I have been back home now for a week from an incredible trip to Eastern Europe. The first destination was Greece, Kalymnos for the North Face Climbing Festival. The idea of this festival was to invite the best rockclimbers in the world to participate in a friendly competition on amazing rock. For me it was a great opportunity to go rockclimbing with my friends on the beautiful island of Kalymnos and to share my passion with 16 other invited people.
I have to say that being in Kalymnos is just FUN! Riding like a kid on a scooter, eating as much fish and fresh greek yogourt as you can and climbing with the sea in the background…….What else do we need to be happy? In general, I don’t like competitions very much. But in fact it can be really cool, it all depends on the atmosphere between the competitors. Together with my friends Mélissa Le Nevé, Anna Stöhr, Sabine Bacher, Sasha Digiulian, Babsi Zangerl and Johanna Ernst, we had great times during the whole festival and we helped each other so much…great vibes…happy times! We had four routes to climb in two days. I was able to complete the 8a, 8a+ and 8b+ on the second go. I almost flashed the 8b+ with big help and great betas from Mélissa, but I struggled too much in the end and I failed. The 4th route graded 8b, nobody was able to complete because the route was in the sun all day long. The routes were super super cool and I would like to give huge THANKS! to the route setters: Jacopo, Siebe, the Pou brothers and Hansjörg. I finished second after Caroline Ciavaldini with one more try on my list. 
The next day after the great finale party, I took the ferry to Bodrum with Mélissa and Erwan. The spring of this year was the first time I visited Turkey and for the second time, I have fallen in love with this country again. The people are so friendly and helpful. I wish to be able to import these nice touches back to Europe… After a few hours of driving with our perfect guide Mümin Karabas, we arrived in Antalya to pick up the rest of the team. From there we drove straight to the mountains to reach our little basecamp. During the next 10 days, life was how it should be. We were living in kind of an old alp house, surrounded by sheeps, goats, dogs, cats and chickens. In the morning we had breakfast in the turkish sun eating feta, olives, cucumber and tomatoes. Then we went out on the cliff to bolt new routes (like hell) till the night. Tired and dusty, we enjoyed the evening with the whole Turkish-French group, around a nice campfire. Because we had no shower, on our rest days, we drove to Antalya and visited the Hammam, shower, Barber and of course, we visited all kinds of turkish Bazaars. 
Honestly, for me, this rhythm was everything I was looking for from the busy life I have here in Europe. I felt so good in my skin, was smiling all the time and also I was proud and happy to drill so many cool new routes. After 10 days ‘Heidi’ style, we moved for some relaxing days to the famous climbing spot ‘Olympus’. We had the chance to sleep at Kadir’s Tree house, super nice camping, where all the bungalows are made with only reused wood. Beside bolting some more new routes there, life was super tranquillo. One day we went for Deep Water Soloing and another we went out to sail on a little boat. 
For me this trip was one of the best I’ve ever had in my life and this is with great gratitude to Mümin who showed us the real Turkey, guided us to visit so many special places and who made us a part of his life, friends and heart of his country. More precise details about the area where we went for bolting, climbing pictures etc….. will be coming out later. Stay tuned!
Credit photos: Laurent Lafouche and Periklis Ripis