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trad in Cabo da Roca

Today we climbed with Leo in the Cabo da Roca. To start climbing one must first rapel 60m to the seashore. The climbing is granite (moist and sandy - or sandy-moist:) and we climbed a trad multi-pitch route, so it was very exciting for me to lead placing gear in these conditions. Especially since I am just learning to climb cracks AND place gear.... lol

preparing the rappel

The week-end:
Saturday was amazing in climbing terms: I first redpointed El Carallon, a wonderful long & complete route (technical crack, tufa, overhang, crimps, slab) and then had an OS try on Unicornio, a beautiful 7b+ which went really good, despite me falling off. Of course I didn't know exactly how hard the route was before setting off, but the climbing here is just sooo much fun and motivating with everyone cheering and encouraging! My climbing improves at least 30% and I'm easily doing things I've never done before - :D!

Sunday: after a splash in the "mar bravo", i.e. angry sea taking surfing class and a wonderful "almozo"= lunch in Jessica and Puja's house on the Costa da Caparica we went climbing to Fenda (again). This time though everyone was rather tired and socializing. The surf lesson wasn't very pleasant, the sea was really furious even where the waves break and I could barely stand on my feet in knee-depth water due to the strong tide. But it was definetly interesting to get more familiar with the sea's moods. Pics coming soon!

Apart from these leisure activities I am still looking for jobs and sending out CVs and search let’s call it creatively. So yesterday I accidentally found a posting for researchers where the first requirement read “-Be a fit and competent rock climber, including free climbing”!! After my astonishment subsided a bit I had a closer look: it was field research in the Oman – observing an endemic goat. Unfortunately I don’t fulfil all other requirements but I think the job must be lots of fun!

more from Portugal

Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon...
Positive vibes - team Portugal in Portinho da Arrabida. Almost everyone climbs here on week-ends and the atmosphere is just electric - everyone's encouraging, shouting up betas & congratulating when one finally gets off a route after a fierce fight... it inspired me so much that I climbed my first 7b Flash - yuhuuuu! The number is cool - I never imagined I would be able to do this, especially that I'm not climbing much lately, but it doesn't have any importance whatsoever in comparison with the experience of receiving all that positive energy from a motivated crowd of lovely people! Pushing your limits just becomes a secondary aspect... I think this is one of the things I love most about climbing - I guess if I had to label it it would spell Teamwork & truly Inspiring People...

getting ready to surf with the Chicas on the Costa da Caparica!

it's incredibly hard to motivate any of the climbers here into any other activity that might take precious time away from climbing, but with the help of strong persuading skills = enthusiasm (sorry, I have to focus on these skills for my current jobhunt)... well - this already sounds like a ridiculous sales pitch. So getting to the point: we had a lovely time taking surf lessons

cabo Espichel

Sagres

Armação - THE climbing spot in Sagres

Praia do Castelejo - the sea was full with surfers

Praia da Cordoama

kilometers of beaches - this one is half an hour walking distance from the first one

and yet another one - Praia da Ponta Ruiva

after having played around learning to surf with Kimie on friday in Caparica close to Lisbon the beaches around Sagres (where we initially went to climb) made me want to know to surf NOW - or even better - YESTERDAY if possible...

Although the climbing I've seen in this country is beautiful, I think you're far happier as a surfer than as a climber here in Portugal... although it's very entertaining to see how standard 'fashion' surfers are... I hope climbers are not as ridiculous :)

Sintra

more from around Sintra...

Portugal

Sintra landscape

Magoito - Leo taught me how to climb cracks & place gear

Ciucas - Romania

A superb one-day tour with Andras. Spent the evening after in Sf Gheorghe drinking Elöd & Dani's select Hungarian wines & chatting about life. The next day climbed with Elöd Creasta Caprioarei in Cheile Postavarului - 5lc with grass, loose rock, fog, rain and ultimately snow - and I adored it! Thank you all for the wonderful time!

Székely confirmation - Szentgyörgy - Románia

Last week-end Hanna, my goddaughter had her confirmation and I had the honour to be there, dressed in a Székely traditional dress and hairdo. Székely is for those who don´t know the name of the Hungarian community members settled in this part of Transilvania.

Notice that Hanna who is now 14 is taller than me.


This is Ildiko, Hanna´s mother and my good friend.

After the confirmation we all went to my godparent´s house (they are the grandparents of my goddaughter..) for an all-day lunch-dinner-fest with the extended family. It was a great big-family atmosphere which I enjoyed a lot - it felt like filling up my batteries again with them.

