Kalymnos - The Invasion (Video)

Here is a fun little video that my wonderful wife put together of our time in Kalymnos.

We hope you enjoy. 

Kalymnos - The Invasion

Kalymnos (Kalydna – Good water)

KALY!

Exceeding Expectations

Well we have just spent 6 weeks in climber’s paradise!

Many, many people had told us we should go to Kalymnos, it is amazing, the climbing is great, it is cheap (all climbers like this), it is beautiful and the locals are friendly, plus many other reasons.

When it comes to these kinds of recommendations, you tend to believe them but always with a little pinch of salt.  Well Kalymnos needs no pinch of salt - all of the above is true and more!

 

"Hey Tony"! One of the
many very friendly and
chatty locals

Cath and I have had a magical time in Kalymnos climbing some of the best limestone I have ever been on. There are steep tufa-ridden enduro pitches, good technical face routes and even a few multi pitches to throw into the mix. The grades are not complete holiday grades but they are not sandbags either.

The locals have been wonderful and gone out of their way to be helpful. The food met all expectations and more, with fresh fish and beef stifado, mmmm

Kalymnos is in the Aegean sea just off the coast of Turkey. In fact it is closer to turkey than to mainland Greece.

We arrived just after the climbing festival at the end of October and the place was heaving with so many people, we were glad we didn’t arrive any earlier. But as the weeks moved on the crowds quickly reduced, and by the end of our trip it  almost a ghost town. By late November very few places were open and there were very few climbers around. This meant we have had some of the most popular crags to ourselves, which has been very nice. However during the last couple of weeks there was an increase in rain. The storms have actually been spectacular in nature with lots of lightning and thunder. Fortunately it was easy to plan rest days around them so they have not had a big effect on us climbing wise.

Our first couple of weeks here we needed to find our feet again, and learn to climb through the mazes of tufas which Kalymnos is famous for. Fortunately some ‘almost locals’ Lee and Sam (actually Queenslanders, but don’t hold that against them) helped point us in the right direction. Unfortunately they left after a couple of days, as their trip in Kalymnos was finishing as ours was starting.

The next three weeks we spent climbing with three of the craziest girls, Lucy (from Sydney), Tracey (from Queensland) and Selene (from Canada). This led to many fun adventures and many goat noise impersonations and laughs. Including a very fun trip to Telendos, with more shenanigans than actual climbing.

Shenanigans - the video by Tracey Hua

 

This was the tone of our Telendos day, well actually most days with these 4 Seleen, Tracey, Lucy and Cath

Just as Lucy, Tracey, and Selene left we bumped into Chris who we had spent some time with in Mexico, Potrero Chico, about 4 years ago. We were lucky enough to be able to spend lots of time with Chris, his wife Heather and some friends of theirs from Colarado Bruce, Michelle and their daughter Uli.

Cath on Gladiator 7b(25)

Both Cath and my climbing has gone very well, with Cath ticking a 7b(25) Gladiator, the first 25 for her ‘post-operations’ and actually since we were in Mexico, and flashed her first couple of 7a+(24). I have managed my first ever 7c(27) flash on the very steep Priapos in the Grande Grotta.

Priapos is the ancient god of the supernaturally erect penis and with the amount of stalactites on this route you can understand why it was named after this god!

Priapos (the climb) was an amazing three-dimensional fight through a very steep tufa filled limestone cave. It overhangs approximately 15+m in 35m. Fortunately it has many rests by wrapping yourself around various stalactites, including some you can totally sit down on.

The very end of this route was almost my undoing, I was extremely pumped and squeezing in any marginal knee bar rest I could find to make it to the anchors.

After clipping the chains I was almost delirious while being lowered

This was definitely one of my best Flashes/onsights (draws were on), it is certainly my hardest.

 

The mighty Priapos 7c(27) with Telendos in the background

Also while in Kalymnos I  managed 3 other 7c’s:

Kaly diva at (not so secret) Secret Garden. Very technical climbing to a pumpy finish.

Lactic Shock at Ivory Tower, which was super fun, starting with a technical skinny tufa section and into big moves between pockets.

And lastly Aegialias, which is also in the Grande Grotta and is one of the most photographed routes in the world and it is worth it! This one definitely felt the hardest of the 4. The send was a fight of fights, I was tired when I started and didn’t climb very smoothly at all. I some how managed to struggle to each kneebar rest. Then after clipping the last draw before the anchor I totally blanked on what to do, managed to get back to a very poor rest of a 1000 positions (none of them good) and get just enough back to go for the anchors. With a lot of Sharma Screaming I managed the clip!

Pinky,  grateful for some food. 

