The North Face festivals brought a certain prestige that had been missing since the 2006 Roctrip. Please note: we do NOT advocate the chipping of holds or the creation of artificial holds. Names should be written discreetly, in Latin characters, at the base of the route in blue paint (not felt-tip pen, which disappears too soon).   Here’s the lineup of what is still the best festival on Kalymnos to date: Dani Andrada (ESP), Klemen Beçan (SLO), Said Belhaj (SWE), Dave Graham (USA), Alex Huber (GER), Ivailo Krastev (BUL), Thanasis Ktenas (GRE), Tony Lamiche (FRA), Chris Lindner (USA), Steve McCLure (GB), Shawn McColl (CAN), Arnaud Petit (FRA), Ethan Pringle (USA), Manu Romain (FRA), Chris Sharma (USA), Katie Brown (USA), Stéphanie Bodet (FRA), Martina Cufar (SLO), Charlotte Durif (FRA), Melissa Lacasse (CAN), Daila OJeda (ESP), Liv Sansoz (FRA). In the email, state. Route lengths can never be exact, so always tie a knot at the unused end of your rope. Generally mild weather with comfortable temperatures make all-day climbing a possibility. • This path doesn’t make sense! Kalymnian rock seems to come in three varieties: – extremely overhanging with blobs, tufas, and stalactites, which can still be “just” 7a even at a 20° angle; – slightly overhanging or vertical smooth white and orange walls with pockets and smaller tufa features; and. Three PETZL climbers stayed on Kalymnos for a full month to equip the routes. 16. In this way, climbers can concentrate on the technical difficulty of the routes without worrying about serious injury or worse. Take your family, your friends, regardless of age and sample a wonderful experience. • I heard Kalymnos is kid-friendly. 10. The route difficulty ranges from F4a to F9a so everyone from beginners to experts will find something challenging on a Kalymnos climbing holiday. Where’s the toilet? The toilet is at your rental, so give yourself enough time before hitting the crag to use it. The men’s route was proving more tricky especially with some of the tufas remaining damp and no one managed success on their first redpoint attempt. Kalymnos has become one of the major rock climbing destinations for professional climbers as well as beginners on an international level. Be prepared to swat them away year-round. At the same time the first Kalymnos Rock Climbing Guide was published. The degrees of difficulty start with educational routes from 4c and reach up 9c for the experienced. Do not mix different materials, for example a stainless steel bolt with a non-stainless steel hanger. However, many remarkable long routes (40–45m) have been opened on Kalymnos in the past few years. But let’s not forget Maja Vidmar, who was also in excellent form. This differs from most grading systems where one rates a climbing route according to the most difficult section (or single move). In fact in Kalymnos is the National School of Diving that offers its graduates the public diploma of diving. Climbing on Kalymnos has been developed with all climbers in mind–from complete beginners and families to the most experienced climbers–and a dedicated focus on safety first. Everything changed by chance, when the Italian climber Andrea di Bari visited Kalymnos for his summer holidays in 1996. And right after that, he sprinted to Sikati Cave in the middle of the afternoon to flash the 50m Jaws 8c, also placing the draws. – your previous experience equipping and/or rebolting sport routes; – your bolt specifications (which must comply with the specifications in the New Route Protocol); – the number of new routes you plan to rebolt; and. It would be nice to keep this tradition on Kalymnos. It was back in 1996 when Andrea di Bari "discovered", almost by chance, the nigh limitless garden of rocks on the island of Kalymnos while holidaying in Greece’s Dodecanese with his wife. Don’t feed the goats. The dominant reason that people do not climb as much in the winter is simply because the tourism season has died and many of the amenities in Massouri have shut down about Nov 1st and less direct flights are available from the rest of Europe. The southern part of Kalymnos is the least developed area in terms of rock climbing and therefore the climbing feels a little more remote than the rest of the island. Kalymnos can be climbed all year around but the dominant season is spring/fall with most climbers going in October so crags will get a little full during this time. By all accounts this was not the most eventful festival; for some detail, see here and here. A pair of gloves is a good thing to have at the crag, and your local equippers really appreciate any help they can get in cleaning vegetated routes. 18. Read more about the 2nd Kalymnos Climbing Festival. The festival was a joint effort by the Municipality of Kalymnos and Aris. Weeds, woody shrubs, and thorny bushes often grown in the line of routes, especially in the spring and on routes that don’t get many ascents. Please don’t wait until the end of the day to do this—if you leave things laying around, you are inviting the wind to blow them away. Full version of the Kalymnos New Route Protocol (courtesy of the Municipality of Kalymnos). Kalymnos offers over 3,500 climbing routes with multiple levels of difficulty. However it still didn’t stop Martina Cufar (SLO), Charlotte Durif (FRA) and Daila OJeda (ESP) from clean ascents. Bolts should never be placed on stalactites. As a guide: – Routes up to 20–25m: 10–12 quickdraws. As part of the 2015 Municipal Rebolting Project on Kalymnos, nearly 300 routes were rebolted and 100 new routes were added. All loose rock must be cleaned meticulously using a hammer and/or a crowbar, and vegetation in the line of a route must be removed. Furthermore , since 2010 in Kalymnos it operates the first closed circuit climbing responsible to educate Kalymnian climbers, maintenance of climbing routes and renewing them. --Meursault in 'The Stranger', It's bright white limestone is different from most other sectors, Images Instead of slings, bolts should be used. No homemade bolts, please. Do not take shortcuts. • Summer: Better than you might think. Dust off your copy of Greek Mythology for inspiration. Keep your backpacks zipped shut at all times. It is hard to imagine a time before the rescue team existed on Kalymnos. Between 2010 and 2015 there was no support by the municipality for any rebolting or maintenance. 