Product of ND: Catch Up

My blog posts have been long over due. This is namely due to a lack of down time recently, I apologize. Below are the latest events that have occurred here in Thailand.

We were lucky enough to host a few of the Black Diamond SE Asia engineers about a month ago. BD has been very good to CMRCA over the years, allowing numerous guides to intern at the BD factory in China. These guys have been working very long hours over the past few months setting up a new BD ski factory in Zhuihai, China. Needless to say they wanted to relax a bit and climb for a few days. They had a great time here in Chiang Mai and we hope work together to continue fostering love of climbing in SE Asia

William leading Chimney Sweep, 6a (he had never heard of the scissor step before)

Group photo at Tamarind Village

The beer is a bit stronger in Thailand

For the upcoming NIST program, which consists of 108 kids from the New International School of Thailand (NIST), the whole company took part in a leadership training day at San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. We learned a ton of new games, energizers, and leadership models. NIST comes in less than a week and it will be on!

Muad giving a not so genuine smile

Helium Stick

Color Blind (much tougher than I thought)

Problem solving

Katie and I decided to check out the annual Loy Krathrong event up by Mae Jo this year. The festival includes thousands of people lighting lanterns and letting them all off with a wish. It was a bit of an adventure to get out there but it was well worth it. We ended up seeing everyone we knew in Chiang Mai, including our two favorite people, Michelle and Janel. It was pretty amazing experience. Though the 2 hour shuffle through a giant crowd to get out of the event was a bit taxing, oh and it started raining the hardest I have ever seen in Thailand as soon as we got on the scooter to head home. Luckily we were able to pull off and wait out the storm whilst eating some hot noodles.

Pre-game sai grah

M and J

Letting it go

About 2 years ago Mark Hammond of the Colorado Mountain School came over to teach the Thai guides the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Single Pitch Instructor Course (phew). Mark came back this year to give the exam and teach another course to our new hires. Both the course and the exam went tremendously well. It is really rewarding being part of a company that values and invests in quality and learning. The results are not in yet, so I can't say who passed or failed. Regardless, we had a good time.

The second day of the exam was actually just Mark watching us with real clients, which was really great. I think being outside and working with beginners is what we excel at. We made some new friends and had a good time in the process, win win.