Cats of Kalymnos

Over our last couple of weeks in Kalymnos Cath rescued a very young kitten, only a few days old from behind a dumpster, where he had been abandonded.

This Kitten we named Pinky, and he would not have survived another night outside.

Fortunately Heather is a vet and checked him over and gave us advice on how to look after him, including on how to teach him to poo! (Don’t ask!!!!).

Pink out and about.

Over our last weeks Pinky came everywhere with us including the crag, carried in a little back pack with hot water bottle as he needed to be fed every few hours with a bottle.

Fortunately for Pinky when we left Heather and Chris took over the looking after and Bruce, Michelle and Uli will take up the reigns after that until about next may, which will give him a very good start to life

On the second last Thursday of November our American friends told us it was thanksgiving so we planned to head around to Bruce and Michelle’s for dinner.

It wasn’t until it was all planned etc. that they discovered that Thanksgiving is the last Thursday in November. So we just changed the name to Pranksgiving and had an enormous feast anyway. As well as a now traditional treasure hunt!

Pranksgiving

The next Thursday (the last in the month) was also our last night in Kalymnos and we got to experience our first actual thanksgiving, which was an amazing night much like Pranksgiving, full of food and wine, but mostly it was full of laughter with old and new friends, plus another treasure hunt. And it was the perfect way to finish this leg of our trip.

All in all Kalymnos more than lived up to the hype. It is a wonderful place to visit as a climber and we hope to return sooner rather than later.

Coming Soon!

Kalymnos - The Invasion!

by Catherine de Vaus
A little video which perfectly demonstrates life on Kalymnos

For more photos please visit:

adamds.smugmug.com/Kalymnos

Sunset view 

Our Trip So Far

Cath in a sea of spanish limestone heaven

We're Off

So in August Cath and I both quit our jobs, rented our house out and headed off for 15 months of climbing…….. Woohoo!

We're off!!!!! Woohoo!

First stop Nowra

Not the most obvious choice for a long climbing trip but our good friends Neil and Kathy had decided to tie the knot in Kangaroo Valley, a very beautiful spot just near Nowra.

We spent a couple of days climbing little sport routes there, which was fun and we stayed in a lovely little town called Greenwell Point. Nothing too notable, except dinner at the local pub while the local darts teams were in action! Who knew darts teams still existed!

Neil raps in on his wedding day

Neil And Kathy's Wedding

We relocated to Kangaroo Valley and Neil being Neil, we all went climbing the morning of his wedding at Point Perpendicular, known for its easy access and straightforward climbing (NOT).

All went smoothly however and Neil even managed to bolt a new pitch and still got back for the wedding in time, which some others only just managed.

The wedding itself was wonderful, set in a beautiful natural rock amphitheater and full of lots of unique Neil and Kathy touches. The ceremony was followed by drinks watching the sunset, an amazing dinner, and dancing (not so amazing when I was involved).

Neil And Kathy, such a beautiful day

Our last night in Oz

Back to Greenwell Point and dinner at the local bowels club. Wow it’s been a while since I have been to a country bowls club and they never fail to disappoint. Roast of the day, cheap beer and wine, friendly people and a meat raffle! What more could you ask for? But wait there’s more - in the random trivia question Cath won a free drink by being the first to guess the name and artist of the song they played (Billy Joel’s Piano Man). Oh yeah... leaving Oz with a BANG!

Spain

It takes a long time to get to Spain. All up 40 hours door to door from Nowra to Abella de la Conca. We arrived in Barcelona, rented a car, and drove 2.5 hours to Abella de la Conca where my friend Nick lives, and who we will be staying with on and off for the next little while.

It was great to catch up with Nick, meet Ella properly and meet their two kids, Illian and Owen.

It had been about 10 years since I saw Nick, and the last time was in Morocco, where we were getting slapped about by and old Moroccan man in his tighty whiteys in the guise of a massage, but that’s another story.

Abella de la Conca

The beautiful town of Abella de la Conca

Abella is a beautiful old town perched on a cliff side. The church at the top of town is 11th century, which to us Australians seems particularly old! It's a great place to be based for visiting some world class climbing areas around Catalunya including Terradets, Oliana, and Villanova de Meia among many others with the added bonus that Nick knows all the short cuts and bata!

Nick and Ella’s home is a wonderful old stone house, which they are currently renovating and should be amazing when finished. Their 2 kids, Illian and Owen are delightful. Illian is very energetic and at 2 and a bit knows almost 4 languages.

Isona is the closest town with shops and the small grocery sells seconds from the chocolate factory nearby in big slabs. Cath was very happy.

