I recently returned from a great climbing trip to Kalymnos and on return was quite happy to announce in my local club in Copenhagen my first 7a onsight and two 7a redpoints. However, I was immediately countered by people who said that "everybody knows that grades in Kalymnos are soft, the routes you mention are probably just 6c or maybe 6c+ at most". My objection to this was that the grades I mentioned were confirmed by the new 2006 guidebook, where a lot of routes have been downgraded from the previous guidebook. If the grades of my routes were soft, wouldnยดt they have been downgraded like many others on the island? The answer to this was "Well, they havenยดt finished downgrading yet". It should be mentioned that this person admitted that he has never been to Kalymnos and that he was just referring to rumours on 8a.nu. The routes I am referring to are Leda (Palace), Calipso (Odyssey) and Dionysos (Odyssey). Would anyone care to comment on this subject?
Hej Sune. I don't no about these specific routes. However, I think general statements like ' everybody knows that grades in Kalymnos are soft...' are just bullshit. So do not listen to some enviers. Just climb and have fun and grade the routes according to your feelings, the guidebook or use 2 dices. Maybe you can also ask Jens from 8a.nu. Anyhow, I will move to Copenhagen next week. Do you have some info about climbing and boulder gyms? The closest outdoor areas (crags and boulders) which are probaly across the bridge somewhere in sweden. Thanks for your help. Cheers Theo
Just like Sune said, many routes on Kalymnos have allready been downgraded in the new topo 2006 and in my oppinion only a few still need to be downgraded like in every crag. Unfortunately Sune, in my oppinion Dionysos is one of them . The main reason, as I see it, for good personal climbing resaults in Kalymnos is, that routes are very overhanging, with big holds (often white from chalk) and are therefore easy to onsight. Usualy one also gets in really good shape on a few weeks climbing trip... To sum up, I think that routes on Kalymnos are not softer than in other popular crags around the globe (Rodellar, Gorge du Tarn, Railay, Arco...).
Grades on Kalymnos