Almost Final Days in Kalymnos

The past three and a half weeks in Greece, or possibly it is an accumulation of the previous eight weeks in mainland France and Spain, is taking its toll.  We are both tired and a single rest day does not seem to be enough to revitalize us.  Unfortunately, time is not an luxury that we have left in Greece, so we are making the most of the time left and climbing as much as possible and taking as much rest as possible, hmmm, we've resorted to day on day off.

After a damp morning in Afternoon crag, we moved into a very crowded Grande Grotta.  The boys (Barry and Andrew) got onto a short 7a+ "Aphrodite", which Barry onsighted nicely and unforunately Andrew fell at the crux, the difference being a couple of inches in height, I think.  Unfortunately, they were climbing on someone else draws and I didn't get the opportunity to give it a try.  However, the grande grotta is a haven for photography so I did get a couple of nice shots.

Next up was another 7a+ (downgraded in the new guide book to 7a) "DNA" which I did get an attempt to top rope (I know I should have just lead it but I was cold and didn't think I had a good attempt in me, I regret it now), what a great route).  Andrew styled it, made good use of the rests and got it onsight. 

Shortly afterwards, Juan and Eoin came along styling up a number of routes, including Aphrodite, DNA and Ivi. 

And along came the tiredness.... we've been to Odyssey for the last couple of days for me to attempt a number of 6c's that I've been trying.  I managed to redpoint a stiff short 6b+ "Why Not?", onsight a second 6b+ "Atena" and repdoint a 6c "Imia" in two attempts.  Unfortunately, my other attempts at "Ciao Vecio" 6c, "Itaca" 6c+ and "Island Highways" 6c were not for me, I did lead them to the chains and get all the moves. It was simply a matter of not enough "green beans" to get me through the routes in one go.

Amidst all these climbing days, Andrew and I, rented a scooter for a day and drove around the island.  We headed to Palionnisos (end of the road to Sikati cave) and had coffee in Paradise Taverna with Nikolas the friendly (oh so friendly owner who usshered us in, regardless of what we wanted).  There we found a giggling bunch of Slovenians, Nikolas' life photo albums spanning the history of his taverna and his sponge diving career.   Lets say it was an interesting hour, we left shortly after he brought out glasses of ouzo for fear of what might come next and time for our island view from a moped was slowly slipping away.

The rest of the day was spent lying on a small pebble beach, shivering as the clouds covered the sun, a quick dip, a spin to Vathi and Rino (the idylic fishing village on the other side of the island) and back through Pothia to Massouri.

Photo Update

I'm slowly getting through my photos and editing them.... here's a selection on flickr that I took in France.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemcgloughlin/sets/72157625036661623/with/5102896932/

We'll meet in that Greek place!!

Ok, so the title is really unrelated to the rest of the post but it made me laugh. A text just now from Barry, “So, 730 Greek place suit yas?” It made me giggle!! Of course, I knew exactly what he meant and replied “Yup, sounds good”, but afterwards thinking, aren't we in Greece, aren't most places Greek?? 

Beautiful evening glow!!

After a very chilled out (slightly too chilled out - with all my books finished, not much else to do in Masouri when its too cold to go swimming) rest day we headed up to a newish sector called Kalydna. The routes were sharp and uncomfortable. I chose the first pitch of “Fragment” to start the day off. An easy 5c? Hmm, maybe it was easy moves, but it was fairly full on, sharp and very run out all the way to the top. This we followed with "Late Evening Light", a 6a+, actually had a really nice top section, sweet moves onto a short tufa to the chains, but it was hard to forget the pain of going through the sharp crozelly mush that was the bottom of the route. 

With bad weather comes beautiful light afterwards

After we succeeded on these two routes, it was a fairly unanimous agreement to head to Panorama, where we got on a sweet 6c, Neptune KL, only one star in the book, but we both thought it was great! Andrew onsighted it in style, his first 6c onsight. I managed to get about two thirds of the way up on the onsight attempt, but got pumped out. I managed to finish the rest of the route, though taking a couple of rests. I had a second attempt on top rope to work the moves, but at that point I was tired and the sun was coming onto the crag. 

