Broken Trinity

The Original Team, Miss you guys

"Elephantine" or something like that, hard crux

Jess and I woke up the next morning; only Jess and I. Joe had left early in the morning, sharing a cab with James from Vancouver. It was now 8am and our energy just seemed to be gone. Did it leave with Joe? Very possibly, that happy, always smiling, full of energy Mexican was on a plane towards Athens by now. We slept in till 9, and after a chill breakfast we slowly put our gear together to head up and meet Dave and Yudai. Joe wasn’t here to psyche or as usual steamroll us at 6am to ensure we were wide awake. Something was missing that morning, a crucial piece to a puzzle, the glue to our trinity. Life goes on and we headed up to the Grotta. We didn’t climb much that day, all I remember is doing a couple easier climbs on afternoon wall, just around the corner of the Grotta. It was a depressing day overall and I don’t want to spend time writing much about it. It was hard to adapt to a two-man team.

Great view of us on the multi pitch

The following morning was a bit more energetic. Today we were signed up for Scuba Diving! Dave, Jess and Myself were picked up at noon by Swedish girl, who taught scuba diving by day and rock climbed at night! Badass! Jess and Dave were both experienced divers, registered with PADI, while it was my first time. I had to sign up for a discover scuba dive while Dave and Jess were able to just go on a dive after a quick refresher. After fitting our gear we got in the truck to take us to boat. Heading out of the harbor towards the island of Talendos we turned into a little bay where they dropped me and the Swedish lady off at a beach. We were still waist deep in water and she showed me how to put the air tank on and work all the equipment. I caught on very quickly and soon we were swimming around the bay. We went about 10m deep and just followed the bottom. She show me an octopus nest, a sponge and we had a juggling competition (she won).It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to Scuba again. Dave and Jess went on a second dive later while I hung out on the boat working on my tan with the captain. They went 22m deep and saw a school of Barracuda while swimming in between mazes of rock. After we had finished they dropped us off back home and Dave and Jess took a cab into town to pick up a car for the week.

Aphrodite's infamous toe hook :)

With the capabilities of the car we went to a crag called Ghost Kitchen, which had 3 walls, the middle one was the only one of interest to us being the other two were just slab climbs. I started feeling really dizzy and nauseated and thought it was from climbing up so high after scuba diving the day before. Anyways I relaxed drinking lots of water while the others warmed up. By 11 I was feeling better again and was able to flash two 6c+ routes there. Jess and Dave got on a couple of the 12’s there and then cooled down on the 6c+ called Dafni.

Jess, not wasting any time on pictures

The next day Jess and I took the other two to Sikati Cave, or as Dave calls it (for the lack of remembering) Silky Caves. Walking the long approach in was a little weird having done it 3 weeks ago when Joe, Erika and Olly were all here. It felt so long ago, and the walk felt even longer this time. We got to the opening fairly quickly I think, and Dave and Jess repelled in while Yudai and myself did the scramble down climb. We completed a good number of routes that day, having started climbing around 9 and leaving at 6, it was a long day. Yudai and Dave both flashed Mortes aux Chevres, the infamous 7b there. I sent another 7a+ there on my first attempt despite having climbed up the wrong way a couple times, only having to down climb a couple moves to correct myself.

Water was cold!

Jess at this point had 2 full days left before he had to leave, so we decided to take a rest day and climb hard the last day instead of trying to climb 4 days straight. The rest day was very relaxing, as we did nothing but sit around, watch Game of Thrones and read our books. The following day we embarked out on Jess’ last walk to the Grande Grotta. We did a warm up called Carpe Diem then started projecting Aphrodite (7a+) together. This was the route I started projecting on Joe’s last day, and the one, which he described as the hardest 12a he had ever done. It took me 3 tries before I finally made it to the anchors without falling! My beta was a toe hook to a dyno; Jess couldn’t quite stretch out that far and had to use a tiny crimp and flag his feet. Either way work and we both sent it. It was a very bouldery route and drained the energy from us. At the end of the day we jumped on ivi, another hard 7a+, this was Jess’ last climb in Kalymnos. On the way down we stopped for some delicious ice cream and headed home to pack. I was moving in with Dave the following day, so I pack up my stuff as well. I hate when things come to an end. We had the room all ready to go after dinner and laid down to watch Zombieland. Dave was picking us up early the next morning.

Dave gives the thumbs up

Waking up, we put the final things together ate some cereal and met Dave outside. He drove us to the docks and that was it, we got out to say our goodbyes….I promised myself earlier that I wouldn’t cry, but watching him walk to towards the fairy. Lets just say it was a hard promise to keep. I was now the only one left out of the original 3, it was a 1 man team 5.10. We jumped back into the car heading to the crag, only to pass our empty studio room on the way. New beginnings