Video: Upskill Climbing Camp #2 - Kalymnos 2010

Not to be confused with the video from the first group a couple of weeks ago, this is all new material, all new actors, and is based on a true story.

More Cheese Please! Upskill Climbing Camp #2 - Kalymnos 2010 from Upskill Climbing on Vimeo.

Join our second group of the year on their tour of duty in Kalymnos, Greece. To sign up for the next one, or to peep more Upskillery, visit www.upskillclimbing.com

Kalymnos 2010 - Trip Report 13 (Spartacus, Seabreeze, Katherina, Odyssey)

Today, our second group of climbers flew out of Kalymnos. As we wave goodbye through the glass window at the Kalymnos airport, Sam and I are saying goodbye to our last links to Australia for the next ... who knows? But let's step back a few days.

After the big day at Ghost Kitchen, the group's seventh climbing day was scheduled for Spartacus (aka Spar-ta-klus). This big orange bowl is one of my favourite sectors on the island because of its looong routes. I quickly ran up Tales of Greek Heroes 6b+ to set a toprope on this 40m pitch. You can use a 70m rope just by the skin of your teeth.

Ronsley and Lena both toproped on this and Andy punched out a lead. Sam has a project up here dating back to 2007. The route is called Harakiri. Its modest grade of 6b belies its steep, pumpy climbing and sequency crux. It's basically Sam's anti-style. Andy was kind enough to put the draws on "Bloody hell I'm pumped!" and Sam decided to have a warm up burn. Long story short, the warm up burn turned into the send. Happy days!

It seemed the sendage gates were open so I jumped on Neska Polita 7c+ and dispatched it on my second try after misreading the tricky crux traverse. We needed a route that would take Andy out of his comfort zone and the steep, long and intimidating Kerveros 7a fit the bill. Andy fought the good fight but it wasn't to be. Another one to come back for!

After a well needed rest day, Seabreeze and Katherina were the sectors in mind for what proved to be a warm but windy day. Seabreeze consists of a sweeping expanse of the typical Kalymnian grey-blue slabs. The routes here can be quite long, up to 35 metres, which is nice. Some rock features that differentiate Seabreeze are the chickenheads (nice) and some very sharp gouttes (V-shaped pockets). Ruth got stuck in and led a few routes, as did Ronsley, who came down from one and immediately led the one next door.

We were also really keen to get Lena super confident with belaying lead climbers on the Sum, so I was the crash test dummy and Sam was the belay coach. I proceeded to climb a 5b, taking falls every few metres. There's quite a bit to learn in terms of giving a soft catch whilst considering any obstacles, how to help the climber regain their highpoint without expending much energy etc. She was quite intuitive with this learning and now seems rock solid on the catch.

After punching through a few routes from 5b to 6b, we headed around the corner to Katherina sector. This red limestone wall sits overlooking Arginonda and looks a bit chossy from the road, but it actually hides a few gems, one of which is the aptly named And Now For Something Completely Different 5c which Lena is climbing in the photo below. It's a big trench thing and contains some wacky 3D climbing.

Ruth and Andy climbed the saucy Pornokini 6a which is famous as the route an 84 year old guy onsighted. Ronsley led Tufa Slab 5a while Lena escaped the sun...

Dave got inspired by a newish route called Albi Bak 7a+. It's always a worry when a route in Kalymnos has zero chalk. But up he went anyway. It climbs a prickly, flowstone covered vertical wall to a corner, runout climbing to a roof, then the crux turning the roof on reachy crimps to a short, steep slab finale. Dave gave it a couple of burns and despite drawing blood and taking some big falls, couldn't quite put it in the bag. He knows the value of power endurance training now to increase that "six move pump clock".

Keen to share the blood and sweat, Dave talked Andy into getting on board, and the reachy route was right up Lightfoot's alley. He came off the roof on his flash attempt, methodically worked the sequence, and then on the second burn after going up and down on the roof for a couple of gut-wrenching minutes, inexplicably came off again (aka doing "an Andy"). Gahhhh! It was a heartbreaker. I had to hug the guy.

