Le Bloc

The famous Fontainebleau, it's a 35 minute train ride from Paris and before you know it you have escaped the hustle and bustle of the city of light. I got myself a little crashpad and headed out!

My mission involved about 30 minutes on the metro, a half hour wait for the hourly train out to font, which was cancelled, so another hour wait, then a 20 minute bus ride, and a half hour walk. Quite the mission, but I made it. I walked along the highway and disappeared into the forest where I met up with some serial killers and drug dealers. Nah just joking, but I was alone for the morning anyway, which was a little creepy.

After checking out a boulder or two I joined up with the blue circuit, which I should have done from the start, it takes you easily around to the best problems. And they were tough! real tough! Though I must admit I haven't done any strength training or bouldering for over two months, so I was definetly super weak. (also everything was damp, misty and fucking cold!)



A nice little warm up problem



Some of the boulders along the blue circuit



The main tourist attraction is the Chateau of Fontainebleau, I prefer the boulders personally..

So after about four hours I had had enough of the cold, so I bailed. Though I'll be back next year and I know how, where, what, who, why etc. I'm thinking two to three weeks of camping, probebly a car and temps of around 22 degrees... Perfect.

Athens

Back on the tourist trail!

Well after a rough night sleeping on the floor of the 10 hour Kalymnos to Piraeus (Athens port town) ferry, I arrived at Athens Backpackers hostel. Definately recommended by me, if you ever find yourself over this part of town. It's literally thirty seconds walk from the metro station, it's friendly, has a good vibe, is excellent value and is situated right by all the big sights.... So... Time for some sight seeing.

The Orange tree lined street that the hostel is on.

 So on the hit list.... Acropolis, Syntagma Square, National Archiological Museum.. Check. Check. Check. I'm a little disappointed to say I haven't seen a single demonstration or any civil unrest! Damn. However on the bright side, there was supposed to be a strike for all museums and archeological sites the weekend I was there, but it got called off.... Lucky.

OK, being on random hostel computers causes trouble, unfortunately the photos below are somewhat out of order...

Yeah me again, this time with Athens and the temple of Zeus in the background, taken from the Acropolis

Parliament house, taken shortly after a meeting with the Prime Minister where I suggested a range of financial measures to help with the debt situation....

National Archeological Museum! Really really old stuff!

Acropolis backed by a setting Southern European sun, ooohhh ahhhh

When visiting foreign countries I always seem to end up with so much loose change!

Celebrating Kalymnos

Well another Kalymnos trip down!

A big thanks to everyone who joined me and/or made the trip possible and so fun and enjoyable.

I managed to finish on a high, sending Andromeda, 7c+ at Odyssey on the very last day. Always nice.

The ticks of note for the trip included, one 8a, four 7c+, four 7c (one onsight), seven 7b+ (two onsight), five 7b onsight, two flash and four 7a+ onsight. Pretty nice haul bag, even if I do say so myself.

I'll be back Kalymnos, there's still so much left to climb!

Thanks to all the friendly Kalymnians for picking me up when trying to hitch a ride..

Here's to Miltos and his great restaurant serving seafood and greek dishes

My favourite is feta and tomato stuffed squid

Here's to the time we got hold of the magical sprinkle shaker that makes gyros' so tasty, no one would ever tell me what was in those spices......

Here's to catching a 2am ferry and sleeping on the floor.

 

Kalynichta Kalymnos. 'Til next time anyway.

Daniboy Photos

A few weeks back, after a very shaky send of Daniboy, an English bloke by the name of 'Gordo' told me he took some photos of me on the climb. We exchanged emails, I forgot all about it. Until some emails turn up.... Thanks Gordo!

Anyway enjoy the happy snaps, as I've said before unless you're climbing in a group and constantly harassing people to take photos of you it can be hard to get much in the way of photos. So these are a real treat!

Moving up into the roof

A nice little heel hook / toe clamp combo to gain the tufa blobs

Kneebar calf rest thing in the roof, steepsville.