KALYMNOS – DOCADENESE ISLANDS – MEDITERRANEAN SEA GREECE

Another fantastic evening on Kalymnos: once again, a huge group of `foreigners´ having a big party (again somehow the Brasilians took the lead outnumbering other nations). Presenting: Eric, a Dutch guy who fell in love with the island on his repeated holidays here and decided to come live here opening his own business, a bike-rental. He is very entrepreneurial and besides renting scooters he offers information on about every topic you can fathom. He is our liaison person here, as almost everyone else we met up to now we met thorough him. Jay, Eric´s Russian friend and two crazy Brasilians who live on Kalymnos, two Belgians travelling around the world on their bicycles, Pablo & Daiana plus another Brasilian climber visiting the island. We had dinner at a fancy restaurant normally only locals go to, as it is only open on week-ends and you need weeks in advance to reserve a table (please notice how we established the essential connections in shortest time). The atmosphere was great, with beautiful live Greek music with Bouzoukia throughout the whole evening. The food was so delicious that not only we now understand why most of the Greeks we saw here are fat, but from now on we can also relate to them. The food is so good you don’t wanna stop eating!

The FOOD was so tasty I want to tell you all about it:

For starters we got a delicious mixed salad with traditional Kalymnian crouton bread (they bake it for 14 hours in a special oven) all covered with a seasoned crushed feta dressing ; other appetizers included tzatziki and earth pots containing small pieces of lamb meat in a delicious sauce. The main course (by this time most of us were full since long) came on huge plateaus presenting 5 different types of meat, all delicious!! Then again the small pots with lamb meat, this time in another, even more delicious, vegetable sauce. When serving the small pieces of meat out of these little pots you get the sensation you are eating gems.

So it’s not only the climbing experience here in Kalymnos that is so interesting, but also the culinary and cultural one.

One of our big pleasures here is eating out. The distinctive quality of the food here is that it is FRESH, be it fish, seafood, meat or produce. Also, all the tavernas we ate at so far are family-run places and you can get an insight into local family life, as they generously display it there. Some seemed to be more of a living-room of the extended family including grandparents, uncles playing chess, aunts chatting, babies and friends rather than a place for receiving foreign tourists (especially now out-of-season I guess). Generally, the mother is the cook, the children do the waitressing (they are more likely to speak some English) and the father oversees everything.

I am impressed by the Greek hospitality & spontaneity. They love talking and offering gifts, even if they are strangers. These kind gestures, Filoxenia (= hospitality) are integral to the Greek experience.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT KALYMNOS

Kalymnos (16 441 inhabitants) belongs to the Dodecanese and is located 14nm away from the coast of Asia Minor, in the vicinity of Bodrum. The arid, rocky island’s coastline is 96 km long with only a small number of pebbled and sandy beaches. Infertility of the soil on the island forced Kalymnians to make a living from the sea trades, mainly diving for sponges, which is why Kalymnos is still known today as “the sponge diver’s island”. This centuries-old profession however came to an end due to the invention of the artificial sponge in 1950 and the Mediterranean sponge epidemic in 1986. Since then, the island is making an effort to reinvent itself as a holiday destination, now branding itself as “a climbing paradise in the Mediterranean”.

A tour of the island also reveals traditional island life outside the tourist resorts. There people who seem to live in a time-warp dedicate themselves to fishing, agriculture and keeping goats.

Life on the west coast of Kalymnos is completely seasonal. From April to October climbers and other tourists outnumber the local population, while in winter almost all business is closed. This time of the year there is a population shift from the climbing & beach resorts to the larger capital & port Pothia (15 km. away) which has schools, infrastructure and an abundant social life.

Besides climbing, the island holds touristic potential for diving with its wealthy marine ecosystem as well as archaeological underwater sites.

The majority of the islanders are self-employed or run family businesses which revolve around the tourism industry. Shops close for the siesta and then reopen until 11pm, which is when locals generally head out to dinner!

Greeks are inherently social animals and love getting together on any occasion, be it for coffee, dinner, family reunions, etc. Regrettably though, reunions can get quite smoky, as Greeks are the biggest smokers in the EU: 42% of the population over 14 are heavy smokers. Another disappointing fact is that Kalymnians do not seem to care too much about the environment or something is fundamentally wrong here regarding garbage disposal. The slopes descending from the road to the sea are littered with all the junk one can imagine, from old washing machines to crashed cars.

THE CLIMBING

Any climber returning from a holiday to Kalymnos will tell you excitedly it´s one of the climbing spots they liked most so far, that it’s fantastic, etc. ... But what is it that makes the climbing experience here so exceptional?

First of all it´s the amazing setting: anywhere you’d go you’ll have a beautiful view over the Aegean Sea, scattered islands, the sun’s rays playing on the water, open sky, yellow-orange-grey rock walls abundant with tufas and stalactites in crazy shapes as never-before, sparse yet lovely vegetation and goats saluting you with serenity.