The final clibing day was dictated by the boys. Ronsley said "If we go to Odyssey, I'm going to sit and project Atena all day". Andy had unfinished business after "Andying" off the top of Dionysos 7a and Dave had his Itaca 6c (more like 7a) project from not only this trip, but the previous camp in 2008. So, it was decided.

First up, Ronsley. I dunno if it was the fact that it was the last day, but something lit a fire under him and he came outta nowhere on Atena. One solid burn, then another - on lead - on a route that was grades above anything he'd climbed. He ended up one hanging it, and wrung the last of the usefulness out of a shoulder that had been dodgy all trip.

Andy on Dionysos. What to say? On his first shot the other day he climbed almost level to the anchors, so we knew today would be better, and it was. He put in several shots and fell at the anchors each time. On his best burn, he climbed PAST the anchors and still couldn't clip! I thought he was going to top out Odyssey and walk off the back. Well, that's about as close as you can come to sending, and yet not. 100% Andy!

Caught from Andy? Who knows? But falling from the top was a theme of the day and Dave loves carrying on a theme. He did with his burns on Itaca. It's a bloody burly route that spits climbers off the top time and again. On one burn he touched the victory hold but didn't latch it. Soooo close.

Everyone went down the hill exhausted, knowing they'd done all they could physically do on this trip. That makes me happy - seeing people give their all. The tick is actually not very important, but the process of learning, refining and giving it everything - this is what makes climbing so rewarding for me, and I love sharing this.

So this concludes yet another absolutely terrific camp here on Kalymnos. Even though the group came together with extremely varied experience and backgrounds in climbing, they were able to throw all of this in the melting pot and come out the other side with stacks of new learnings and motivations to train and progress their climbing when they return home.

And Kalymnos herself, well, she's gained yet more devotees, with talk of moving here, building houses, or at least being back on the next Upskill Camp.

Thanks for reading. This is the last post chronicling the progress of our Kalymnos Climbing Camps for 2010.

Now resuming your regular Upskill programming in 3...2...1...

On and On

Capitol Reef National Park. Ahh!

White knuckle driving out of town last weekend.

The gal who cut my hair.

After the hair cut.

Before the hair cut!

I am really glad that you have visited my blog.Thanks and I hope to see and hear from you soon.

Rob Pizem

And last but not least, don't forget to check out my favorite sites: http://www.scarpa.net http://www.arcteryx.com/ http://camp-usa.com/ http://sterlingrope.com/ http://coloradomountainjournal.com/ http://www.wunderground.com/ http://climbing.com/ http://rockandice.com/ http://deadpointmag.com/ http://urbanclimbermag.com/ http://andrewburr.com/ http://ladzinski.com/

Kalymnos 2010 - Trip Report 12 (Ghost Kitchen)

Group discussion this morning was on the mental game. What are those self limiting beliefs that are floating around in your noggin which are stopping you progressing your climbing? How might they be  serving you? How can you change them? Fear of falling may be in there, but often it's only a part. What about expectations? What about worrying what others think? So we discussed the importance of training mental toughness, why falls are a non-avoidable ingredient in climbing progression and some strategies we can use to reduce anxiety and truly enjoy the act of climbing on lead. This is the good stuff! Love it. [If this is stuff you're interested in, there's a couple of good books (like this and this) or you could join us sometime and get hands on.]

So, after me scrounging builders rubbish to build a bosun's chair (pic of field testing below), we jumped in the car and blitzed to Ghost Kitchen. GK offers some quality vert walls, gently overhung tufa madness, and the best warm down slabs on the island.

This would also be the crag we would test out our new CU belay glasses. Guaranteed to make you look like a Professor of Belaying (PBe) and a complete dork, these unusual prism-based glasses allow you to see directly upwards without tilting your head. This allows you to watch your climber while maintaining a relaxed stance. It's a tradeoff of fashion sense versus neck pain. Verdict: crystal clear and pretty awesome. Bloody expensive though (about $120 AUD). If you buy three it's free shipping and no tax which brings the price down some.

Dave and Ruth reaquainted themselves with Joy In The Garden 6a after Andy's onsight while Lena and Ronsley did Achilles 5c+. Warm ups over, I belted up the main wall and commenced hanging from my fencepost with the camera. Andy was up on the sweet Remember Wadi Rum 6c which just has the most crazy tufas and blobs.

