Greece-Kalymnos-Fly out/Kos (Day 165)

We headed out to Athens flying out from Kalymnos.

The Kalymnos airport is a little exciting built high on a hillside.

Anja posed with the statue of a sponge diver.

If you’re a sponge diver never forget your cigarette for after a good dive.  Unfortunately the airport being high on the hillside also makes it very susceptible to high winds and the wind was really blowing today.  We would have been smart when we got there to just change flight right away and probably could have gotten out from Kos that day but we took the gamble and by the time it was cancelled we had to flyout the next day from Kos.  

We hoped a taxi to the port and caught the 30 minute ferry to Kos.

We found a hotel room and took a walk on the beach.

It was actually kind of nice to visit one last island before we left the Greek islands.

Greece-Kalymnos-Grand Grotto (Day 164)

We headed back up to the Grand Grotto.

I got up on a warm up climb.

We came up to the Grand Grotto for Anja to try to climb Trela a super long (40 m) 7a.  It was a real struggle but she fought through for the red point.

I followed on top rope. 

Ram wanted nothing to do with a 40 m climb but there was a nice short 7a+ just left of Trela.

Since Ram had hung the draws, Anja headed up the climb too.

After the Grotto we rented some motorbikes and headed up to the Cave climbing area to head down into a cave.

We climbed down into the cave.

And explored around.



The cave was awesome.



Anja found a big crystal and wanted to take it home but I had to tell her it would put our bags over weight on the plane.


Nice pose window.

We climbed out.

We took a tour of the island on motorbike.

We stopped by the hospital and said our goodbyes to Will as we were headed off to Athens the next day.  We had to hurry back to return the motorbikes.  I stopped at the hotel to drop Anja off and Ram went ahead to return his bike.  When I rode up to the bike shop, Ram and his bike were lying on the ground.  Ram had been kind of nervous about the motorbike riding so the whole time he rode behind me when he rode off in front of me he hit the gas.  He saw the motorbike shop and hit the brakes hard but opps he pulled the front brakes and was on the ground.

Amazing sunsets for our last night.

Greece-Kalymnos-Arhi (Day 162 & 163)

Ram is a strong climber but has no stamina so we kept looking for short hard routes.

Arhi had a 7a+ that fit the bill so we headed over there in the morning to climb in the shade.

I found a 6b+ to try before we got to the real steep climbing.

Again I failed to on-sight the route.

Before Ram got on the climb I setup on some bolts to the right to shoot photos.

Ram got on the 7a+ and sent no problem.

After sending Ram setup to shoot photos.

Anja gave the climb a shot on lead but had to hang.

I did on top rope.

Back on the motorbike and we headed home.  I made quick trip to the hospital to see Will.

That night we had dinner with Will’s climbing partner Chris.

The next day Ram and I made a trip to the post office and saw Will again.  Nice night shot of the coast.

Awesome sunset as usual.

Greece-Kalymnos-Palace (Day 161)

We headed up the coast to an area called the Palace. 

It was really just a photo shot rest day.

We climbed this pretty easy route so we could lower off the climb.

This is the shot  we were going for.

Anja was monkeying around.

Photo shot over we hoped on the motorbikes to take a tour of the island.

We headed to the far north end of the of the island to Emporeios.

This road was a little too steep for two to ride the motorbike.

We had gotten word that Will the guy we’d met earlier was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  He told us he was speeding up an easy climb to to take some pictures of friends when a hold broke and he fell and hit the ground.  He had been in the hospital for 4 days already and had surgery done on his ankle.  Will was bored out of his mind and really happy to see us.  We also brought laptops with music and video but sadly we couldn’t get any files onto his iPad.  We hung out and talked to him for awhile until he got tired.  Before we left we went and loaded him up on junk food. 

Greece-Kalymnos-Grand Grotto (Day 160)

PHOTOS FOR TODAY’S POST BY RAM SRIPRACHA.

It was Ram’s first climbing day on Kalymnos so we had to take him to the Grand Grotto.

We started the day with me trying yet another 6b+

with yet another failure to on-sight 6b+.

Anja then did it after me.

We then headed over to the left side of the grotto to get on DNA a short and very steep 7a+.

Anja got on it and charged

but she wasn’t able to on-sight the climb

after a good hang though she sent it to the top then Ram did it and flashed it.

Then I flailed my way up it on top rope.

Before we pulled the anchors I used them for a crazy swing.

More Sunrise!

So our new Salt Lake Kalymnos climber friend Will knew our Salt Lake Nepal canyoneer friend Jane so 5 day or so before I had posted how we had met Will on Kalymnos.  We had not seen Will for a number of night but figured we just missed on the street. That night I got a message on facebook from Jane (who was in Salt Lake) “Great that you met Will...bummer that he broke his leg in Greece!”

Oh boy, we set out to try to track down details but could not find him or his friend at their hotel so we left our email addresses under the door.  Funny that we had heard Will broke his left 1 mile away from our hotel from half way around the world.