Petzl Roc Trips - Part II

Kalymnos – a climbing paradise

by Martina Cufar

As soon as I saw a poster of the Kalymnos Roc Trip on the last day in Millau, a smile crossed my heart, and it was not so difficult to leave Millau, because I knew I would be living my dream one more time this year!

It was not easy to find cheap air tickets for the end of October, because there are no more charter flights, but I was willing to pay any price just to be there. I spent 10 perfect days on this small island in the Aegean Sea in 2004, and I knew that it’s a climbing paradise! What makes Kalymnos so special, besides its 43 climbing sectors with 850 amazingly nice routes, are the Kalymnian people. They live for and off climbers. One really feels welcome there.

Over 650 climbers gathered in Kalymnos for the fourth Roc Trip festival there. The “competitors” were 13 men and 7 women. The Ultimate Routes waiting for us were unique, amazing, unforgettable and adventurous! And adventure began already in the early morning. At 7.30 we met in the harbour and took an 1,5-hour-long boat trip, during which the boat was rocking and rolling on some really big waves on the way to the Sikati cave. When we finally got there, we were really seasick. But it was fun. We were together with Katie Brown, Liv Sansoz, Stephanie Bodet. Like in the isolation zone 10 years ago; but this time it was more relaxed, without the competition pressure. As the boat entered the bay, we became speechless. The Sikati cave is a huge hole in the ground, like a footprint of a big monster.