Kalymnos First Impressions

We arrived in Kalymnos almost 2 weeks ago with fireworks going off. We flew into Kos its neighbouring Greek isle then took a short ferry from there, we thought maybe the fireworks were for us, but apparantely there was some local celebration that day. It was around midnight but our hostel owner was there to pick us up and take us to our studio in Massouri a short drive away. We were exausted. We decided we needed another rest day before we got on any routes so took the day to go shopping and do laundy. We did quite a big shop since we had to take the bus to the big supermarket. We bulked up on all the good cheap stuff like potatoes, rice, pasta, onions carrots etc. The shop owner was so impressed with our shopping (or maybe he felt sorry for us) that he threw in a free bottle of wine, quite nice wine I think. The place we're staying at is great, it has a little kitchen area for cooking, and a private balcony with a great view. And there is a pool to go swimming or hang out by. All for only 8 euros a night each, it'd be even cheaer if there was 3 of us sharing. And its in a great location surrounded by bars and restaurants only 15 minutes walk from the nearest climbing.

Laura heading out on the first route at Kalymnos, an easy slab

The climbing here is amazing, there is over a thousand sport routes on the island with probably three quarters of them within an hours walk of our studio. Each crag has quite a different style and feel to it. Theres lots of sharp slabby routes at the Peots sector and other areas, small fingery pockets at syblegades rocks, juggy pockets at odyssey, long vertical tufas at Panorama, and crazy steep stalagtites at the Grande Grotta. All of which are amazing to climb, the rock quality is really good and polish isn't really an issue to my surprise. The weathers been great as well, we've had one rainy day, but even then we got out climbing right afterwards. Most days we climb from 9am til 2 or 3 in the afternoon, while the crags are in the shade, but it can get quite chilly with a breeze. Then we spend the afternoons soaking up the rays and recovering by the pool or on the beach. Its a great schedule!

Laura relaxing by the pool at our studio with the Grande Grotta in the background

A couple of my pre-concieved ideas about what Kalymnos climbing would be like have been proven wrong. The grades here are not all soft, a lot of the grades are actually quite hard, especially at the lower level. Some of the 6a's (5.10a's) you really have to work for. At the base of each route is the their name and grade painted on the rock, and I've noticed a lot of the grades in the new guide have come down from what they were originally, so there aren't many soft touches any more. And the routes are bolted well, but not necessarily over-bolted, there have probably been more worrying run-outs that there have been well bolted routes, but it really depends where you go. I did a 7a in the Grande Grotta that was 40 meters long but only had 11 bolts. To be fair I was more concerned about the integrity of the stalagtites, it used to be 6c+ until a huge stalagtite fell off! I was hugging on so tight, it would have been hard for me to come off.

Me finding a rest on Themelina 7b+

I've mostly been onsighting stuff at the moment, up to 7b (i've done 2 onsight now). The hardest thing I've done is Themelina a cool 7b+ I got second go. I'm looking for harder projects, but the routes really lend themselves to onsighting since they're easy to read and usually have good rests on them. A lot of the harder stuff is super long stamina monsters. I want to find something not too long that I can work. Laura is climbing well now that she has a feel for the rock, she does well on the steeper pockety stuff, which is not what she was expecting. She's flashed 3 6b+'s so far and is looking for something her style a bit harder to project. A few days ago our friend Whitey from Olympia and his friend Andy arrived here. Its been great climbing with them and showing them all the good areas. They've fallen in love with the place, and are climbing well, they both redpointed their first 7a+ here and are keen to work harder. Hopefully next time I blog I'll have some hard redpoints to report as well.

Andy redpointing Aphrodite 7a+ (5.12a) in the Grande Grotta

Oh and check out some of my friends who have jumped on the blogging bandwagon.
Outdoor UK - George from Stirling's blog about Fontainebleau with us.
No Skin Left - Micah crushing in Leavenworth and around the PNW
Northwest Rockclimber - Nick from Olympia also climbing in the PNW