Trip Report: Inaugural NOLS Alumni Climbing Trip In Greece

In May of 2025, the Inaugural NOLS Alumni Greece Climbing Trip traveled to the Greek island of Kalymnos, one of the most famous climbing destinations in the world. Our small but mighty group of alumni and NOLS instructors climbed, swam, staged breathtaking photo shoots, practiced climbing skills, visited nearby islands, sampled the best spinach pies on the island, and more. They created a photo blog to give us a glimpse at the ultimate island climbing vacation. 

Greetings from Kalymnos, a small island, a stone’s throw from Turkey in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Here we are on the first ever NOLS Alumni Climbing Trip in Greece, having a ball! 

Climbing here is similar in some ways, and different in others than climbing in the United States. There is enough English to get around, but walking to different climbing crags brought us in contact with what it is like to live in the small neighborhoods of a rural Greek Island.

Things that were similar to a NOLS course, say in the Rockies, are:

It’s a great place to practice lead climbing!

We climbed on limestone, and there are over 70 different climbing areas and 4000 established routes on the island. Routes are bolted (i.e. “sport climbing”) and there are plenty of high quality options of various difficulty levels. 

A small island, Kalymnos historically was known for its contributions to the Greek sponge diving trade. However, in the 1980’s a marine disease significantly wiped out the sponge populations. Kalymnos was economically revived in the 90’s by the development of climbing tourism.

Focusing on climbing for an 8-day trip is a great way to build momentum in your climbing, and Kalymnos is a great place to get in a lot of practice in climbing systems and movement. At the start of the week we covered basic skills and participants were quickly working together, choosing their routes, and finding their sweet spots for challenge and learning. 

Part of our lead belaying progression includes practice catching falls and falling. We find this quickly increases both confidence and competence with sport climbing. And it’s fun! 

One of our highlights on this trip was multi-pitch climbing. Participants found it a great way to practice lead climbing, and it was also nice to get up high and see the island from a different perspective. Here you can see the island of Telendos in the background, another small island where we also climbed for a day and spent a restful day at the beach.

Things that are different, climbing in Greece:

Lots of cats.

With abundant feeding stations and friendly humans around, cats on Kalymnos seem to have it pretty good.

Climbing by the sea!

We had a blast going all out for a photo shoot on one of our rest days. This was after a leisurely afternoon lounging on the beach, swimming in the sea, and exploring Kefalos Cave (sunglasses not required). 

The mountains of Kalymnos are made of limestone, which makes for delightful climbing and also for very cool caves. It’s fascinating to see the stalactites and stalagmites underground that form the tufa features (natural hand and footholds) we’re climbing on above ground. 

Here we are getting to know the unique limestone features above ground. 

Our camp!

Our hotel terrace had quite the view of Telendos and the sunset. Our hotel was an easy walk to restaurants and gelato shops, the beach, the ferry to Telendos, and climbing shops.

And this is dinner. Typical meals in Telendos include fresh feta, tomato and cucumber salads; spinach pie; fresh fish and seafood; grilled souvlaki; and Greek flavored stews. “Freddo cappuccino” is a popular Greek iced coffee drink, and there is a delicious “mountain tea” made of local wild herbs that make hiking to the crag an aromatic delight.

The routes are very long. We had to do some fun and educational shenanigans to make even our extra long (80 meter) ropes work.

We hope as you read this you can hear the goats calling to you from across the valley; smell the fresh feta, tomatoes, and oregano; and feel the sea air on your skin, the adventure under your feet, and the limestone under your fingers. 

Meow!