Easter, Dead Goats And Knee-Bars

So the Easter weekend has just passed. And the Greek take it very seriously. They close down restaurants, go to church, hang Judas in effigy and blow up absurd amounts of dynamite and other explosives. Being so close to Turkey, it took me a couple of days to adjust to the constant explosions and consequent rumblings and echoes off the walls which I was climbing (seriously, the explosions went on for at least 5 days). 

On Friday Susanne, Liam and I rented some scooters and rode over to Pothia, the capital of the island. We were told there would be a big procession that night where they would be carrying coffins through the streets. When we got there, the town was very alive and busy. While walking around, we were scared out of our pants every 30 seconds from nearby children lighting off firecrackers. 

We ended up grabbing dinner by the port and saw the procession from a distance. It was underwhelming to say the least, mostly just religious figures walking down the road. Either way it was worth getting out of our small town of Masouri and witnessing a festival from another country. 

On Saturday we had a short day climbing so I decided to take my scooter for a cruise around the island before needing to return it. I almost made it up the first large hill before running out of gas (I wish the guy told me that the gas gague was broken and stuck at a quarter tank). Luckily I was at the top of a hill! Before coasting back down I took an opportunity to snap a sweet shot of me and my rad 50cc scooter. 

On Monday Susanne, Liam and I decided to take the ferry over to Telendos, the beautiful island situated in the background of so many of my photos. 

The climbing was great and the change of scenery and seclusion was even better. 

The goats are very brave and can scale steep cliffs with ease. But sometimes they slip and fall. And sometimes their horns get stuck in bushes and they perish. 

This route involved some rad tufa wrestling and stemming. Definitely going to miss all of this fun tufa climbing when I return to the states. 

Credit: Susanne

Credit: Susanne

The following series of photographs will serve as a guide to resting your arms when climbing on tufa-laden, overhung limestone walls. 

All credit for these sweet photos goes to Aly, with whom I was climbing the 2 weeks prior. 

Level 1: Heel hook, heel toe cam and drop knee. Basic moves for making it easier to clip a draw or get a quick rest in the middle of a sequence. 

Level 2: The knee bar. An old standby, and a serious favorite of mine. In these cave-like situations you can find amazing knee bars at least every other move. It allows you to magically transform a 5.12a into a 5.11c. 

Level 3: The cowboy saddle (I made that name up). Find yourself nearing the top of a large tufa blob?? Just sit right on top and squeeze with the thighs! I like to then yell "yippie ki-yay" for added affect. 

Level 4: The hanging double knee bar. The best rest. The most badass looking rest. And the only way to get a rush of blood to your head so great that you forget what you're doing.

Thanks again Aly for the sweet photos. 

Today was my last day climbing in Kalymnos. It was a nice mellow day with Susanne and Liam. And afterwards we sat on the beach and watched the sun set behind Telendos. A fitting farewell. 

This place has blown me away. Definitely one of my favorite climbing locations to date and plan on coming back here in the future for sure. With that said, I'm excited to move on and see more of this beautiful planet. Tomorrow I take an overnight ferry back to Athens. Then on Thursday I fly to Lisbon Portugal where I'll be meeting up with Camille and we'll drive across Portugal and Spain together!