Kaymnos Life

My apologies to those who have been waiting on a new blog entry for a while, the computers here are really fustrating. I've got a cool Deep Water Solo video, but I guess you guys will have to wait til you see me next to see them. Anyway things are going great in Kalymnos. Andy had to go back to Seattle, he tried to extend his trip by another week, but it was too expensive to change tickets. So now its just the 3 of us, Whitey moved into our place, so now its even cheaper staying here for us. Only 6 euros a night, its probably the cheapest rate on the island.

Andy on a cool 6a+ slab

The big news here climbing-wise is that I onsighted a 7c! That is by far my hardest onsight to date. The route was Tzatziki Vikiki a classic steep route in the Spartacus cave. Its a 3 bolt bouldery extension to a 6b, it involves intense upside down climbing coming out of a cave on small fingery pockets with very bad feet. I just tried really really hard and somehow found a way through to the chains. I was so pleased, it was a wake up call for me to get on even harder routes. In other news Laura flashed a 6c here last week, she calls it her 'first real 5.11' it was a proud lead. And today she got another 6c a Kalymnos classic 'Les Amazones' no pushover for the grade. Today Whitey also fought hard and onsighted Jellyfish Pie 7a+/7b, which was really cool to watch.

Laura looking nervous as we prepare to Scooter off

Since last time I wrote we've been exploring new climbing areas. Last week we rented scooters for the day, which was a lot of fun if not a bit scary. We headed up to an area called The Ghost Kitchen on the North side of the island, which is a really cool area. It has a ton of 'tufa mushrooms' which are basicly horizontal stalagtites that are flat so you can sit (or do what ever you want) on them and get a really good rest, it was really fun. Another day we took a boat over to the neighbouring island of Telendos to check out some of the new developments there. We read a new issue of Climb Magazine (UK) in a climbers bar here which was raving about the new climbing area of Irox on Telendos. But it really wasn't all that great, the rock quality is much better on Kalymnos. It was cool to check out Telendos though, its a really nice island, much more chill than Kaly, we'll probably head back there on a rest day, but we'll avoid the nude beach this time though!

Laura climbing well on a steep route at Dolphin Bay

Whitey and I also went exploring around the side of Dolphin Bay, a low-grade crag walking distance from our studio, and found a cool Deep Water Solo area. The cliff is kinda small and up higher the rock gets a bit chossy, but down low its good quality above a great deep landing. So we messed around there and did some cool stuff. We both managed a hard V3/4 Deep Water Boulder problem there, we were a bit dissapointed not to fall in, so we just jumped in, the waters a lot warmer than we expected.

The Oly crew with our Kalymnos T's

As well as this we've also been snorkeling around the coves, which is actually a lot of fun, theres lots to see down there. Its crazy to think we've been here almost a month now, its been great fun but it doesn't feel like we've got all the time in the world anymore, so we're getting a bit more serious about sending projects. I feel like I've got so much I stilll want to do here before we go. So watch this space for news of hard sends, my draws are hanging on a 5.13 (7c+) and tomorrow might be the day!

Taking a break from our Grande Grotta climbs to watch a Spanish climber work on his project, the extension to Aegialis, a 50m 8b! He's still working on it.

Laura belaying Whitey on a 7b at Spartacus

Dom shaking out on his 5.13 project (down to 1 hang now)