It was still quite hot in northern Spain and with most of the crags south facing, we needed to chase the shade. We spent a few days in Abella on some challenging techy routes - who says Spain grades are soft! A real highlight was walking the canyon below Abella, swimming in the pools at the bottom and playing on the natural water slide.

Owen had his first bithday while we were there, and just let me say, we need more first birthdays if they are all that good! We drank champagne and ate chocolate cake until all hours - long after the  birthday boy was asleep in bed!

Margelef

Due to the heat and because Nick planned to go there for his birthday we headed to Margelef.

There is a lot more shade here and some softer ticks for us!! J

Check out those guns!

We spent two weeks in Margalef with our first week staying at the Tres Pins Hotel where we were introduced the the Spanish Plats Combinats. This consists of salad followed by a slab of meat, eggs and chips and some sort of dessert to finish off. After six nights this was becoming somewhat monotonous, especially as breakfast was much the same - eggs, bacon, bread and cheese.

The rock is conglomerate and the climbing involved mostly pulling on pockets where the pebbles had fallen out. The climbing is generally fun up to around 7a+ and then the pockets start to get small, shallow and the routes steep. This meant that our fingers started to get sore!

We had a lovely rest day in Taragona – looking at an old roman coliseum, church and other ruins, followed by some nice tappas for lunch. We guessed from the menu and had plate of cured meat and a tomato salad.

Nick's birthday weekend in Margalef was loads of fun. We all got lots of climbing done and lots of merriment afterwards ( plus more champagne!)

Chillin' with a Catalan beer with lemon at Roca de Finestra

After our week at Tres Pins we moved to the Roca de Finestra hostel, hosted by the friendly Jordi. We were able to cook our own meals here and escape the Plats Combinats!

Another rest day was spent exploring Sirruana, and having lunch in a cliff top café where we stuffed ourselves silly not realizing how big plates of food would be.

Our last day climbing at Margalef was a particularly good one. Cath ticked 7a! her first of the trip and a good sign of things to come!

We then had a day climbing a Sirruana – wow I wish we had spent more time here.

I did my favorite climb of the trip up to this point onsighting to the first anchor of Rauxa 7a+ and almost getting the to the second anchor (7b) at L’Aparador.

Cavallers

From Sirruana we headed to Cavallers in the foot of the Pyranees. On the way we stopped at a sheep cheese place that Nick recommended and I bought nearly a kilo of cheese. So tasty!

The dam and granite cliffs around Cavallers, this was truly a magical spot to go climbing and hiking!

Cavallers is a beautiful mountain area, with more 11^th century churches, which are Unesco listed.  The landscape is a stunning alpine granite area.

On our first night we stopped for a glass of red at a small bar with great view, which turned into a bottle and a three-course meal. Best food so far (except for Nick’s cooking!) Green apple sorbet, local sirloin steak and braised pork cheek.

Our first full day we headed out climbing. The climbing was on immaculate granite sport slabs with features and we had a blast of a day! The next day we walked the Marmot trail, which provided us with stunning views of the valley and mountainous areas, all the time passing mountain cattle with giant cow bells, creating a true alpine soundtrack.

Rodellar

Rodellar

From Cavallers we headed to Rodellar. Wow what a place - so many steep caves and tufas, it’s amazing. We camped at Muscun campground, which was nice and quiet as we were apparently in off season, but conditions were great.

The climbing was great, although the easy stuff was quite polished. We both got a bit of a slap in the face on the steep tufas and were determined to learn how to climb them more efficiently and use the knee pads! We visited a more vertical wall called La Polermo where I onsighted 7b and Cath did a 7a second shot. 

Big caves at Rodellar

Picking grapes with CJ

I then discovered a route called Pince Sans Rire (7b+) which is amazing tufa climbing involving a large amount of pinching and a few run outs. My best effort on the route was falling from the  jugs just below the  anchor having skipped last clip (couldn’t let go to clip it). Amazing climbing, and a definite learning experience in tufa climbing.

Cath got shut down on a bouldery 7b – after which she purchased a ‘panic’ stick clip, which is already getting some use.

While at Rodellar we bumped into CJ and Anna and hung out with them at Kalandruka hostel. Simon Young also turned up a couple of days before we left. We had a good day climbing with him and then had a nice dinner cooked for us. He needs to turn up more often where we are climbing!!

