CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos THE IMPACT OF ROCK CLIMBING ON KALYMNOS February 2020 1 THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE ABOUT THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE The Climbing Initiative is a Colorado-based nonprofit supporting climbing communities worldwide. Through research, community engagement, and partnerships, we bring together organizations invested in the future of climbing and develop best practices for supporting the growth of climbing in emerging contexts. We believe rock climbing can empower individuals, create new sources of livelihood, and foster the development of a more sustainable and equitable world. climbinginitiative.org Cover photo by Nikolaos Smalios Design by Mario Minchevski behance.net/mDesign Photographers Veronica Baker and Nikolaos Smalios Copyright © 2020 The Climbing2 Initiative. All rights reserved. Version 1.3 CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos CONTENTS 1 Summary 2 Introduction 5 History 9 Economic Impact 12 Social Impact 15 Environmental Impact 18 Challenges & Opportunities 25 Recommendations 28 Conclusions 3 THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE 4 Luisa Zoe Millonig powering up the tufas on Sevasti (7b) at the Iannis sector Photo by Veronica Baker CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos SUMMARY Kalymnos has more than 3,400 routes on a 109 square kilometer (42 square mile) island and receives thousands of climbing tourists every year. Climbing has injected new life into the island’s economy and mitigated the effects of the Greek economic crisis. A significant social shift is occurring as locals embrace climbing tourism, though there is still not a great degree of integration between climbers and locals. While climbers have relatively low environmental impact, environmental practices throughout Kalymnos need to be improved to preserve the island. A small number of volunteers are responsible for route development, maintenance, and rescues on the island. Without this volunteer work, Kalymnos risks losing its status as a top climbing destination, as failure to maintain routes could have severe safety consequences. Kalymnos demonstrates the incredible economic benefit of climbing tourism, and highlights the need for climbing communities and locals to work together to preserve this resource. 1 SUMMARY THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE INTRODUCTION The Greek island of Kalymnos is one community at a later stage of develop- of the most popular climbing desti- ment. This case also offers insights into nations in the world, boasting world- the benefits of collaboration between class limestone cliffs and year-round stakeholders—and foreshadows the climbing conditions. Since the 1990s, consequences of inaction. climbers have bolted more than 3,400 routes. The presence of climbers has STUDY OBJECTIVES reshaped the economy of the island The Climbing Initiative conducts case studies on climbing areas and com- munities at different stages of devel- Kalymnos is one of opment. We believe that communicat- the most popular ing patterns in the context of climbing climbing destinations worldwide has the potential to change in the world the way organizations and communi- ties interact around climbing-related issues. and dramatically extended the tourism STUDY AREA season. Thousands of climbers visit Kalymnos each year, but exact num- Kalymnos is a 109 square kilometer (42 bers are unknown. A handful of volun- square mile) Greek island in the Aege- teers dedicate their time and resourc- an Sea. You can drive its length by car es toward the development and safety in under an hour. It is part of the Dodec- of the island. As Kalymnos grows more anese island chain and lies fewer than and more popular as a climbing holi- 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the coast day destination, issues are emerging. of Turkey. Most of the climbing is locat- From environmental impact to tensions ed on the northwestern coast, roughly surrounding funding for maintenance, expanding from Myrties and Massou- Kalymnos provides a unique lens into ri across to the neighboring island of the challenges faced by a climbing Telendos and up to Emporios. 2 INTRODUCTION CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos ITALY TURKEY GREECE EMPORIOS TELENDOS KALYMNOS MASSOURI MYRTIES METHODOLOGY In June-July 2019, The Climbing Ini- tiative conducted a case study on the impacts of rock climbing on Kalymnos. Veronica Baker, the principal research- er, conducted interviews with a variety SUPPORT of climbers, business owners, govern- ment officials, and others with knowl- This study was supported by funds edge of the impact of climbing on the from the Jackson Institute for Global island. Interview questions focused on Affairs at Yale University. the history of climbing on Kalymnos; its economic, social, and environmental CONTACT impacts; relationships between local businesses, the municipality, climbing The Climbing Initiative welcomes feed- developers, and tourists; challenges back and opportunities for future re- they currently face; attempts to ad- search. We would love to hear from dress those challenges; and hopes for you. Please feel free to reach out to the future. The study employed snow- [email protected] or find us on ball sampling and semi-structured in- Instagram at @theclimbinginitiative. terviews. 