Time is ticking by and when you hit day five of climbing and realise there's only five climbing days to go it's panic mode! Ahh, cobras!
ODYSSEY
You guys know all about Odyssey now. You don't need me to tell you that it is the single most varied and diverse crag at Kalymnos and hosts the biggest grade range of any sector (3s to 9s). Could this be why it draws the climbing celebrities?
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Recognise this guy? Yep, none other than climbing superstar Iker Pou. Rumour has it that he has been sent here on a secret mission by The North Face to scope out potential for a TNF festival type thing in September 2012. True or not, you heard it here first :)
Edit: Are we on it or what? Festival now announced.
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| As you can see, we run the biggest, baddest cameras in the business. |
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| The steep, tricky and slippery Mermezeli 6b+ provided more of a warm-up than the crew were bargaining for. NAILS! :) |
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| Bo takes a quick warm up on Eyreclea 5b. |
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| Owen bagged Dionysos 7a |
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| Typical view from the cliff. |
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| The Hustler. |
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The lovely Tiia who works in the climbing shop was hard at work on Polifemo 7c
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You know I'm all about the laziness. How about I just copy in some of the team's achievements from today from theCrag.com?
Susy
- 7a
Dionysos - Trifecta! Morning tickage by Owen and Andy and myself. Superb steep line on big holds. Loved it. ...
- 6c+
Itaca - Woo-hoo! Having tried this in 2008 and 2010 it just HAD to go this
trip. One shot today working it out with Sam, and sent 2nd shot at the
end of the day with Owen and Andy as it came into sun. Awesome steepness on pockets and crimps. ...
Andy
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7a
Dionysos - Great climb! Cleaned up last years proj in 1 shot today :) ...
- 7b+
Inti Raymi - Two working laps.
Owen
Bochere
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5c+
Laertes
- 4c
Argo
- 5b Eyriclea
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6a+
Poly Retsina No Good - mmm not so sure with this one.. could have been a combination of pumpage ruining my reading skills but not a fan ...
- 6b+
Atena - FANTASTIC!! i love this route :D ... (off the final hold on the flash attempt!)
Well that copying and reformatting was actually more time consuming than I thought. Probably won't do that again.
Today ended up being a big clean-up day. Projects from last year ticked off with authority. Love that! So that was great, but what was also great was the team getting on hard routes and beginning to work them out and go through the falling and redpointing process which Owen and Andy did on the 30m pumper 7b+ Inti Raymi and Bo did on the 6b+ Atena (which was 3 grades harder than she'd previously led and which she almost flashed!).
Killer day.
GOAT'S BITCHIN (or, GHOST KITCHEN)
I would have to say that this season, Ghost Kitchen has been the single busiest sector on the island in terms of
# climbers vs. available routes.
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| Buoyed by yesterday's success, Bo warmed up by flashing Exotic Ambelli 6a, and then... |
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Andy: Man, that was hard. Do you want to top rope this Bo?
Bo: It looks awesome. I'm leading it Andy.
Andy: It's 6b+!
Bo: Pull the rope! I'm leading it!
Result: 6b+ flash. Previous best lead = 6a. WTF!? :) |
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| Sweet! Love the b+n gear. |
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I use a bowline, but Sam prefers a figure 8 with Yosemite
follow-through. Super neat, more compact than using a stopper knot, and
pretty easy to untie.
What do you use? |
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| Andy onsighting Axium 6c+. One of my faves. |
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| Susy and Andy both found Totenhansel 6c+ scary. Polished footers down low and dynamic pops between glassy tufa flows. They both persevered and sent. |
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| Owen is well behaved as long as he has his toys to play with. |
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| Goat's bitchin' |
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Bo dispatches Zyklop 6a+ first try before her toes say NO MORE!
Ghost Kitchen sector. |
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Post send review.
"It was like this, so then I did this..." |
Some memorable achievements from today included:
- Owen's redpoint of the nails Sisyphus Junior 7a+
- Bo (who'd previously led 6a) ticking off 6a, 6a+, 6b and 6b+ all first try today! MVP!
- Susy overcoming fears to dispatch Totenhansel 6c+
- Andy's easy onsight of Axium 6c+ and having fun up high on Totenhansel extension 7a+
These guys are on fire. I can't wait to see what's to come in the second half of the trip!
1 comments:
It has been inspiring to see all you climbers doing so well on this camp. The claim is true, when you sign up for an Upskill Training Camp you will come away a better climber, in some cases by a long margin.
We miss you all back here, and wish you all a safe passage through troubled Greece on your way home.
PS. A Government bail out package for the ethically bankrupt Queensland climbing is currently under negotiation so it's safe to come home.
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