Abella/Barcelona

Park Guell

After a week in Rodellar, we headed to Barcelona where we planned to meet friends from home Bec, Duncan, Meg and Mark. At dinner out in Barcelona, Duncan (who is vegetarian) ate the best olives he has ever had and surprisingly they are stuffed with anchovies. 
We spent the day wandering around town and visiting Park Guell. That night a storm rolled in and we got an amazing lightening show over Barcelona from the hostel balcony. Just as the rain stopped we made a beeline for dinner, going to a place called Tappas 24. We got a table outside, which was perfect timing as while we ate we watched a queue form around the corner of people wanting to eat there. The line was justified, as the food was simply amazing, and some of the best we ate in Spain.

The next day we planned to visit the Sagrada Familia early to beat the massive queues we saw there the day before. Unfortunately I woke up with a bad cold and stayed in bed while the others went. L

That afternoon we said goodbye to the bustle of Barcelona and drove back to  peaceful Abella for the annual town festival – “festa major”. All the towns in Catalunya have an annual festival, which each have their own character. Abella's festival included dinner, which is plate after plate of MEAT. Bec (who is currently vegan) indulged her weakness for blood sausage much to our amusement. After dinner there was lots of waltzing through the night to an accordion player, which was loads of fun. One of the local women tried to set Bec up with her son Sergio – Bec gracefully declined after a couple of waltzes!!

The next day after a necessary sleep in we all climbed in Abella and went up to the impressive arches, the harder lines and projects here look amazing!!

Finally the weather started to cool slightly (sort of) and we headed to Terradets, such a cool crag. We do a bunch of 7a-b’s and I spied Occident (7c) which I’m super psyched to return for.

Giant croissant - delicious!

Marks hip is playing up after his Nose in a Day attempt in Yosemite, So Meg and him head to his parents early. Was great spending time with them, pity it was so short. On the way to dropping them at the train station we stopped at an amazing bakery in Artesa de Segre and bought the biggest croissant you can imagine. And it is awesome. The bakery also has so many other amazing good to try including a huge variety of pizza slices.

On our second day at Terradets I had my first try at Occident. It felt hard but doable. I had 3 burns and was totally wasted but returned two days later and sent it first try of the day, so stoked!

Another great crag we visited was Collegats  (la Pedrera) where there are some great long routes including a three star  45 metre 7a+. Adding to the fun of the day was the access which involved a tyrolean over a river.

Rest days – Rest days in Abella staying with Nick usually turn out to be not so restful as he easily talks us into helping with the renovations with a sly french smile! This can involve anything from concreting, which Duncan and I now know very well, to lacquering a floor or anything else he sneaks in on us! Its all good fun though to see his and Ella’s dream coming together in a beautiful eco refugio. We can’t wait to see it all finished as it will be beautiful.

We all spent a day at Tres Ponts, where the climbing was good and interesting, although the easier stuff wasn’t the most amazing.  I managed to onsite a 7b+, by the skin of my teeth!

That night we had a fun camp stove dinner with with Bec and Duncan in a little kids park on the outskirts of a small town near Tres Ponts. We bid farewell to Duncan and Bec as they slowly make there way back to various flights to different parts of the world.

Cath and I decided to finish off this part of the trip with an “easy” multi-pitch day at Vilanova de Meia. We did a route called  Musical Express, which was 6 pitches (6b+ crux pitch). It was very high quality rock, consistently fun moves on mostly good holds, and all up a great day out.

Barcelona part 2

Sagrada Familia

For our last two days in Spain, Cath and I returned to Barcelona for some rest and to visit the Sagrada Familia, which we missed last time as I was sick.

On our first night we went down to Barcelona beach which was a bit of a tourist debacle, but on the way home we stumble across an excellent burger joint and indulged in a large burger each! Cath got the 'Aussie burger' with beetroot to remind her of home.

The next morning we got up early to beat the queues to the Sagrada Familia. I’m not religious but the Sagrada Familia is amazing and the architecture and scale of the build is mind-boggling! They have been building it since 1882 and still don't have a finishing date.

On our final night we stumbled across a food and wine festival and sample loads of amazing food from all over the place and some very nice wine and beer as well.

All in all an excellent last day in Spain – Culture and Food!!

Next morning we are up and begin the journey to Kalymnos, a Greek island and climbers paradise!

For more photos of our adventure please click here Spain Photo's

Abella de la Conca Climbing info

20 20 at 40

Life as I dream it would be without climbing

So I just turned 40, and I decided that instead of taking this lying down with a beer in hand, I would tackle it head on and then probably have a lie down with a beer in hand.

A little while back a friend of mine, Gareth, had a 20  20’s day at Frog Buttress which I thought sounded awesome, especially given my penchant for big days, like doing all the Henry Barber routes in a day at Frog Buttress and then again at Arapiles, both of which I had attempted previously.