3 INTRODUCTION THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE 4 View of the main port in Pothia arriving by ferry from Kos Photo by Veronica Baker CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos HISTORY Before climbers realized the incredi- 1996, while managing the website for ble potential of the limestone cliffs on the municipality, Roditis had an idea. Kalymnos, the island was known for “I thought, ‘This is a nice topic for the its sponge diving industry. It also saw website.’ I started a whole section on a moderate number of tourists. In the climbing. It developed into lots of infor- 1980s, tourists booking a Greek island mation: a forum, a place for climbers getaway would often visit neighboring to exchange information.” After a few islands which more developed for tour- years, he said, “You could see that the ism. If the hotels on those islands were website visits skyrocketed.” overbooked, tour companies would re-route their visitors to Kalymnos. “In the Dodecanese, Kalymnos was not a major part of the tourism industry con- “I went to the mayor trary to Kos or Rhodes,” said Dimitris and I told him we Roditis, who works as the information should do something technology manager for the municipal- ity and helps his wife, Evdokia, run her to promote climbing” accommodations and restaurant. After the tourism peak of the 80s, “tourism sort of faded. Other places were more In 1999, a European magazine pub- interesting and their economies devel- lished photos of this new climbing oped. Tourism in Kalymnos started to paradise. Greek mountain guide Aris decline. As things started to go down- Theodoropoulos saw the article and wards—boom!—the climbing wave immediately traveled to Kalymnos. He started.” soon realized the island’s immense po- tential. “I went to the mayor and I told In 1995, Greek climber Giannis Torel- him we should do something to pro- li visited the island and discovered mote climbing,” he said. pristine white limestone. The follow- ing year, Italian climber Andrea di Bari George Hatzismalis, who works for the arrived and established 43 routes. In local tourism office of the municipality, 5 Photo by Veronica Baker HISTORY THE CLIMBING INITIATIVE was one of the individuals contacted “Our intention was to increase the total by Theodoropoulos in 1999. “We had number of routes on the island and de- a meeting and the mayor at that time velop routes of a wider range of diffi- decided that we must try to develop culty in order to attract more climbers,” climbing.” At this meeting, Hatzismalis, said Hatzismalis. “Someone who wants Theodoropoulos, and the mayor came to make his holiday on this island will up with a set of priorities: counting ex- not come when he could easily climb isting routes on the island, bolting more all the routes in his level of ability in 1 to routes, and developing a guidebook. 3 days. So we needed to create new The team found 180 routes on the is- routes on the island in order to make land established by visiting climbers. the visit here worth it from a climber’s point of view.” The following year, in 2000, the munic- ipality hosted the first climbing festival on Kalymnos. “The first festival was 180 people,” said Theodoropoulos. “I nev- er imagined that Kalymnos could be the best in the world. Greece had good money then and said ‘why not,’ so they helped.” 2006 was a turning point for the island, when Theodoropoulos reached out to Petzl and organized a RocTrip. “They brought twenty of the best climbers of the time like Chris Sharma. It was great publicity for the island,” he said. The municipality has continued to or- ganize festivals semi-regularly in the years since. Funding and organizing the festival is how they choose to ‘support’ the climbing community: the municipal- 16-year-old Adam Ondra climbing on Kalymnos ity does not regularly contribute funds Photo by Nikolaos Smalios for bolting or maintenance, and instead 6 HISTORY CASE STUDY The Impact of Rock Climbing on Kalymnos relies upon volunteers to provide these 6b, and they want to have a safe expe- essential services year-round. rience with clean and easy routes. This is 90 percent of climbers,” said Claude Today, Kalymnos is known as a world- Idoux, one of the main route develop- class climbing destination. “It is the star ers and vice president of the Kalymnos of Greek climbing,” said guidebook Rescue Team. co-author Katie Roussos. “A lot of inter- national visitors keep coming back ev- Kalymnos offers an affordable and ery year. That is pretty unique around peaceful vacation atmosphere. “Peo- the world.” Hotels and studios on the ple say they come because the climb- island make up approximately 3,500 ing is amazing,” said Dimitrios Chalikos, beds, but the true scale of accommo- who owns and operates Climbers Mas- dations is unknown, as the municipality sage, a physiotherapy studio on the does not count Airbnbs and other stu- island.