Sunset over Telendos

We came back the next day with the intention of getting back on that route. We started with a warm up 6a Eureka, it was ok, but a little sharp (maybe my girly fingers are giving up on me). This we followed with a cracking 6b "Uncle Ernie" which we both got onsight. Since "Neptune KL" was occupied we decided to try our hand at "Gwundernase", a 6c described as an excellent wall climb with tufa blobs. That it is. Andrew held it together and got it onsight, 6c number two. I managed to get to the fourth clip, down climbed to the ground, had a rest and then headed up again, only to fall at the fourth clip anyway, bummer. It took me quite a while to work that section out, very thin crimps on crozzelly rock, up to an undercut and a sidepull. Eventually I worked it out, and continued to the chains, another route to come back too with some fresh energy. We finished the day on Lothar Scie, a sweet 6b+ that I should have onsighted but I just had no energy at that stage.

Eoin Kennedy in Panarama

So, I felt my energy levels were waning and it was midpoint in our time in Kalymnos, so we opted for a two day rest day. Heading to Kos town for the first and the second just chilling out in Massouri. Kos town is nice place to spend an afternoon, though after a few hours you've seen it all. Cool castle and old roman ruins though. 

Sights of KOS

We woke Thursday to a very stormy, very wet morning. A cloud covered crag and not an end to the dismal weather in sight. A chilled out coffee for the morning, we thought we'd re-evaluate the situation in the afternoon. Still raining at about 3 o'clock, I'd given up for the day, but then the sun came out and all the boys were itching to go up. Hmmm, a stormy swim on the beach would have suited my just fine, but hey!! So at about 4pm we headed up to Panorama, the gods, they really must have been with me that day, as I hopped onto one of my 6c projects "Gwundernasse" as a warm up and managed to flash it. This also was the second attempt on the route. We then decided to go try our hand at "Cyclops", another supposedly 3-star 6c, but the spaced bolts on the upward trending traverse freaked me out a little, I did, however, managed to lead it, but I can't say either clean or graceful.

Barry O'Dwyer on Neptune KL in Panarama (6c)

Andrew on Uncle Ernie in Panarama (6b)

Back to Panorama the following morning, but my head wasn't in it - this was not helped by the rather large amount of red wine the night before or that all night the crag was sitting in a mist of cloud, and although it looked dry, the tufas were muggy and damp. I top-roped "Neptune KL" my other 6c project, and I was not a happy camper on it to say the least, slipping and sliding all over the place, I even managed to pull off a rather large hold. I somehow managed to keep hold of the piece of rock, but being 10 meters up I wasn't sure what to do it - I ended up chucking into a clearing and watched it bounce a good ways down the hill (don't worry we checked for random passersby - no one was in the firing line). That whole experience didn't do much for the confidence. I'm not even sure if I want to go back and redpoint it. 

Unknown climber on Agealus in Granda Grotta

Odyssey was the choice of venue today, we warmed up on a route we'd done previously and then attempted a 6c, one that looked fairly vertical - bad choice for Carole as there was a horrendous reach 2 bolts from the chains, there was no way for me to do it with out dino'ing or something. My little arms just didn't have the strength for that on the ground let alone 20 meters up. From there we hit "Dionysos", a 7a I'd my eye on after watching a couple of people one. I managed to lead it all the way to the chain, with a number of rests. I then top-roped it again (need stamina for this one) and did it in fewer sections. Its a great route, I wonder will I have the stamina to do it though... it get rather steep at the finish. I'll definitely keep trying it a few more times. 

Thanks to Barry, a couple of climbing shots of me, working Dionysos 7a in Odyssey

Sikati Cave

So as a group and being Uruttia and Jenny's second last climbing day, we all decided to rent moped and head to Sikati cave.  I can't say it was the best choice of day! When we woke up the wind was howling outside, the chair on the balcony was rocking noisily, however, there were blue skies.  So we packed our gear (or repacked in reality to make it as small as possible) and walked up to the moped rental and picked up 4 bikes (3 doubles and 1 single) and the 7 of us headed off (after a quick coffee en route). 

The boys - trying to figure out where we were and where we were going!!

Initially this was great fun, watching the beautiful sights whiz by (I was the passenger), however as we drove flat out (hitting a whopping 40KM at top speed) around the coast, gradually gaining height the wind felt like it was stronger and stronger, I began to feel more and more vunerable, almost getting to the point that I be let off the bike (almost)! The bikes are so light, you can feel the wind move / shake them as we drove. 

