27 / 06 / 2024
Its been some times since I last posted any thing on the blog. Not that there is a lack of topics worthy a comment. And I'm not just thinking of the pathetic Everest season in full swing... Plenty of other stuff in the savvy world of climbing conflicts deserve further thoughts. But I have been busy climbing and training so I will defer from spraying out my well known thoughts on the various topics.
I spent about 10 days in Kalymnos and I have to say it was fun in a strange way. I have never visited a climbing tourist spot like that before with all that comes with the territory.
I had huge expectations and to some extent they where met. The Grande Grotta and Panorama was truly stunning with exceptionally good climbing. Some other sectors where a huge let down. I saved the Sikati Cave for next trip. So I will go back not only to do some of the routes in the Grande Grotta and on Panorama I did not do but also to go and try out the Sikati Cave. I had a fairly productive session and did plus 20 routes of good quality. A few shitty routes and I missed some obvious dispatches. In one way the trip was a huge failure, I was pretty convinced I would score some tourist ticks and send my first 7c onsight but I kept getting winded up and stressed out and fell off all 7c onsights I tried. I did a few in 2nd go easy so kind of silly. I did not try anything hard I just tried to have fun and get as much quality climbing done as possible.
One thing I have to comment on is the grading. All the talk about all routes being so soft I found slightly misleading. I can understand that all the rests play in to some extent and that the gym style of climbing can be perceived as soft but if you are more of a normal climber, the upside down, inside out climbing is pretty far out. Some routes felt more like wrestling than climbing. Full on body action. The down side with the trip was that I think I lost plenty of pulling hard strength and no fingerboard training for such a long time is not good!
