Kalymnos January 15-30, looking for partner and advice

UPDATE: I had to cancel plans to go to Kalymnos and headed toward Asia instead.  Thank you everyone for the super helpful advice, I'll definitely use this info the next time I try planning a trip to Greece.

Hi all, I'm looking for a partner to climb in Kalymnos January 15th to January 30th, with flexibility in the dates.  DM me and let me know if you're down to link up!

It'll be my first trip out there, so I'm also looking for any advice as well. 

I'm looking for decent variety, but also would be down for projecting days, as well as some volume focused days. I generally need a rest day every 3rd to 4th day, depending on how much limit grade climbing we do.  Generally happy to belay a half day if I'm not climbing that day.  

About me.  In terms of my ability, I'm a mid 5.12 sport climber, and recent redpoints include Hellbender (Clear Creek, CO), Kaleesi (Lime Kiln, AZ), Second Coming (St. George, UT), Peak Performance (Red Rocks, NV). Early 30's, Denver area science/engineering professional, easy going.  I'm looking for chill vibes, I'll be doing some sightseeing on rest days, and I'll have to do some work while I'm out there on occasional evenings and rest days.  

Call and schedule a taxi BEFORE landing! They will take you to your hotel or hostel situation. Other than that…the climbing is awesome! Enjoy.

Scuba diving is a pretty sweet rest day too. 

Thanks! Very helpful advice.  I'm not scuba certified though I really should be. . . 

You are going in the offseason, so a lot of restaurants, some scooter rentals, etc will be closed. No big deal, you can work around it, but it's a bit of a bummer.

The other thing to consider is that winter is more windy, sometimes to the point that the ferry might not be running. There's also intermediate-level winds where one of the ferries would be running, while the other one can't run when the winds are high, so it would affect how long you have to wait for the ferry on the way there, and you definitely don't want to run afoul of the ferry schedule if you have to get to your flight on time on the way back. Sounds like you are flexible enough in your travel plans, but definitely check the weather closer to your trip, and adjust accordingly.

Lena chitawrote:

You are going in the offseason, so a lot of restaurants, some scooter rentals, etc will be closed. No big deal, you can work around it, but it's a bit of a bummer.

The other thing to consider is that winter is more windy, sometimes to the point that the ferry might not be running. There's also intermediate-level winds where one of the ferries would be running, while the other one can't run when the winds are high, so it would affect how long you have to wait for the ferry on the way there, and you definitely don't want to run afoul of the ferry schedule if you have to get to your flight on time on the way back. Sounds like you are flexible enough in your travel plans, but definitely check the weather closer to your trip, and adjust accordingly.

Maybe he's flying in - it's getting increasingly popular and reliable - though still more subject to weather disruptions then the ferry from Kos or wherever

Have you nailed down a place to stay yet? My off-season advice would be to stay somewhere further south than normal. During the high season everyone for the most part stays in the villages of Masouri or Mirties. When everything is open it's fun and you can walk to everything. However, as others said, almost everything there will be closed. It's kind of wild how much of a ghost town it is. I've seen a couple of restaurants open up on the weekends, but don't count on it. 

My last trip I was in Panormos for a bit then Kamari right off the main road. That puts you in between the grocery store (AB) and climbing. The restaurants around the roundabout will probably be open--Marinos, Il Posto and one other smaller place. Otherwise you have to head all the way to Pothia, though there are some spots along the way. I got into a nice swing coming back from climbing, hitting AB, then home. (You're also very very close to Symplegades and the southern crags.) Staying in that area makes the ride to climbing longer, but not by much. I personally like living closer to the store and restaurants. 

Weather can be tricky. I've taken every plane and ferry combo there is, including the overnight one from Athens. Funky weather can shut them all down. Last time I waited to buy my Athens > Kaly flight until the day before so I could watch the weather. It worked out great, but that's me living on the edge. The Kos flight option is probably the most reliable as others have said, and Mastihari is a nice little town to hang in should there be a delay. 