The sectors and routes have resonant names drawing on Greek history & mythology: Spartan Wall, Iliad, Odyssey, Olympic Wall, etc.

Then it is the climbing itself which is indeed fantastic. Be it slab, vertical or overhangs, on crimps, pockets, tufas, slopers, you name it! There is plenty of quality limestone and the routes are well-bolted, partly by famous route-setters such as Claude and Yves Remy, Boris Girardin, legendary Chamonix-bolter Michel Piola, etc. The sheer amount of rock on the island allows for hundreds of routes for every taste and style.

For those who don’t fear falling off tufas & stalactites and who have the creativity to find knee-bars and no-hand rests, climbing on these formations is a unique experience. Other climbers might be intimidated by this 3-D style of climbing. The good news however is that even routes as easy as 6a can take you on the tufa-journey of your life! They come in all shapes, sizes and - what is the most uncommon and the best - on any wall inclination (except slabs obviously)! You may find for example slightly overhanging 6c-s with meter-long horizontally protruding stalactites... or should they I call them tufas in this case? J Sectors Grande Grotta and Sykati Cave represent the epitome of tufa and stalactite-mazes on huge steep overhangs.

Kalymnos

it was a spontaneus decision to come here, it was all winter and cold in Rodellar, so someone came up with the idea to come here, as it was the only climbing spot with a reasonable weather forecast in Europe.. so on Christmas we bought tickets for the next day and here we are now.

We left directly after our Christmas party in Rodellar, as our flight was leaving early in the morning from Barcelona. Nobody slept and the party continued on the way to the airport. The friends who drove us to Barcelona went to climb in Montserrat. The Christmas party was lots of fun, all of the remaining inhabitants of Rodellar joined to cook and celebrate together. It was 17 of us and a Czech guy and me were the only Europeans among a bunch of mexicans, brasilians and argentinians..

I am very impressed by the climbing here on the island, there is something to climb for every taste and style.
And of course, the sea is beautiful! The water is still warm, so we can bathe in it & all...

Mallorca Deep Water Solo September 2009

September is supposed to be the best season to go for deep water soloing in Mallorca. The temperatures are not as high as in summer, whereas the water reaches its highest temperatures. Deep water soloing is climbing on cliffs above the sea without any protection and falling into the sea if you don’t manage to get up. The cliffs we were going to climb on this trip ranged from 10 to 20 meters height.

I flew from Barcelona with a Slovenian friend Miha to Palma, where Daniel and Derek from Hamburg picked us up and drove us to Cala Barques, a small beach on the eastern side of the island, where we would spend most of our time.

We lived in The Cave (a cave indeed) on the beach, which Daniel and others systematically equip with just about everything. Most of the things get stolen over the year (axe, saw, shovel, etc.), but a clay oven and a carved wooden chair , a hanging bed, a table as well as other tools make for a cosy living. One day we went to explore the depths of this long cave. After walking and crawling for ca. 10 minutes we arrived at a big cavity that accommodates a sweet-water lake.



The climbing was a bit too scary for my taste, not being used to this style of free climbing and falling into the sea from such heights. Most of the time you would first have to downclimb from 10-20m in order to get to the base of the routes. Although easy, these downclimbs scared the hell out of me and didn’t foster my appetite to keep going up and down all day. But the sea was perfect to swim in and Daniel and Derek had put up a slackline park on the beach, so there was plenty to enjoy.

Daniel is a regular of Cala Barques and has uploaded a few videos from other years on www.youclimb.de. You can check the videos in the section called DWS to get a taste…

Riglos – Fiesta de los Biceps

Mythical route in the Mallos de Riglos, 250m, 7a, conglomerate, overhang. Eight pitches. 6a, 6b, 7a, 6c, 6b+, 6b+, 6c+, 6a+.
2 teams. Javi & Elena and Joseba & I.

We started climbing late, around 17h, to give Javi & Elena a lead over us and avoid climbing in the sun. Therefore we climbed fast, linking up 2 pitches in one push. The crux is the third pitch, a 7a slab. The route starts to become increasingly overhanging in its upper half, delivering fun steep climbing on huge protruding cobbles. They are so big you can climb monkey-style for pitches, blowing your feet off just for the fun of hanging 200m in the air off jugs.


On this occasion I also got the opportunity to learn first-hand self-rescue-techniques. I fell off the last hard pitch and was hanging in the void, unable to reach the rock or get up, nor communicate with anybody. In the meantime it got dark. Luckily a full moon came out and I figured out quickly how to climb up my rope with prusik knots I improvised.