Hi everybody! The North Face has started preparing this year’s Kalymnos Climbing Festival with official dates 10-13 October 2013. According to the North Face team in charge of the Kalymnos Climbing Festival, this year’s event will build upon last year’s success with a similar format: a PROject competition in a brand new climbing crag, an OPEN and BIG marathon that cater to the whole climbing community, a Story Teller’s Night and beach parties. With perfect climbing temperatures, the Festival will ensure spectacular sends by the world’s best athletes and re-create the same unique atmosphere that was already established in the first 2012 edition.
It’s good news that the dates of this year’s festival have been pushed back slightly; a repeat of last year’s unexpectedly humid conditions would certainly be unwelcome, least of all by the competing athletes. October being the peak of the Kalymnos climbing season anyway, we hope to see a lot of you there and look forward to a breezy, vibrant festival vibe once again.
Below, some photos from the 2012 North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival.
7 Comments
What do the locals want? Seems to me that’s who should be voicing their options here, after all it’s their island!
@Gregor
Yes I understand what you say.
I love Kalymnos and kalymnian people and I really hope that we all will work together to make sure that nothing in the future of this island, from economy to nature, will be ruined. Climbing has got to satisfy your needs as a climber; but climbers also have to adapt to people and places they find; and while doing it, maybe climbing and climbers can satisfy local needs.
Money and sponsors surely can help, but it also depends on how you decide to use them. I’m not against sponsors, I’m for a true climbing community that does not care about trademarks’ or websites’ cultural suggestions and in which one can decide as a part of the community instead of being spectator of a show.
I absolutely agree Sponsoring is a Tricky subject. But it can help a Lot. i Would rather Fancy a Sponsor Setting up Solar and Wind Parks to Generate “Green Energy” to fuel up Electric Skooters to Avoid the disgusting Noise they make at present. There are a Lot of ideas to Turn kalymnos in a Green Destination. Maybe One can convince Sponsors like tnf to put their power to Developer These ideas? Bye the Way, who brought tnf to Kalymnos? They themselves? Or maybe the Major to Generate Support for his Island? At the present Situation i could Understand that you Take what you get… Know what i mean?
@Gregor
You can say that sponsors can help our activity and I agree with that, but it is not true that without sponsors you would not climb, and climb safely: climbing crags on the island and anywhere else existed even when The North Face still did not organize parties and festivals. Maybe somebody lacked the parties, but not the bolts.
Certainly, bolts are not flowers… What was once just a passion for a few, today is a business because of the demand-and-supply law: that means we need more routes, more crags, more bolts; and while it makes a little economy, it is also a matter of exploitation. This brings new crags like Psili Riza (‘The North Face crag’) to calm down our collective climbing urgency, but also some new drawbacks that we should consider as individuals and as a community – instead of just arguing if really money makes the world go round or not – if we don’t want the “very special place” Kalymnos is to turn in another holiday village or tourist resort. Are you searching for peace and tranquility or for a crowded trendy place?
Let’s say the truth: we all go there for fun and low prices, and sponsors for profit, not just to help somebody; our economy is not based on charity. For example, we should ideally boycott Ryanair, but we tend to take advantage of its low fares instead (there has already been a debate about this subject on this site).
I personally think that Kalymnos will never become a sponge to squeeze, but for example, what does the Jeep sponsor have to do with climbing and with the island? If you are searching for a “very special place” ClimbKalymnos wisely suggests the “little island” of Telendos just because of the “very few people, and no cars”: so, how can you think about promoting 4WD on the ‘bigger’ island, where you can go almost everywhere by bike? In fact, last year the two vehicles have been proved useful just to fix the slackline… ;-)
You Might See it different: Events attract more People to come, they as well as Sponsors bring Money to the Island. Without this Money you couldnt climb safely there, Or Where do you think the bolts come from? Rather having Sponsors than paying 10€ every Day just for the bolts…
It is the best for pros & sponsors…
The North Face festival seems to be the worst thing that could ever happen to this peaceful island…