Happy Holidays!

The end of another great day of climbing.

We are now in Greece, in the village of Masouri on the island of Kalymnos.  We spent a few days in Athens, mostly recovering from traveling and Ian recovered from a nasty head cold.  We saw a few of the sights and spent a rainy day in the Acropolis Museum but missed touring the actual Acropolis, they close the gates at 2:30pm in the winter, oops.  We flew to the island of Kos and took a very bumpy ferry to Pothia, Kalymnos as it was really windy.  We found a nice little studio to rent in one of the few places that is open, apparently nobody comes here in the winter and almost everything in Masouri is closed down.  The weather has been quite good with a little rain as of late, but we have climbed most days.  We made friends with some dudes from Australia who are traveling around Europe climbing.  Other than them, not too many people around, an abrupt change from El Chorro.  It's nice to climb whatever we want and not have to share, but it is a little lonely.  Some climbers are arriving for the holidays, so it should get a little more lively, but it's also nice to chill out for a bit.  Hope everyone enjoyed Solstice and has a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

The Acropolis, unfortunately from outside the gate.

The remains of the temple of Zeus.

On the ferry to Kalymnos, I was trying not to puke.

The view inside the Grande Grotta.

Making potato pancakes with Nick, Simon, Ted and Zuska.

Really amazing sunsets each evening, too bad they are at 5pm.

Looking toward the island of Telendos.

Climbing Pics

Warming my hands in Loja.

We spent almost everyday in El Chorro climbing, here are some images of the different areas.  It was quite cold in the shade and really hot in the sun, so we mixed it up.  We also made friends with people with cars and could explore more of the area that way.  Everywhere we went had an amazing view to compliment the excellent climbing.  There is much more that we could do here and it's on our list of places to return to.  We also met some great people and as our trip came to an end, we were sad to leave them.  But as the climbing world is small, I'm sure we will meet again. 

Nearing the end of another good day.

Ian cranking through the crux.

Another fun climb in Desplomelandia.

Ian's first flapper!

Poema Cave, steep!

Poema, with the usual craziness going on.

 A nice belay spot.

Camino del Rey

Another sunny day in Spain!

One of the highlights of El Chorro is the Camino del Rey, or the King's walk.  It was built in the early 1900's for the workers in the hydroelectric projects in the gorge.  It is now in disrepair and is a via ferrata, meaning that a harness and slings to clip into a cable for safety are required.  For the most part the pathway is good walking about 100 feet above the river, but there are some exciting places where we had to walk on the girders around holes.  It was a nice way to spend a rainy, stormy day and I didn't whimper too much when I got scared.  Ian loved it!

Accessing the camino was a little hair-raising.

Traversing around a large hole.

Don't look down!

Looking up the valley towards El Chorro.

It held everyone else, should hold me...

Looking up the valley.

Last big hole before solid ground.

Spain

Well, we made it to Spain, the 10+ hours of flying seemed short.  We flew into Barcelona and found our hole-in-the wall hostel, which turned out to be pretty nice and the guy who ran it was very helpful.  We only had 24 hours in Barcelona before we flew to Malaga, so we didn't see much of the city, but it was beautiful, we felt like we were in a movie set with the architecture and the statues.  After flying to Malaga, which is in southern Spain we made our way to El Chorro, which is a small village surrounded by massive limestone cliffs.  We have been climbing everyday that it isn't raining and staying at a nice refugio called to Olive Branch.  The other climbers staying here are nice and it's been easy We will stay here until Dec. 6 when we fly to Athens and then make our way to Kalymnos.

Our room in Barcelona at Mapamundo.

Adding to the stamps in our passports.

The view from our balcony in Barcelona.

A statue in Barcelona.

Having a rest on the train to Alora, just before the conductor came and yelled at me for having my feet on the seat.

Standing in front of the Frontales climbing area.

El Chorro

Evening sun overlooking El Chorro.

The Grand Canyon

In the end of August, I got the opportunity to "work my way" on a Grand Canyon rafting trip with my friends Chelsea and Grant whom we had met last year in India.  We were on the water for about 10 days and worked for 12.  Let me tell you, these river guides are tough, I was exhausted after one trip and they do this all season!  We packed and unpacked the boats, cooked, cleaned, conversed, babysat and generally befriended 27 people for 220 miles through the canyon.  It was a great experience, but I'm not quite ready to quit my day job...

Packing up the boats and launching from Lee's Ferry.

Cruising down the upper canyon with a full boat.

A surprisingly warm waterfall.

River carved side-canyon.

Havasu, some of the bluest water I've ever seen.

Havasu.

Cliff jumping at pumpkin spring.

Making dinner, a monumental undertaking everyday.

Images of Laos

Chillin' on the deck.

The local hair salon.

Ian on Spider 7a+, a little project of ours on the Sleeping Wall roof.

Tubing!! with Phoebe, Billy, Erin, and Casey.

Ian on one of the giant rope swings.

Floating down the Nam Song.

Tough clip on Spider.

Billy and I on the approach to the climbs through the fields.

The beautiful Laos landscape.

Looking across the Nam Song towards our bungalow.

Passing through a village on the way to Vientiane.