Europe, Balkans, Greece - Kalymnos

My best friend Sonja and her boyfriend (now husband) Mike were my guests almost two years ago. During their visit I learned for an amazing place very close to Bulgaria - Kalymnos. They showed me a book with wonderful picture of this climbing paradise and make me dream about it.

The island of Kalymnos is about 300 kilometers south east of Athens, and 100 kilometers north west of Rhodes. It has 15 500 permanent inhabitants, most of whom live in Pothia, the capital of the island. It is well known as the sponge harvester’s island. It is surrounded by a number of small islands, only two of which are inhabited, Pserimos and Telendos. Pothia is a picturesque town built like an amphitheatre around the port. It has all the necessary facilities such as banks, a post office, a hospital etc, as well as an intense commercial life with shops selling all kinds of goods.

The island of Kalymnos offers rock climbing throughout the whole year although summer can be very hot and the winter weather is a little unpredictable. April and May are usually considered to be the best time for rock climbing and bouldering.
Rock climbing on Kalymnos started as recent at 1996 when Italian climbers discovered Kalymnos as a climber’s paradise. The island offers a variety of numerous lime stone rocks with different kinds of difficult degrees. The rock climbing is never monotonous as there are routes involving delicate moves or athletic routes on overhangs and roofs with holes and stalagmites.
Rock climbing on Kalymnos is still rather unknown at an international level and therefore you will not find the usual crowds and queues which are typical on the famous crags.
There are 24 equipped crags with 200 pitches , from F4c to F8a+ (all bolt protected, sport climbing), mostly facing west , but a few facing south .
The rock is excellent quality limestone, sharp at only a few points, without vegetation, and the pitches are equipped with rustproof bolts. At the moment almost all the routes are one pitch, but there are many possibilities for amazing two to five pitch routes. Indeed, apart from the quality, there is also the vast amount of rock available. The opened routes represent not more than 5% of the possibilities, while there are several equally good cliffs completely untouched that are awaiting their first route!
The ranking system in use is the French one. The grades of these routes are on the Kalymnos Route Database.

Used pictures and information from http://www.kalymnosinfo.com/ and http://www.kalymnos-isl.gr/