Start of the crux, biiiiiiig move up to a tendon pulling three finger left hand slot thing, this is followed by another biiiiiiig pull up to a two finger pocket with a cruxy clip.

Sustained and technical all the way til it slabs out.. about to chuck to the 'relax and keep calm' hold.

Struggling to 'relax and keep calm' as I struggle my way to the anchor!

Sweet!

 In other news I managed to sneak in some 7c's another 7c+ and another 7b+ onsight. Rad.

 

 

 

 

Marci Marc

Well you asked for it, so here it is! An actual video of me climbing in Kalymnos! Probably the first step on my way to becoming a superstar.

So debate has raged for a while whether 'Marci Marc' (7c+) is pronounced (forgive the bad attempt at spelling phonetically) "Marsy Mark" or "Marky Mark". I have no idea, but the climb is amazing!

Me on Marci Marc (7c+)

Now lets get all corporate and sponsory like...
Danny wears Icebreaker Jacket and T-shirt, Moon climbing jeans, La Sportiva Solution climbing shoes, Arcteryx Harness and Chalkbag, filled with Metolius super chalk, Upskill Friction Kneebar Pad and finally, caught on a Sterling rope. Phew, glad I kept the sponsors happy... haha.

Now for the main event...



Daniel Friedman on "Marci Marc" (7c+) - Kalymnos from Robbie Phillips on Vimeo.

 Huge thanks to Robbie Phillips for the video and catches. Check out his Blog and Coaching website if you're after some Euro coaching.

I hope you enjoyed this one, I certainly did!

Thanks for stopping by,

Danny

Food, glorious food !

I am just totally out of control!

Kalymnian BBQ

Every photo of me from the last few weeks seem to be of me eating!

Eating frenzy!

Just over two weeks left in Europe, I'll go on a diet when I get back... Maybe....

Me eating leftover honey balls from some other table

I have a few theories on this, including, but not limited too, my body craving protein/energy, the walk ins burn like 8000kj (2000cal), my metabolism is out of control, I'm a fat person stuck in a skinny persons body. However my personal favourite, which I have been told a few times, is 'you're a fucking beast'.

Yeah I like the sound (taste) of that.

Danny

Meet the Cujujes'es

Erm, sorry, the Cujes'

I wish I was better with grammar, apostrophes and spelling

Anyway, ladies first..

Sam Cujes

Lee Cujes

This dynamic duo come from my home town, Brisbane, Australia. Whilst in Kalymnos they were running climbing coaching camps (The Upskill Site), check out the Kalymnos 2011 trip videos. They also supply climbing gear, including the famous Upskill kneebar pads, which have seen me to the top of many a tricky, kneebar intensive, climb (The Upskill Store)

 

 

The Brisbane crew after a windy day a Jurassic Park

Making new friends is one of the best part of traveling, having only met Sam and Lee a handful of times back home, it was absolutly wonderful having them around, getting to know them, and dare I say, looking after me! I never felt too far from home which was nice.

Thanks again and travel safe on your homeward journey,

Danny

Kalymnos Climbing Photos

Time to post a whole bunch of random photos which have been accumulating over the trip.

Most are photos of me (yay), and some are photos taken by me... Enjoy.

A photo of me making a clip in the Grande Grotta, taken early in the trip.

 

As above, thanks to Chris and Steve from Australia for the photos.

Beer good, Grappa bad. Thanks to upskill climbing for many great photos!

One of my favourite photos, upside down with a double toe hook on King Cobra 7c+

A photo I took of Lee on the send of an 8a+ in the Grande Grotta, his best of the trip! Congrats!

Dovi catching some air on the same route.

So who is coming next year?

Thanks for checking out the blog!

Danny

It's my birthday and I'll climb if I want to..

So my second birthday in Kalymnos..

As some of you may know, November 12th is my day of the year. To celebrate Kalymnos style, I stuffed my day jam packed full of good times..

It went something like this...

I started the day with the gift of bacon and eggs, always a treat! This was followed by a skype chat to the family, which was great, after 6 weeks away.

At about noon I ventured up to Jurassic Park for some climbing! It was my third day climbing in a row, so I was tired, but heck, what better thing is there to do ?

