sourcing food in the villages, which I managed by also visiting the show cave of Sfentoni, which was unexpectedly superb (and the snack bar served local cheese pies with magnificent views back up to Psiloritis). Later I even managed to get the only taverna in Zoniana to rustle up some souvlaki and dakos, no mean feat!