The International Kalymnos Climbing Festival will be held on May 22-26, 2009, on the scenic and tranquil island of Kalymnos, Greece.

The event will be organized by the Municipality of Kalymnos.

Climbers of all abilities and from all countries are welcome to attend the event.

As described on the website of Climbing magazine, the island of Kalymnos has incredible limestone routes of all difficulties, both single and multi-pitch, at a variety of angles from delicate slabs to super-steep caves covered with stalactites.
A majority of the routes are based around the village of Massouri with approaches ranging from 5 to 20 minutes.
For other areas you may need to rent a car or scooter.

The 9a slaying Czech superstar Adam Ondra has confirmed that he will be participating in this year's event.

22-26 MAY 2009 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

We are very happy to have with us Dimitris Georgoulis, the Chairman of the Greek Federation of Mountaineering and Rock Climbing.

Special Guest : Claude Remy.
Both the Remy brothers are old friends and great supporters of what is known as “the Kalymnos scene”.
They have set over 500 routes on the island and return twice a year to savour the pleasures of Kalymnian climbing.
In recognition of their important contribution, Claude will receive an honourary award from the Mayor of Kalymnos.

Yves and Claude Remy started climbing in 1965, in the steps of their father, Marcel, who, at 86, is still climbing today.

They started route setting in 1970.
As they themselves say " ...we did many-many new routes, some very hard, very long, very crazy.."
In the '80s they became very active in the Alps so, it was not until 2002 that they came to Kalymnos, fell in love with the Kalymnos scene and started opening one route after another.

Adam Ondra (born February 5, 1993 in Brno) is a Czech rock climber.

He won the 2007 European Youth Series of climbing organized by ISFC.

In late 2006 he climbed Martin Krpan in Osp, probably making him the youngest person ever to climb a 9a/5.14d sport route.

In early 2008 he climbed La Rambla (otherwise known as La Rambla original or La Rambla extension) in Siurana, Spain, a sport route accepted as 9a+/5.15a.

He also climbed La Novena Enmienda, 9a+/5.15a, located in Santa Linya.

External links

Maja Vidmar, the big Slovenian Champion, is a 22 year old graphic designer who has on sighted many 8a, 8a+ as well as 3 at 8c, which is quite an.

She started climbing, training and competing in national competitions at age 12 and, In her very first year, she won the European youth cup in the youngest category.

In 2002 she made it to the final and a year later she got an amazing second place … but it was in Shanghai that she won a World Cup for the first time.
She loves competing in the World Cup but she especially enjoys taking part in the Serre Chevalier and the Rock Master in Arco.

In fact, Maja has excelled in both Masters but winning is still a big challenge for her. In 2006 she came back from the European Championship, in Ekaterinburg, with a Bronze Medal and won her favorite competition in Kranj.

In 2007 she earned the title of “World Cup Winner”, because she had won 6 WORLD Cups in a row!
She also got the Bronze medal at the World Championship in Aviles (Spain) and was proclaimed Second Best Sportsperson in Slovenia for the year 2007.
Although climbing takes up most of her time she is currently studying multimedia engineering.

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43 year old Jens Larssen, founder of the famous 8a.nu site which he started in 1999, has been the Junior National coach in Goteborg for many years.
At present he is focusing on outdoor climbing and enjoys putting up new routes (he has set some 200 routes, mostly around Göteborg).

• His favourite Climbing areas : Kalymnos, Rodellar, Red River Gorge.

• His top climbers : Chris Charma and Adam Ondra

• His longest achievement : Hingsten, 8a+.

• Plans for 2009 get back into shape again, after his 2008 injury and do the 8a spectacular route, Mad Rocker in the Granitogrotta.
Set more routes in Granitogrotta, aiming at finishing 80 routes before June.

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The widely acclaimed Photographer, Climber and Owner of “Onsight Photography”, Simon Carter lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney.

Fascinated with Photography, he studied it at high school and later at TAFE whilst also working for the Australian National University producing images for scientific research.

Fascinated by Rock Climbing, he has accumulated 25 years experience under his belt and (in 1990) completed a Bachelor of Arts in Outdoor Education at La Trobe University In 1994 Simon combined his passions for the outdoors, climbing and photography and began his career as a professional freelance photographer establishing his small business, “Onsight Photography”.

Since then he has travelled around the world, creating an extensive body of work in his distinctive style, from which he has published the albums “Rock Climbing in Australia” and “World Climbing: Images from the Edge” In 2000 Simon was awarded the “King Albert Medal of Merit”.

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