Graduating high school this past June was the end of an era. During high school, my climbing career was focused pretty much entirely on indoor, competition climbing with the exception of spring break trips down to Las Vegas to climb at Red Rocks and the occasional Saturday session up at one of our local crags in the warmer months. Now that I had a few less commitments, was tired of studying, and had been saving up some money by working part time at my local gym during the summer, delaying university plans for a year began to sound pretty inviting. For about two years prior to graduating, my sister and fellow comp climber Andrew Funk had been talking about taking a gap year to travel and climb in Europe after high school. For such a long time this idea was more of a dream than a realistic trip, but when the World Youth Championships were to be held in Arco, Italy for our graduating year, this dream trip started to become a reality. Before we knew it, our 70 liter backpacks were packed full of climbing hear and travel essentials and we were off to Europe on our trip of a lifetime.
- KALYMNOS, GREECE -
Being part Greek decent, travelling to this country had always been high on my bucket list! After we had finished competing in Arco, our families hopped on flights to Athens! My family spent just over a week unwinding from the competition by visiting relatives and learning about the rich culture that Greece has to offer. After a wonderful and memorable time eating, relaxing and exploring with family, it was time to bid our farewells and begin the climbing part of our trip in Kalymnos, Greece.
This Greek island is truly a travelling climber´s paradise, with cheap accommodation, delicious fresh food, beaches, and vacation climbing for days! I think this was the perfect spot to start out our tip, building up endurance on seemingly endless tufa climbs and gaining mileage on this style of rock that was so foreign to us! Having had fairly limited outdoor climbing experience and even more limited time on hard grades outside, this was my fist exposure to the world of the mini project. These days were so enjoyable as you would walk up to a new crag, find a long, aesthetic warm up climb and then suss out the harder climbs for the day! The formula always seemed to be the same for my time in Greece: warm up, check out the moves on a classic low to mid 13, go for a redpoint burn and celebrate the sends on a swim in the ocean and a 2 euro gyros pita at our favourite cafe (and the occasional slab of baklava... a traditional Greek dessert ;) ) This start to the trip was perfect to build up my confidence on rock and make me realize that I could climb harder than I thought outdoors! Soon, I had ticked numerous lower 5.13s, including some classics such as Dani Boy (8a/13b), a pocketed power endurance climb, and Helios (8a/13b), a short, powerful climb uncharacteristic of Kalymnos but a great line nonetheless. Despite visiting numerous famous sectors such as the Grande Grotta and Odyssey, my favourite climb of the Kalymnos portion of our trip would have to be ¨Super Carpe Diem¨ (7b+/12c), situated on the Panorama wall, an endless band of overhanging tufa ridden rock, looker´s right of the Grande Grotta. This aesthetic line was 40m of adventure - complete with spooky runouts, and a tufa bridge just over half way up that I wedged my whole body into in order to control my breathing after hyperventilating on a particularly runout section. Despite not being the hardest climb, it was a classic Kalymnos epic leaving you out of breath and pumped out of your mind and with battle scars to remember it by from jamming shoulders, backs and butts into the spaces between tufas! Leaving Kalymnos, I felt much more confident and fit and was ready to find some more mini or not so mini projects as we moved on to Spain!
- RODELLAR, SPAIN -
After Greece it was off to Spain to explore the slightly less featured rock of Rodellar! What was really cool about this destination was that I had already been there before, four years prior for just over a week. It was really cool to see the improvement from those years ago when I ¨pinkpointed¨ my first 7a+/12a to proceed to warm up on it on this trip and send more than a full grade higher with the beautiful Lola Extension (8a+/13c). To me, Rodellar offered the most beautiful climbs I have yet to get my hands on during my trip thus far. Many of the harder climbs relied on power endurance, the ability to do 15-20 hard moves in a row between mediocre rests. After about two weeks of climbing hard, Andrew, Becca and I set our sights on an often overlooked 8b/13d at the Pince Sans Rire sector - El Chorreas la Belle Inconnue. Despite not having rained for quite some time before we first tried this route, a pinch in the middle of the intense crux section was dripping wet. Unfortunately, after working out all the moves and beginning to give this rig redpoint burns, Rodellar got drenched in over 90ml of rain in a single day. Let´s just say that that pinch went from a little seepy to full on waterfall status, along with many of the other holds involved in the tufa system. So with only three climbing days left we abandoned our project in search of dryer terrain. At first this seemed to be a bit of a hopeless endeavor as we waded across raging rivers that were once trickling streams to the back of the canyon where we discovered Lola Extension. We had climbed the first pitch of Lola multiple times while warming up to try Les Chacals, and iconic 8b/13d on the same wall, but never had the chance to try the extension to this line. With three days left we were back in the throes of the mini project! After going up the climb once each we proceeded to have a send train to finish off our time in Rodellar - Andrew sending the first day, Becca the second, and I the third, all with our own beta through the crux! This was a great way to end our time in Rodellar and travel south in search of dry rock! Off to Siurana!
- SIURANA, SPAIN -
To say it was an adjustment coming from Rodellar to Siurana would be an understatement! In both Kalymnos and Rodellar we would be consistently looking for warm ups in the mid to higher 5.12 grades while in Siurana we often struggled to climb the grade. The subtlety and technical face climbing characteristic of Siurana kicked our butts yet I don´t think I have ever learned more about my climbing in the span of a month than I have by sampling the beautiful, technical limestone this area has to offer. My definition of an acceptable footholds has gone from jib to nonexistent smear and what I though originally would be an acceptable foothold is now my definition of a decent handhold! The subtlety of movement and small tweaks in hip placement I have learned to embrace here has changed my outlook on technical climbing. I have also fortified my realization of the importance of breath - staying calm and focused while run out on tiny crimps and questionable feet. The lessons I have learned here in Siurana are invaluable and will be very applicable when I return to Canada for lead season this year. Not only do I fell miles more confident on vertical and slab climbing after spending a month here, but I have taken away vital practice onsighting these mentally taxing climbs, something that I believe will change my approach to onsight climbing in competition entirely. Today, on our last climbing day here in Siurana, I managed to send L'escarmala (7c+/13a). Although this has not been my hardest send of this trip by any means it was really cool to see my practice on the crimpy style characteristic of Siurana come to fruition! Time to have a celebratory hot chocolate, rest my butchered skin, pack my ridiculously full backpack and embark on another travel day to our next destination - south to Chulilla!
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Thank you for taking the time to hear about my adventures! In a few days we are wrapping up here in Siurana and our party is splitting ways. Becca is travelling back to Canada to take in the end of bouldering season while Andrew and I making our way south to the sport climbing paradise of Chulilla!
Will post again about our Chulilla adventures!
SARA :D