Hot tip: rent your scooter in Pothia. Often cheaper and saves you from getting a taxi twice if you rented in Masouri (if they're even open).

Climbing stores are closed, but that woman (can't remember her name) is usually around so you can just text her if you need anything. You can do a lot of climbing with a 70m rope, but I vote 80.

Get over to Telendos at least once. It's kind of a pain to find a boat captain low season, but ask around enough and it'll happen. Eros is so good, and I think it's just a cool experience to go over there in general. 

From my notes in case it helps others: I have paid a good bit of attention to weather forecasts for climbing and they were tough. I think this Greek site is the Hellenic national service: https://meteo.gr/cf-en.cfm?city_id=84# In March it seemed like they over forecasted for rain and storms, but were pretty good on wind (the single digit number is Beaufort scale). Meanwhile, I found Meteoblue to be better with rain and cloud cover (Euro models I use here as well).

Some of the forecasts are for the airport which is totally unprotected. What’s too windy there is fine when climbing the right aspect. 

The wind direction you see on meteo.gr is very accurate, and watching the ocean seems to confirm things where you are. North wind is prevailing, and sometimes switches to south. The guidebook is really great about understanding what direction crags face. It's really easy to chase sun and shade, too. Maybe the exception to some of my observations is Arginonta Valley, which I always felt was trickier and got surprised there a couple of times. 

The Facebook group is a great resource to connect and someone there can get you on the most recent Whatsapp group. Oskar is a fixture there, and is super sweet and knows everything.

It's kind of wild being there in low season. You can have entire mega popular crags all to yourself. No better time to get on DNA! Oskar usually leaves draws up on it for exercise in winter. lol

Have a great time. It's my favorite place.

Hi, We just got back on the 1st and can confirm that Il Posto and Marinos were open but almost everything in armeos, myrties and masouri were closed. One of the climbing stores was open every day from 15:30 to 18:30 but you can WhatsApp the others and they will open for you. As others have said, the small ferries from Kos won't run in high winds, but the big boat (the Zeus) seems to run in intermediate winds. In the worst winds your options are to wait or take the mega boat from Kos town (the Blue Star), but that is a pain. Personally, I would not consider direct flights to Kalymnos airport because they are cancelled frequently. All the tufas were dry when we were there, and we only had a few days of rain (we hit places like the Grande Grotta and Arhi on days like that). Enjoy the emptiness! For forecasts, I usually use windy.com. Happy to recommend specific routes, but you can't go wrong with the classics -- anything in the G Grotta, most routes in Panorama, most routes in Iannis,  etc etc. There is so much -- it's hard to recommend specific routes! 

max

This is incredibly helpful beta, thank you all Lena, Eric, Justin and Max.  This makes me more confident that the climbing won't be too rained out, and that I should probably allow for the final leg of travel to be scheduled when I get to the region.  I feel like off season might be hard to find a partner, but I've heard that Laos (Green Climbers Home) might have nearly 100% probability that I find a climbing partner, so I'm also looking into travel there and completely changing the direction of my sabbatical this month.  The emptiness at Kalymnos you all mentioned really calls to me however, so I'm hoping I can make this work.  

From personal perspective, and I am as misanthropic as they come, the energy of the Kalymnos climbers’ summer camp vibe was not an unpleasant experience. A shuttered and deserted island with dreary winter weather seems a little sad. 

Frank, that's a healthy perspective to keep and I like how you phrased it.  It might suit me well as I also need to spend this time studying when I'm not climbing, but I'll keep this in mind!

It's empty, but having entire cliff bands to yourself that would normally have ropes on almost every line is kind of awesome IMO. There was still a big group of Canadians there when we left, so there are some people around! I forgot to mention one super annoying thing: they have a pneumatic rock breaking machine on the road under the grande grotta which makes climbing there kind of headache inducing. Hopefully they have finished breaking the big rocks into little rocks by now