kirklees climbing
KALYMNOS NEWS
Kalymnos, from its climbing birth in the mid 1990s, is now arguably the top fantasy destination in the whole of the Mediterranean area. It currently
enjoys a popularity even greater than the estimated 4000 visitors in 2001-2002.
But for how long will the climbers come?
Info on this Aegean climbing paradise is now not hard to come by.
Rockfax produces a low-cost
download to selected crags, Aris Theodoropoulos’ definitive guidebook can be obtained in
the better climbing shops in the UK and is widely available on Kalymnos itself. The local
cafes, especially the excellent Glaros Bar run by ex-pats Steve and Sue McDonnell, pride themselves
on holding up-to-date route books. Stimulating articles can be found on the web-sites such
as Planet Fear and
Crag X. A good list of web links can be
located on the Kalymnos web site.
You don’t have to be on the island for long to recognise that the local economy is
increasingly dependent on the new arrivals especially with the withering away of the tour
operators’ interest and the non-arrival of a functional airport. There’s an enthusiasm in
the local greetings that goes just that bit further than the traditional warmth encountered
in Greece and, underneath, a slight tension especially at the end of the season… a, like,
how do we keep the climbers coming?
First impressions are: what’s the problem? The place is not far short of paradise, you’re
hard pressed to get such a beautiful place with so much accessible rock, with such as idyllic
climate for most for the year, with so much encouragement from the local community.
Undeniably, it’s a must!
But is it a must for a second or a third visit? Kalymnian crags tend to offer acres of grey
slabby rock interspersed with steep caves truly dripping with tufa. So far, the vast
majority of routes lie in the F4 to F6 range. In the higher F7s (and particularly 7c+ and
above) there is relatively little to offer. When asked about visiting, a well-known top
British climber replied “What’s the point?”. Enthusiastic and competent climbers will have
ticked all the best F7s in a week.
The obvious retort to this is that climbing tourism is dependent on the masses not the
elite and Kalymnos does indeed offer hundreds of low to middle grade routes (indeed, one of
its delights is that there are many attractive bolted routes of a very accessible standard).
However the masses follow the trends and when an area ceases to attract top climbers (and
regular magazine articles extolling the latest antics), then the masses' allegiances switch
to the latest ‘in’ spot. Think how quiet certain French crags are these days relative to
their popularity in the 80s and 90s.
However, those who’ve not been to Kalymnos recently would be very wrong in assuming that
things are stagnant.
Even Aris’ excellent guidebook of December 2003 is well out of date already. And it’s not
only filler-in routes. The 2004 Kalymnos International Festival took, as a main challenge,
the creation of new quality hard routes... and it succeeded! Consider Rockfax's
pessimistic retort that, at
the cave at Arhi, “there probably aren’t enough feature for it to give a lot of new routes,
However any route which did go up there would be an awesome achievement.” Well look now…
and even awesome seems a hopelessly inadequate description. New additions range from F7c+ to a 'probably F9a'.
Unusually for sport routes, some of these brain-mangling, neck-aching lines are
semi-traverses yarding out left from the already ludicrously steep Eros. Link the blobs!
‘Course these might be too easy for you, so take a gander at the End Cave between Spartacus
sector and Afternoon. No, not in the cave! Be more imaginative, think big and look up above at the
huge (40/50m) blank wall spotted (rather infrequently) with white chalky dots. These lines,
jaw-dropping beyond belief, appeared during the 2004 Kalymnos International Festival and
the hardest, according to Dave Graham, must be 9a/9a+ (because be couldn’t do it!).
Looking at it, there’s no reason to disbelief him: world class in difficulty and in
quality, just waiting to be done.
Brief details of these new additions, and many, many more, are outlined in a recent news article on the
Planet Fear website.
Equally, easier routes are being developed at a pace with quality lines on the quieter
crags offering new opportunities and new views; ask Steve at the Glaros Bar for the
updates.
So, climbing on Kalymnos is by no means static. There’s every reason to keep it on the ‘to
visit’ list. So why not e-mail Ryanair and encourage them to get Kos, the nearest airport,
on their acquisitions list? Why not borrow the local council’s free drill and bolts and
create your own routes…. Kalymnos is probably the place in the world to add your own special
contribution. The climbing world has not heard the last of this beautiful island jewel by a
long shot.
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