180 climbers from 13 different countries participated, exchanging views, giving talks and climbing together, transforming the crags into a joyous Babel. They mostly set up routes in existing sectors Arhi, Spartan Wall, Grande Grotta, and established the first routes at Sikati Cave. All Greek islands are littered with cliffs anyway, so we didn’t jump to any conclusions. 9. It all started when a famous Italian couple climbers visited the island and saw the huge potential of the island in terms of climbing. Telendos is free of roads and has a very sleepy feel. A bolt should be placed exactly before the crux of a route, not after. The climbing routes are marked based on a difficulty scale, so as everyone will be able to directly verify their progress. Great efforts have been made toward consistent grading, but since routes on Kalymnos are equipped by climbers from all over the world, and some of these routes have not yet seen their second ascent, some may need re-grading. The guidebook has reached the 2010 edition. Also two good maps for Kalymnos from Anavasi maps (you can also get the GB here) and Terrain maps, View Kalymnos (Καλυμνος) Image Gallery - 51 Images. If, for example, the first 20m of a route is 6b and the last 15m is 7c, fix a belay point after 20m so that the route can be enjoyed by more climbers, not just those climbing 7c. This magnificent island of the Dodecanese in the Aegean Sea has many assets for both novice and experienced climbers. • Spring: Almost as good as autumn for climbing. 6. 15. It brought approximately 1000 climbers to the island, including a collection of the finest climbing athletes in the world at the time, who challenged themselves against the newly-bolted “ultimate” routes in Sikati Cave. Not having a rescue team on the island is now unthinkable. The couple again visited the island in the 90s helped to set up and opened routes mainly on the north side of the island. Every single bolt must be placed on solid rock. Since 2015, the local municipality has continued to throw together underwhelming annual festivals in September or October, even though Kalymnos has long outgrown any need for them. • The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festivals (2012/2013/2014): The North Face stepped in to organize three consecutive festivals on Kalymnos (2012-2014) with a lineup of many top athletes. Some very popular newer crags (Secret Garden, Arginonta Valley, to name a couple) are in the shade almost all day; they often enjoy a cool breeze, and you may even need long sleeves for belaying on summer mornings. Aconcagua mountain itself has many routes, photos, and trip reports as children. No further routes should be put up inside the cave of Grande Grotta, to protect this one-of-a-kind work of nature and its millennia-old stalactites. The sea is too cold for swimming and the chance of rain is higher, but, generally, Kalymnian rock dries fast. A new route is not just about bolting and cleaning. • Close the gates behind you. © 2006-2020 SummitPost.org. • Do some gardening. At a minimum, plan on 15 quickdraws + a 70m rope. Why should Kalymnos be any different? Special guests were the already mega-talented 16-year-old Adam Ondra and 22-year-old Slovenian climbing champion Maja Vidmar, and more than 300 registered climbers from around the world got to admire them. Thanks to the excellent quality of its rock Kalymnos has become one of the most popular destinations in the world for the sport of rock climbing. Stalactites sometimes drip in the spring and, as they are softer, they are more likely to break. The problems are organized into circuits and each circuit is color-coded for their degree of difficulty. The volunteer rescuers are professionally trained to rescue an injured person from crags and approach paths, with or without the use of ropes, and to provide first aid. Also present were some climbers known for their important role in the growth of climbing and equipping of numerous routes on Kalymnos, like Michel Piola, Hans Weninger, Guy Abert, Karsten Oelze, Manolo Zanolla, and Simone Moro. There is nothing monotonous about the climbing—there is a great variety of rock, with slabs, delicate walls, pumpy routes with pockets, and stalactites or tufas on overhanging rock and roofs. 8. If the winter has been rainy, tufas may be seeping. Ah, how things have changed. The color/difficulty codes are White/children (pour les enfants), Yellow/easy to a bit difficult, Orange/some difficulties, Green/some difficulties, Blue/Difficult, Red/very difficult, Black/extreme difficulties. The degrees of difficulty start with educational routes from 4c and reach up 9c for the experienced. (1), Additions & Corrections Highlight of this route is Kalymnos recognized as the modern day Mecca of island sport climbing destinations of the world with its thousands of climbs. 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