Late 90s Aris Theodoropoulos – mountain guide, mountaineering coach and director of the mountaineering and climbing schools of the historical Association of Alpinists Acharnon – for the first time I heard enthusiastic descriptions from my colleague from Italy Andrea di Bari KalymnosSpecially for your breed. The Italian was delighted, he even laid forty climbing routes himself.

In the spring of 1999, Mr. Theodoropoulos witnessed for himself the astonishing quantity and quality of his stones. “Like they were made for climbing,” as he usually says. It was Easter when he first went to the Dodecanese, which until then had been mainly based on the sponge trade and fishing. There was not a soul in Masuri, a small settlement that Telendo “sees”. All shops were closed. The visitors couldn’t even find a place to eat. The following year, at the “dawn” of the new century, when he contacted the local authorities and informed them that thanks to the rocky regions of the island there was an opportunity to open up new development paths, they looked at him like … an exotic bird. Along the way, they were able – to a certain extent – to see their country with his own eyes and gave him some support. Not that it was easy to implement what he had in mind. “You know what contacts with the Greek state are usually like. You have to endure a lot and persevere with all your might to get something,” he explains.

Joe Nesbo

In 2000, when he organized a climbing meeting, the number of visitors did not exceed a hundred. Now at least 15,000 climbers from all over the world come to Kalymnos every year – with an average stay of 15 days – to “tame” the rock on its cliffs, those who once scared away tourists. Among them is the well-known Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo, who considers the island a “climbing Mecca”. And in Mussoorie, there are at least 25 restaurants that stay open eight months a year – that’s how long the season lasts. What about routes? There are more than 4200 of them. Two hundred new ones are opened every year. One of them was named Harry Hole, after the protagonist of the novels, Nesbo, who recently bought a house in Mussoorie to combine his love of rock climbing, “the cure for my melancholy,” as he calls it, for a few months. letter.

“It’s a mild form of alternative tourism with little impact on nature.”

The benefits are numerous. “Climbing tourism has given a huge economic boost to the island, professional Kalymnians live here, who live solely on this. And, of course, he made the greatest contribution to the popularization and dissemination of rock climbing in our country – a sport for which Greece is ideally suited due to its morphology. Let’s also not forget that this is a mild form of alternative tourism with little impact on nature, such as the installation of stainless steel plugs that are almost indistinguishable, and the opening of paths,” notes Mr. Theodoropoulos. “We managed to get organized. The climbing guide to Kalymnos, which my partners and I publish every two or three years, is not just a bestseller, but the best in the world, as more and more readers claim.”

The locals are “sweetened” by the money they leave on the island. climbers. But is this enough? No. What is needed is an institutional structure that will set the rules and define strict specifications for everything. “Climbing sites need regular maintenance, mainly to replace stainless steel plugs, some of which may have corroded due to proximity to the sea. Clearing and clearing trails, many of which are uneven and washed out by rains due to lack of vegetation, is also a problem. For example, the protection of areas around climbing fields from free grazing and illegal construction, the cleanliness of rocks, roads and beaches, among other things. Finally, something very important: the island, through which so many thousands of athletes pass, cannot fail to have a specialized team for rescue in hard-to-reach areas and at high altitudes, ”my interlocutor emphasizes. “Most of the actions that created the “miracle” of Kalymnos were – and continue to be done – thanks to the work and money of volunteers. Thanks to our own efforts, we do not have a single dead, because often mostly foreigners come, without the necessary knowledge and open routes on loose rocks. This obscenity cannot continue.”

Working group

At the end of 2019, Aris Theodoropoulos submitted to the then Minister of Tourism Haris Theoharis the proposal to establish the Kalymnos National Climbing Park and the National Climbing Parks Management Agency, and then, in order to protect and enhance the unique natural beauty of the Greek rocky landscapes, to ensure the sustainable further development of their territories and inform local communities about the value of nature and the need to protect it. More than three years later, from the office of the Deputy Minister of Tourism Sophia Zacharakis, who is in charge of thematic tourism, we learn that “a working group on mountaineering tourism has been created. Its formation is not provided for by law, but is carried out as a first approximation of the object. Its task is to map the current situation, identify problems, pathologies, shortcomings of the institutional and operational base, draw up a development proposal – improve the institutional base, create agencies for the development of mountaineering activities and modernize existing services. Employees of the relevant department of the ministry, representatives of KEDE, EOT, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Ministry of Culture and Sports, Hellenic Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing, Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises for Outdoor Leisure Activities, Panhellenic Association of Sports and Exercise Professionals, Federation naturist climbing excursion clubs of Greece, the Association of Greek Mountain Guides and the Hellenic Ornithological Society.

At the same time, climbing fields in the country are increasing, the latest additions being in Kyparissi and Leonidio in the Peloponnese, which were opened with the financial support of the Bodosaki Foundation. Another route is being prepared, the “via ferrata”, on Cavo Malias, which will combine climbing with hiking. In other words, time is running out, and the responsibility still lies with the municipalities, “which, however, face a lot of problems,” says Mr. Theodoropoulos. “They don’t have the know-how, the staff, or the desire to climb occasionally. For me, climbing is my passion. But I look at them not only through my personal lens: they are the driving force behind growth. Therefore, we must preserve our gems – from Meteora to Schinussa – for future generations.”