The walk in

So, we arrived at a bend in the road, with about a dozen other bikes parked, parked the bikes and started to walk.  It was about a 40 minutes walk across uneven ground to Sitcati Cave, though I'm not sure I'd actually call it a cave, more a hole in the ground, probably a sea cavern that's roof calapsed.  It was unlike anything I've seen before. 

Sikati Cave (Hole)

Unfortunately, there aren't a huge number of mid graded routes, in fact other than 2 5c's, everything was hard.  I climbed the two 5s easily, though I must admit they were sparsely bolted and hard for the grade.  I spent the rest of the taking photos of the guys working some of the 7's.

Images of Eoin Kennedy, Juan O'Raw, Barry O'Dwyer and Urritta climbing in Sikati Cave

"Its not normally this cold in Kalymnos at this time", the english owner of Glaros told us.  "There's a north wind blowing, but it should pass over us by the weekend".   Of course thinking to ourselves, its still a good 15 degrees warmner than autumnal Ireland, I don't think we'll complain.   To us, the weather is great!  Mostly sunny days so far, a bit of wind, actually, a lot of wind, but for climbing the temperatures is good.  But the wind's not such a good mix for the beach and book rest days.  Ah well....

View of the sun setting over Telendos from our balcony

So, we're getting into the swing of things, slowly getting on harder routes, finding our feet and taking falls.  Over the last couple of days we've been to Odyssey, Afternoon and Spartacus.

Barry O'Dwyer on a 7a in Odyssey

Things are coming together, definitely both feeling a lot more confident.  Andrew had a success today on a 7a in "Odyssey" which he got in two attempts, and very close to a second 7a (Calipso), both routes were close to onsights, this will come with mileage.

Barry O'Dwyer on a 6b in Odyssey

Juan O'Raw on a 6b in Odyssey

I had a couple of 6b onsight successes, one in Spartacus and one in Odyssey.  I've started to work a couple of 7a's in Odyssey, I haven't decided which will be my first project, both I think I am (or will be eventually) capable of them, however, I think the deciding factor will be stamina.

Eoin Kennedy climbing in Odyssey

Andrew working a 7a (Calipso) in Odyssey

We had a rest day in Pothia, not much to say really, lots of boats, lots of fish, a closed archeological museum and not a whole lot else.

Typical Greek Doors

The port in Pothia

From Dublin to Masouri

After a week at home we are settling into our next adventure.  The island of Kalymnos for the next month.

The view from our balcony - no complaints here

It was great to catch up with everyone, both family and friends, while we were at home in Carlow and in Dublin.   It even made us (well maybe just me, I don't know) a little sad to be home.  In some respect, I feel we are missing out on what everyone is doing and what we would be doing if we were still living at home and I certainly miss people alot.  However, this is something we both want to do, and once we stepped on the plane to Greece we knew this is where we wanted to be (at least for now).  Who knows what next month will hold.

After a rather horrendous flight to Greece, horrendous, only due to the fact that we had a eight hour lay over in Gatwick airport, through the night.  Really not the place I wanted to be, however, it did allow me get a good chunk of my book read (girls, the series is great - thoroughly enjoying it so far - twilight saga for those that are interested).   We arrived in Kos and spotted another Kalymnos bound climber and asked if he wanted to join us in our taxi to the ferry.  The taxi man had obviously over heard the conversation with us and dropped us at the ferry then expressed his very displeased opinion that we were sharing taxis....and ended saying next time let me do my job (basically if he could he wanted us all in single taxi's spending as much money as possible ... oh well).

Absolutely exhausted we spent the next day wandering around the little town of Masouri familiarizing ourselves with the crag and where the hundreds of little paths go and to which area.  We were just too tired to climb.   Ready and rearing to go the next day we headed up to an area called "Poets", with some lovely 25+ metre routes.  We both ticked 6a, 6a+, 6a+ and a 6a+, a nice little introduction to Kalymnos, our only complaint was from our finger tips.  The rock in this sector was so sharp, not a polish hold in sight... but not a bad complaint.  The following day we met up with Barry, Juan and Eoin and headed up to "Afternoon Crag" and "Sparatacus" where we got on some more 5s and 6s.  We were happy with our first two days.  Nothing hard - but both feeling comfortable on everything...