Upon arriving in Kos (the first Greek island accessible from Turkey), I inquired about a ferry to Kalymnos and was told that a catamaran was just leaving. I bought my ticket and rushed to get on, but it had already left (I got my money back). Luckily, there was another ferry at 4pm leaving from another village along the coast, so I was able to grab a bite to eat and head out there by bus with lots of time to catch it. Originally, the internet research I had done had found only one ferry for Kalymnos that left at midnight, so despite missing the 11am catamaran, I was relatively happy that I would actually be arriving before nightfall.
Once in Pothia, the main ferry port in Kalymnos, it is a simple matter of catching an hourly local bus to the other end of the island. Masouri is where most of the climbers end up staying. It has a small spattering of bars & restaurants, many with attached studios for rent.
Upon arriving and walking down the single one-way street I almost immediately found Ingrid, a climber who I knew from Vancouver. As it turns out she arrived the same day, as did another couple from Vancouver who I had climbed with before - Tony and Miriam.
Micah, the Californian I had met in Turkey who I was meeting up with in Kalymnos, was not expected to arrive for another day, but an hour or two after I arrived we ran into each other on the street - it turns out that he was on the Catamaran that I had missed (he had caught it from Rhodes where it originated from)
To top it off, while heading back from the beach later that day, I noticed in the back of a pickup truck someone who looked a lot like Cynthia, another woman who I climb with periodically in Vancouver. As it turns out, Cynthia also arrived on the same day, though she was staying in Myrties - the next town over - for her first week.
In the end all 6 of us (5 separate parties) arrived coincedentally on the same day. Of course we were also all stoked and ready to climb the next day.
Within a 15-30 minute walk of Masouri are enough climbs to keep one occupied for weeks, including one area called the Grande Grotta - an arrestingly stunning cave 80m high scooped out of the side of a cliff. The climbs in here are pretty steep (in more ways than one), starting out around 7a+ (5.12a), They begin slightly overhanging and getting steeper and steeper until you are going along a horizontal roof, though only on the harder climbs do you actually get this high - most are at least 7c/7c+ (5.12d/5.13a)
On the very right side of the Grotta there are a couple of routes which avoid the steepest part of the cave, but are still overhanging. Two routes in particular are particularly popular - one 40m 7a (5.11d), and another shorter but very sweet 6a+ (5.10b)
To the right of the Grotta is another area where we spent some time called Panorama sector. As the name implies, the views from here are spectacular, though this is a little redundant, as you would be hard-pressed to find any climb on Kalymnos in which both the belayer and the climber did not have stunning views.
On my rest day, I visited the small port village of Vathi on the east coast of the island. Here the water, protected from winds, is great for swimming, and there is an interesting stretch of rock along the shore that you can boulder traverse along fairly easily for more than 250 metres. At the far end of the traverse, there is some tougher bouldering above the water that allows you to get a bit of a feel for deep water soloing,
More Detailed Beta:
The accomodation was more reasonable than I was expecting, with nice double rooms with a kitchenette and a balcony overlooking the ocean for 18 Euros per night. 25 per night will get you a place with access to a swimming pool as well. We ended up getting a room that wasn't anything special, but it worked well for us because it was actually divided into two sections so we felt like we had two singles.
Scooters can be rented for about 8-10 Euros per day, or an entire car for about 35 Euros per day.
Food is sensational and you can have a nice entree of swordfish or lamb casserole for about 7 or 8 Euros. Greek salads are fantastic and huge for 3-5 Euros. A lot of the food also seems to be local which is nice, particularly at Harry's Paradise in Emperios, where the owner prides himself on supplying all of his restaurant's ingredients from his gorgeous garden.
Interestingly, the rock itself ranges quite a bit in character.
The first day we went to 'Poets' sector, which is more traditional limestone (if there is such a thing) Vertical, with enough features to keep it interesting.
The Ghost Kitchen was one of the areas that you pretty much need a scooter to access. It had some fantastic routes. Not as steep as the Grotta, it had some very interesting tufa climbing at more accessible grades (6b - 7b) (5.10c - 5.12b)
Odyssey is another classic sector with numerous routes of all levels. We primarily spent one day in one small section of this sector, but nevertheless found 2 or 3 fantastic routes - particularly Dionysis and Calipso (7a+; 5.12a)
Syblegades Rocks, closer to Myrties has more crimpy vertical climbing (a nice change after all of the tufa climbing). It has some very nice routes ranging from 6a to 7a.
Besides these areas, we visited The Grande Grotta, Panorama Wall (both described above), and Afternoon Wall (just around the corner from the Grotta, it gets shade in the afternoon when the Grande Grotta is putting up with the full brunt of the sun)
On our last day, we returned to the Grotta to do the ever-popular routes on the right had side (they are usually quite busy, so we had not been able to do them previously). This turned out to be a good decision, as these were certainly among the best routes we did during the entire week. I had been fairly happy with my climbing all week, generally on-sighting everything below 7a (5.11d), but I was struggling a bit with my endurance, seeming to always need at least one rest/fall on anything higher. Luckily, Micah, climbing slightly stronger, was generally able and willing to lead up the 7a+/7b routes that I otherwise would have felt not quite ready for. Happily, I managed to break through this barrier on the last day by leading and flashing the 40m overhanging Trella (7a; 5.11d) - a definite highlight for me.
- Ran
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Climbing photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Climbing******************************
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- GK Chesterton
