Last week was the 5th annual Kalymnos Climbing Festival on the Greek island of Kalymnos in the eastern Aegean Sea. Kalymnos, once the island of the sponge divers, is now the island of the climbers, with numerous limestone cliffs offering hundreds of bolted sport routes.
Aris Theodoropoulos, an Athens climber and author of the Kalymnos guidebook and many of the island's routes, sent me a report of the festivities at the five-day climbing event. The festival featured special guests Nico Favresse, winner of the coveted Piolet d'Or award, and Basque climber Patxi Usobiaga who has onsighted and flashed routes as hard as 5.14.
The duo, besides swimming and diving, also climbed the multi-pitch route Uomo Senza Qualita (5.13c or 8a) at the Ocean Dream sector as well as climbed lots of other routes along with almost 300 other registered climbers.
Aris reports that one day at Sector Odyssey, the Greek deputy minister of tourism George Nikitiadis, the mayor of Kalymnos, and other local politicians trekked up to the cliff to watch Patxi and Nico climb. They were, says Aris, "greeted by the puzzled smiles of climbers who aren't used to seeing men in suits at the crags." The minister's visit was also covered by Greek national television. Nico cruised Marci Marc (5.13a or 7c+) for the audience, skipping the last clip and lower-off by jumping from the anchors.
There was also a bouldering competition at the main square in Pothia, the largest city on Kalymnos. Many difficult boulder problems were set by climbers Zafiris Kamaropoulos and Dimitris Papageorgiou, making for a suspenseful competition with German Alexander Hill winning the men's event and Greek climber Argyro Papathanasiou taking the women's prize.
The Municipality of Kalymnos plans to establish this climbing festival as an annual May event to get better sponsorship and more organization. Aris reports that there is "a pending collaboration with The North Face for the next festival in 2012."
If you're planning a European climbing vacation, visit Kalymnos either during the festival or any other time. The climbing is fabulous. The food is great. And the locals are friendly and generous. For more information about climbing at Kalymnos visit Climb Kalymnos or check out my book Rock Climbing Europe, which features a large section of routes, topos, and travel information for Kalymnos.