It was a valiant onsight attempt, foiled with a slip of the foot on the finale, resulting on Andy wizzing down the tufa curtain. Second shot there were no such mistakes. Tick tick for Andy "I'm a delicate flower" Lightfoot! Dave got inspired by that effort, and girding himself in his Upskill kneepads, he proceeded to knee his way up the route. It was rediculous the amount of solid kneebars he found! He was however overcome by the unusual outtro sequence and took flight. By this time the sun was on the wall and a second try was off the cards.

Dave, Ruth and Lena enjoyed the nearby Delta 6a+, and my vantage point out in space on my fencepost afforded me some unexpectedly good angles and I snapped some great shots like this one of Lena. Perhaps my fave shot of this trip so far?

We then headed down to the "skateboard slab" which hosts some great very slabby, smooth and pocketed slabs. One day I'll bring a skateboard and see if it's possible to drop in and ride it out on abseil. I slammed the draws up on Persephone 6b in my sneakers (my new hobby; 7a is my best so far), and nearly everyone climbed it clean I think. Lena absolutely killed it on the slabs, with first try clean topropes of Parasitos 6a+ and Zyklop 6a+. Sam flashed Zyklop which was notable for it's un-Kalymnian-runout-ness.

And then came Serena. "6b? I'm calling bullshit on that!" Dave had been spat off the top section of this awkward number on the last camp. Rematch time. Using good tactics ("Nah mate, I won't ruin your onsight!"), he sent Andy up to put the draws on. With his reach like a sick dog, Andy grunted his way through the overhang and with difficulty, got himself into a position to clip the anchor. Draw on. Pull rope. Go for clip. Fumble. Draw swinging. Try again. Fumble. Swear. Draw swinging in a mocking, "you can't catch me" manner. More swearing. Final scathing stare at the anchor. Fall. Noooooooooo! It was in the bag!

Suitably padded up, Dave jumped on, cruised the slab and engaged the steepness, finding some no-hander kneebars. Up in the business, Andy passed on the crucial beta "Stick your arm up there like you're helping a cow give birth!" Dave had clipped the final bolt then started to gibber. ("I only had about five seconds left!"). He then somehow wrangled double kneebars which gave him enough juice to clip the tricksy anchor. Yeah boy! What will you be doing at 60? :)

Today's fun fact:

To the belayer of a top-roping climber, a red upturned helmet on the ground broadcasts thusly: Dave has initiated a game of pebble basketball. Would you like to play? You have selected...yes.

Capitol Reef National Park

Mike B on a zig zagging 5.11 crack. This one is found in the Grand Wash and is about a 2 minute approach. Classic.

Steph Davis on a nice 12+ splitter. This crack is also in the Grand Wash and is as good as they get for this size. Steph crushed the route easily after her knee surgery months ago.

The Capitol Reef visitor center. Be sure to stop in and get some fresh pies!

Mike B making breakfast on a cool morning in the park. For 10 bucks a night it's quiet and you are right in the middle of everything in the park. Clean bathrooms and friendly folks and hundreds of fruit trees.

Mike B on his overhanging 35meter hand crack. It's awesome! Some easy face/crack climbing at the beginning leads to a beautiful 20 foot overhung handcrack out the dihedral. It is just a minute from the road (Grand Wash).

I am really glad that you have visited my blog.

Thanks and I hope to see and hear from you soon.

Rob Pizem

And last but not least, don't forget to check out my favorite sites:http://www.scarpa.nethttp://www.arcteryx.comhttp://camp-usa.comhttp://sterlingrope.comhttp://ColoradoMountainJournal.comhttp://www.wunderground.comhttp://climbing.comhttp://rockandice.comhttp://deadpointmag.comhttp://urbanclimbermag.comhttp://andrewburr.comhttp://ladzinski.com

Kalymnos 2010 - Trip Report 11 (Odyssey)

Welcome to the fifth day of climbing for this group here in sunny Kalymnos.