With a little digging however I discovered that the 20 20’s done by Gareth was an average. For example, if you do a 22 you could then do an 18. So I decided I would have to one up this and do 20 x grade 20’s or above. Can’t let a northerner out shine you!

So with very little planning and a few frantic emails to get belayers the mission was on, somewhat.

Getting ready at the bottom of the watchtower with Gareth

The problems I then discovered were that 1) not all the routes were that close together 2) it’s winter 3) the days are short (very short) and 4) it’s potentially very cold and wet.

But what else to do on your 40^th than ‘ave a go ya mug!

So after arranging with Gareth* to meet at his house around 7am and Cath as support/photographer, it was on! The weather forecast was not looking the best but we headed up to the watchtower wall any way.

Rapping off the first 3 pitches.

Watch Tower Wall

1&2. Auto de fe 21, both pitches. Hmmm some warm up! A little harder than I remembered.

3. Fly lichen eagle 20, 2nd pitch only. Never done this one before so it was a gamble, but it was fine and saved some time as we could leave a rap rope in place!

Next we headed to Voodoo Wall

4. Chinese algebra 21. Man almost botched this one and its only pitch 4, eek!

5. Aussie logic 21. Went down with out much of a fight.

6. Wasp 20. Also went quickl

Pitch 4: Chinese Algebra 21

Pitch 5 Aussie Logic 21

Pitch 6: Wasp 20

Pitch 9: Streetwise 21, about to have a moment!

Then it was off around to Rats Alley wall

7. Striptease Parade 20. Nice slab but not much gear so was nice and quick.

8. Osmond Terrace 21. Same as the last.

9. Streetwise 21. I had never done this one before either, so again it was a gamble and this time it nearly didn’t pay off. I ended up getting a bit lost, but managed to keep it together.

Next it was across to New Image wall

10. New Image 20. Had done this a little while ago so was fairly straight forward.

Suport team members Gareth, Squib and Grug

After new Image it was time for a change of belayer: Gareth headed home to hang with his family and Squib from the Isle of Man, who always pops up at the most random of times took over.

Support Team Ross Simon and Emma

Pitch 12 Hidden Secrets 22

11. Continuum 21. Fairly straight forward.

12. Hidden secrets 22. Easy for 22, but hey I’ll take what I can get at this stage.

Unlucky Pitch 13 done and dusted! No future 21

Had to move on again and headed over to Tiger Wall

13. No Future 21. Getting tired and almost slipped off ….......Almost unlucky 13!

Change of Belayer: Squib headed off to try his project with Grug and the wannabe media mogul Ross Talor took over

14&15. The Good the Bad the Ugly, 20 first 2 pitches. Wasn’t to bad, this climb I was in my element – awkward cracks, still getting tired.

Pitch 16: Mind Games 20, a very close call

Then it was off to Golden Fleece Wall

16. Mind Games 20. WOW!!!!!, what a fight - messed it all up, thought I was off numerous times, but some how managed to tick, VERY tired.

17. Nightlinger 20. Took this slow and easy, but it was all fine.

Tanin wall

18. Wraith 21. Surprisingly wasn’t too bad!

19. Tannin Direct 20. Managed to kick my wire out when I was over the roof and very pumped. Fortunately more wires came to hand fairly quickly!!!

Buried somewhere in the Wizard of Ice 20, Pitch 20

Last change of belayers: Ross headed home to look after his son Paddy and the ever verbose Simon Madden fresh from sending his proj Ergonomics stepped in to finish the day.

20. Wizard of Ice 20. What a route, this route scares most people on a good day let alone as pitch 20 in the rapidly diminishing light! I started well and got through the first wide section but then after a lot of hollering and grunting collapsed in a heap 3/4 of the way up this last bit so close to the easer climbing. This one was always going to be a very big gamble. I was lowered off in a smoldering heap feeling ill and completely exhausted plus a little incoherent.

This is when the support team sprung in to action, Simon can up with another last route and the team convinced me to do this one more route!

20b. Pilot Error 20. In the dark, with arms cramping so much they were getting stuck at right angles, fortunately though this short little one move wonder had big enough jugs to haul myself through to the top!

20.75 pitches of 20+ on a winters day to celebrate turning 40 surrounded by great friends who helped me all the way. Such an awesome birthday and one I won’t soon forget!

Thanks to

Gareth

Squib

Ross

Simon

Emma

Grug

And of course Cath who was there to help the whole day!

Some Stats:

690m Climbed

432 grade point**!

More Photos can be found at: 20 20's at 40

The Beer at the end of a great day!

* Might as well get help from the one you’re trying to one up ;o)

** number of pitches multiplied by grade