Of the three ultras on Crete this is probably the easiest to get to, but arguably the hardest climb. We took it from south of the Lasithi plateau, in the karst plain. Just a bit further south from the Agion Pnevma church. The track gets to about 1200m then peters out. One heads due south from here. The path crosses the moraine at a sort of diagonal over what must be streams in other seasons. We sort of lost the path at this point which goes up through the shrub to the left, and rather continued up the boulder strewn right hand side, although this way is also marked by small cairns. The path was more visible on the descent and is marked by yellow splodges of paint and the occasional post. At a certain point the valley bifurcates, we headed straight up the small hill in the middle and regained the path which crept up to reach another level area at about 1600m. Continuing along this one reaches a ridge that is climbed diagonally up and then the path bends around to afford you a view of the mountain as a whole once more. From here it is a quite steep climb until a bit of a traverse and then steep again to the summit. Signed the summit book. Appreciated the anti-nazi graffiti. Saw golden eagles and lots of crows which seemed to be keeping themselves busy messing about and cawing. On the descent we took a more direct route cutting off the more circular detour and regaining the path at around 1750m. Felt fitter than on the descent from Ida but maybe it was the pack of Haribos. Fairly well sign-posted apart from the start. Took almost eight hours in all but we'd started relatively early for hippies. Just before reaching the car at 5.30ish we met a man running up and sweating profusely. I hope he did alright. We took some photos for him and wished him luck. No doubt he needed it.