Sam on the walk-in to Odyssey, while Ruth cranks in the background.

Funny stuff with Ruth today on the slippery and tricky Femio 6a+ (pictured above). It's stiff - no gimme for the 6a+/19 grade. Because of its position it gets tons of traffic and is therefore super polished. Ruth gave it one burn and had plenty of rests and claimed "There's no way I'm leading this, it's just too slippery!" After sorting things out on toprope a couple of times, she was suddenly tying in for the lead. What the? Ruth is highly vocal when climbing and if she's thinking it up there, she's saying it. So we get a great insight into what's going on in her head as she's climbing, and yet me tell you, there was a lot of self-doubt and uncertainty during this lead! We've all been there. To Dave's great credit, he played his role of belayer (i.e. climber supporter) perfectly and was able to help Ruth make her way through the doubts and push through to the anchors and her hardest lead climb. Congrats Ruth! From now on I suggest less judging what you can't do, and being more curious as to what you can do. There's so much ability there waiting to be unleashed...

This little orange domino spider (not the technical name) was way cool.

Dave decided on the tough Itaca 6c (perhaps more like 7a?) as something to get a workout on. He'd been on it on the 2008 trip and in this shot (above), tries like hell to remember the sequence. On his second burn, he went all the way through, skipped the last bolt, only to fall on the final hard move. A very near thing, and 100% energy output. Just what we want - awesome!

With that kind of effort, you get special personal shade privileges. All part of the Upskill Service ®.

Andy's day proj was Dionysos 7a. I put the gear on, ticked up some holds for him and then gave the beta rundown. He fell on the last move on the flash. Effort! On the second shot, same deal - that powerful final move! He woke up the next day sore across the back and shoulders and is now booked in for a massage.

Another day, another shot of Telendos. I never get sick of it.

Kalymnos 2010 - Trip Report 10 (Dolphin Bay)

We awoke to another perfect day. After our big day at Poets, we aimed to downshift and do some volume. On the menu was the rather unassuming looking Dolphin Bay. Located on a headland near Kastelli, this white marble cliff requires either a steep scramble on scree, or an abseil to access. We chose the abseil for some extra spice. Some of the group hadn't abseiled for ages, so we did some rigging practice and set up different methods with autoblocks, Grigris, ATC's, munter hitches etc. All good learning.

While the cliff looks a bit ho-hum, it hides some real gems. The easy routes here are of great quality and during 2009, a whole stack of new routes got bolted, so there's now about 40 to choose from.

Ronsley and Lena really enjoyed their time on Wisteria Lane 5c+ to begin the day. A great route on featured white marble with an overhang to overcome up top. Lena in particular really styled it. I went crazy with the camera all day as the blue background of the ocean contrasted so starkly against the white rock. I love sea cliffs! I'm going to not write much and instead let the pics do the talking...

Andy against the sea on Trokrakhan 6a+

Sam put in a great effort to flash the sequency Baklava Maniac 6b. Ronsley also really enjoyed this route. His route of the day. He did seven routes I think.

Ruth battled through and redpointed Trokrakhan 6a+. I like this landscape shot.

Me playing around on the slippery Kalymnian Lightning 6b+. And for the record, no, this is not photoshopped.

Dave and I had fun on this route. It's mostly an overhung crack route up slick polished limestone. Being down quite close to the water, it cops the salt spray, and the main challenge of the route was to not have your feet blow off the holds as you laybacked with various levels of desperation. Dave was blowing like a chimney up there with his feet skittering around like a cartoon character. You can see the steam coming out of his ears in this next shot...

Nearly there Dave!

The furthest left route on the wall necessitated belaying from a low rock platform. You can see Sam down there belaying as Andy onsights Too Fat For Tufas 6a. The tide was slowly on the rise and the shelf was getting more and more wet from the waves. It was more exciting belaying than climbing I think. At least it was for me when belaying Sam. When she was at about the fourth bolt, a HUGE wave pounded over the top of the rocks and drenched me and the rope utterly, while the group looked on from their dry perch just above. Much laughter!

So the verdict on Dolphin Bay for an easier day of climbing by the sea - total winner. 10 out of 10 eh Dave?