UKC

I have a few weeks holiday I want to do somewhere I can meet new climbing partners and get strong doing lots of climbing. Tonsai looks perfect but too expensive for me. I'm in London and looking for somewhere to go in Europe. Can anyone recommend anywhere?

thanks

In reply to tim_rich:

Ceuse

Some more info:

I'm fairly new to outdoor climbing and have never lead outdoor.

I am planning to go at early september for a month

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Are there any popular climbing hostels / campsites people know of?

In reply to tim_rich:

Ecrins national park - around La Berade in particular has great climbing. Easy to get to as well- 2 hours from Lyon

In reply to tim_rich

In that case I reckon Kalymnos is your best bet

In reply to 3 Names:

Great, thanks for the recommendations

In reply to 3 Names:

If place as far and hot as Kalymnos could go, I would consider Paklenica Gorge at Starigrad near Zadar, Croatia.

In reply to tim_rich:

Although September might still be rather hot in Kalymnos (October is the best month) it would suit you well. There are masses of good routes at all grades, and if you get accommodation in or near Massouri you'll not need to hire transport and there will be hundreds of other climbers so you should find people to climb with.

In reply to tim_rich:

If you have never climbed outside before, I wouldn't recommend picking up a partner at the campsite or the crag. I'd recommend getting some outside experience under your belt with someone you know well first and trying to find a partner before you go.

You have over a month left till you are going, that's plenty of time to find a partner on UKC, at your local wall or amongst friends of friends who is free in September too and whom you may meet up and climb with a few times in the UK first.

Taking myself as an example; I am wary of partnering up with someone I don't know when they are also very new to climbing AND there is no sort of safety backup because I am on my own with them at an outdoor crag (at the local wall I could bring a 3rd friend to watch my new partner, ask the wall instructors to keep an eye the first few times, climb short routes where I can look down and see how the belaying is being done, stick to topropes, etc.).
I would say that most partners you will find on spec at an outdoors destination who are happy climbing with someone very new to the sport are going to be in a couple of groups:
a) Experienced but a bit reckless and therefore potentially prone to dangerous behaviour.
b) Inexperienced and therefore potentially prone to dangerous behaviour.

Keep in mind also that because you are quite new to climbing, you are probably not a great judge of how safe or experienced a potential partner is because you don't know exactly what to look for in this regard.
Ideally you want experienced but cautious partners, especially when you are starting out and to find these, you need to build up a rapport with them before you go out for weeks of climbing.

I know a lot of this is sounding quite insulting to you and just about everyone else in the climbing world infact! It is hard to articulate a line of thought like this with an item of text only, if we were speaking, I could modulate my mode of delivery depending on how you were responding and make it sound less offensive.

TLDR: If you are new to climbing, get a partner before you go, don't look for randoms when you are out there.