Birthday air time

Topping out Hooftasaurus, at Jurassic Park

After a great day of climbing, it was time to trek it back to Massouri to get pretty and clean.

The plan for the evening was dinner at 'Miltos', a small taverna, with good food and good company. Joining me for the evening was Dovi, my current climbing partner, Andy and Paul, who I met climbing in Thailand in 2009, Sam and Lee Cujes my Australian connection, and finally Fred, Kre and Ian from the US of A, and double finally Eric and his partner from Kalymnos best moto stopped in to say 'happy birthday'. It was a great dinner full of tasty food and delicious retsina. Thanks everyone for joining me!

Great night!

And just to top off an amazing night....

Birthday Crepe!

Hahahaha, what a cheesy smile!

Again thanks to everyone for making such a wonderful night possible.

Here's to everyone I've met and all the good times over the past year, and here's looking forward to the year that will be!

Danny

A good day

Dovi sent Daniboy, (congrats dude!), I sent some hideous 7c+ and a 7b+ second go...

The reward? Double Mythos, double peanuts, with refill.
That's right, peanut bowl refill.

Living the dream

Danny

Daniboy - Sent by Danny Boy !

Well, I did it!

Hoorah, hooray, woo hoo!!!

Me being super stoked after the send!

So that's my goals for the trip complete! Awesome hey! I've been eating way too much and drinking far too much beer lately! It's ok I earned it.

So as you may all recall from a few blog posts a while ago I got really really close to sending when Warwick was here. I took a break and worked on Marci Marc (video coming soon!!), then once that went down (!), it was back to Daniboy.

Cutting loose in the roof section

So after a rest day we hiked up the monsterous hill, after warming up on Les Amazones (6c), one of my favourite 'easy' climbs, I jumped straight on, with the intention of getting it done. I felt really strong early on in the climb, hitting all the moves perfectly and moving quickly between rests.

Knee bar in the roof

Final rest before the crux

I blasted through the crux, hitting the three finger pocket, then the two finger pocket accurately, a few moves later I was clipping off the mono pocket, still feeling good. Then all of a sudden I started to panic, thinking 'oh my god, I'm going to get this thing', what can I say, I wasn't expecting it on the first shot of the day...... I very shakily got the last few hard moves, Lee Cujes, from Brisbane, among others cheering me on. I made it up to the chains,  to pumped to clip straight away, I kept everyone on their toes, by swapping hands, shaking out, before swapping back and clipping the anchor chains! Success at last! It felt great.

Lowering off, a smile on my face

I'd like to thank, Dovi for the belays and photos, Dale and Warwick for the belays and Lee and Sam Cujes for the support!

Finally thanks to everyone for following my blog,

An English bloke got some more photos of me, which he will send in a week or two. Stay tuned for those, and the upcoming Marci Marc blog.

Some Photos of Stuff

So, I've been promising some sweet blog posts about some climbs I did right....

Well anti-climax time, I'm having some photo/video/uploading/downloading/hackingthemainframe issues....

So anyway a quick little report of what I've been up to.

Last night was some sort of party for some greek guy, they had lots of food, which I ate far too much of. Though I think I impressed most people with my ability to consume insane quanitites of meat and pita bread.

They poured alcohol on some napkins to make a fire.....
Pour the alcohol in my mouth!

The next day Dovi made us an Israeli? dish, Shakshuka..... Which I tried once in Thailand??? Long story, anyway, basically it's onions, tomato and eggs. Tasty. Once again, no shortage of food in my stomach!

Stuffing my face, 

With shakshuka

No rest day would be complete without going to the supermarket to stock up! Hitchhiking is the prefered method of getting around the island, usually a ride can be had within 15 minutes or so.

Who wouldn't give me a ride?

Just a typical quiet 24 hours in Kalymnos,

Stay tuned, I'll be trying for an update a day over the next few days.

Thanks for taking a look!

Why am I so happy?

Cause I'm putt ing the final touches on some sweet blog posts!

Can't wait...

Something Tasty Is Cooking