On the 4th of April 2024 thirty two of UBMC's biggest wads departed from Stansted airport at an ungodly hour (8am) to head to Kalymnos island, a paradise for sport climbing in Europe. With over 4200 routes across the grades, lots of multi-pitches and even some deep water soloing, we knew we were in for a treat this Easter holiday.

After landing in Kos, we summoned an army of taxis to drive us to the port, then caught a ferry across to Kalymnos.

The ferry in question
Both accommodation buildings had incredible views over the sea!

With the beach within a 5 minute walk of our accommodation, we absolutely had to go for a swim most evenings. The sunsets were incredible.

On the first proper climbing day we all headed up to Trois Ilioits, a crag covering most grade bases and located just up the hill from town. Here are a few great send pictures from everyone!

Charlotte throwing out some ballet-esque movement 
Azzi looking VERY cool 

Matt, Harry, Louis and Sophie often rocked up to the crag in style. Not pictured - the time they arrived at 👀

Max and Krisz won first multipitch of the trip - Les Copains D'abord, 6a+

Boulder bros amongst us..

On day two most headed to Grande Grotta, which ended up being one of the favourite crags of the trip. It was a HUGE cave boasting classic Kalymnian tufas on both extremely overhung and vertical style climbs - pretty sick stuff.

See if you can find Angus nearly at the top of 'Massalia' - 6b, the closest multipitch
Maisie, Krisz, Reuben on 'Monahiki Elia' - 6b; Leigh on 'Panselinos' - 6b+
Sophie decimating 'Carpe Diem' - 6b+
Angus was the first to notice Telendos Island!!
Olly re-enacting a close replica of the Metolius logo on 'Zawinal Syndicate' - 7c+ 
The more abstract the rest, the better.

Kieran objectively wins coolest picture of the trip, followed closely by Alex.

Freddie, me and Olly on 'DNA' - 7a. Some ascents were flashes (Olly), others involved fighting for your life (me). Sophie also all boshed out an ascent 💪

On the third day, half of the crew headed off to Telendos Island to conquer some serious multi-pitches in honour of Ben's 22 pitch minimum birthday wish.

Krisz managed to rizz the local ferry man into taking us directly round the island to the bottom of the crag, sparing us many hours of walking 🙏

This is me calculating how many millions I was gonna make selling these rocks to the local Bristol crystal shops.

The whole crew after everyone completed their multi-pitches. We were blessed with amazing conditions on the day - not too hot with a nice breeze and sun in the afternoon.

Joe, Kieran, Zaid, Freddie, Ben and Kris all climbed the iconic 'Wings of life' - 6a.

Me and Angus went up 'Wild country' - 6a+, whilst Olly and Leigh sent the hardest on 'Eterna' - 6b+. All routes were around 250-275m!

There was a long walkdown from the summit but we were treated to some gorgeous views.

On the boat back Ben was informed he'd been drafted to the war against UBES, thankfully he returned a victor and celebrated accordingly with a wine so ...interesting.. tasting that only the mighty Shayaan could have supplied it.

Dan, Lili and Alex Hinton took the day to explore the 14th century 'Chrysocheria' castle.

A little bit of the local flora and fauna..

We kept the trip on brand with Sicily last year with a return of the cats
We beat this restaurant's single booking number high score when we ate there for dinner! (10/10 scran + dog)

Later on in the week a third of the group headed to do some deep water soloing at a beautiful crag a short drive (or moped) away. They bartered with the locals and landed on a deal of boat rental in return for having a meal at a local taverna - overall massive success!

The boat-scran exchange was one of the only nights the local gyros restaurant wasn't invaded!
Krisz wishing he'd gone DWS instead of belaying me

Masouri was a great town, we were really close to a good selection of local restaurants and shops (though we only really ate gyros). There was even a pub that boasted pool, table football and a campus board.

Pub time
All kinds of local goods were available in town..
Olly and Krisz complete the menu with a mega burger

Drawing the trip to a close, activities on the last day were relaxing or an emotional rollercoaster - this all depended on whether you chose:

  1. Chilled climbing and Spikeball on the beach:
Krisz enters the send mindset on 'Iris' - 6b+
CEOs of rope coiling locked in
Alix sends 'The Homeric Verses' - 6a+

2. Embarking on the biggest multipitch epic of the trip: 6 pitches ending in an 80m abseil down Grande Grotta!

Finishing off with some last views there ❤

Overall the holiday was a great success and I hope everyone had a lovely time. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to have come along x

Thank you for hosting us Rita and Louis!

We'll absolutely have to return to Kalymnos in the future (partly for the sends, partly because I promised the gyros lady we would). Until then, I suppose the UK will have to do..

Gabby x