Thai Field Trip

Ridiculous transport

Safety is always first

               I recently took part in a field trip with my Intensive Thai 1 class to the old elephant farm.
It was a pretty good day. Just watching elephants do elephant things like moving timber and painting pictures. The pictures pretty much sum it up. If your in the area check it out http://www.changthai.com/ .

Elephant bath?

Elephant impressionism

Finished product

Pig skins

Settling In

Well, it has been about three weeks since I have been in Thailand and I am slowly getting used to it. I am still living with a host family until the end of the week and then I am moving into an apartment south of Chiang Mai Gate, which is close to the market and work. Next week will be my last week of intensive Thai language lessons, which is good and bad. Bad in the sense that it will be over but good in the sense that I will be able to work full time at the shop and actually get out into the field. Next on the to do list is buy a scooter and a cheap guitar.

Moo young (translates to shredded pork), the family dog

Intensive Thai with Ajan Dear

Old Payap

I realized the other day that I had not put up any pictures of the shop or of Chiang Mai in general. That damn camera just seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I plan on remedying that in the upcoming weeks. Here are a few photos from the last couple days:

Bouldering wall

The shop

I have also decided that my favorite part of everyday hits around 6 pm when the light is amazing, the sun is sinking low, and the temperature cools. Don't think I will ever get sick of it.

Wat Phra Singh

Wat Phra Singh

Wat Phra Singh

This is going to sound pretty strange but there is a fixed geared bicycle revolution happening here in Chiang Mai. I thought I escaped this fad when I left the upper Midwest (yeah I am talking to all you Minneapolis and Fargo hipsters) I was recently telling this to my buddy Andrew Haak, owner of North Coast Bicycle Restorations in Ann Arbor, MI, and he couldn't believe it. I had to document this and the pictures don't lie. Never been into fixed geared bikes much, namely because I have heard horror stories of guys going down hills and their chains falling off (crash), but whatever floats your boat I guess. If you get a chance check out Andys' website http://northcoastbikerestore.com/  (the website is still under construction but it will be done soon). He is doing some pretty sweet stuff over there. Great classic bikes in original condition at a very reasonable prices.

Fixie billboards?

One of many fixie shops

The Thai fixed geared revolution

Loy Krathong and Rescue Training

Well, I've been in Chiang Mai for about a week and man its been intense so far. So many new experiences it's impossible to list or even think about all of them. At the moment I am living with a host family, haha which is interesting because my Thai is very poor. But its cool. I get to eat authentic home made Thai food every morning and evening, cant complain much. Though the language proficiency will be changing soon because I am taking an intensive Thai language class over at Payap University every morning.


The first few days were a bit too vivid but I am getting used to everything now. It's funny how comfortable with traveling a person can get, most things don't even phase me anymore, like grabbing a red truck or negotiating with the market vendors. Didn't have much time to get out and see the city until a few night ago when all the staff went out to Mae On, a small village east of Chiang Mai, for the Low Kratong festival. It translates to something like the "lantern float" festival. The festivities include a copious amount of fireworks and a lantern competition. Everyone gets a shot at making their paper lantern through a ring about 5 meters off the ground. And of course Pi Josh and Pi Kat took away the 500 baht prize. It was also a great place to meet the climbing community around Chiang Mai and Thailand in general, plus we met the Mayor of Mae On. Last night everyone went down to the river to watch the little offerings be pushed off into the river. There was a lot of beer involved and a bottle of whiskey of course.

Some of the Loy Kathrong crew

Katie and Pi Tune getting ready for flight

Katie and Pi Tune about to not win the competition

Lightening up

Katie and I letting one off, it didn't win either

The grand pu-ba

The other half of my days are spent over at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures (CMRCA) working on various projects. This weeks project was developing emergency protocols and evacuation plans for a number of locations. We actually were just out at Crazy Horse Buttress this past weekend teaching the protocols to everyone and running through some practice scenarios to test it out. It has definitely been a learning experience. My goal by the end of my time here is to produce a guides manual, which will help facilitate a high standard of guiding practices. Uber excited about it.

Crazy Horse Buttress

Teaching everyone about the new emergency protocols

 Pi Taw filming the tyrolean set up

 Pi Josh had an accident

Fianlly in Chiang Mai

Well, after leaving Denver on the 1st I finally got to Chiang Mai on the 4th. Although the trip was long is was far from the worst travel experience (Logan you can attest to that). Needless to say I made it into Chiang Mai on schedule and was picked up by Add and Ooan and whisked away to the CMRCA shop. Got the run down on the company and what I will be doing for the foreseeable future. Haha I also got a crash course in Thai language from Ooan and Add which has already been extremely useful. Its strange how accustomed to living in foreign countries you become , because I have only been here for less than a day but I feel right at home. Looks like I get the weekend off to recover from the horrendous jet lag I have accumulated because on Monday morning I start taking language lessons at Payap University.

Ramblin Fever

Well folks, I just got my passport and Thai visa back from the kingdom. Everything is kosher and now my departure date is insight. Looks like I will be leaving North Dakota on the 1st of November and arriving in Chiang Mai sometime on the 4th. Now normally I would dread such an insane travel time, however this time round I have a layover in Denver for a good 14 hours. A good friend and travel buddy lives in Denver and will be picking me up, at least I will have a 14 hour flight after for the hangover. Getting pumped for some tasty limestone, meeting new people, and experiencing a completely different culture. It's going to be pretty ok.

Blue Mounds Trip

Finally got to do some climbing on real rock this weekend down in Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota. I met up with a few friends in Fargo on Friday night and we cruised down, set up camp, and drank a few beers. The rock formation is really strange down there, as the entire area surrounding Blue Mounds is flat farm land. The exposed bedrock is Sioux Quartzite and has a distinctive red color, which is strange considering its called "Blue" Mounds. I can only assume that from a distance atmospheric effect makes it look blue. Protecting routes here is somewhat difficult due to the nature of the rock , and creative top rope anchors had to be improvised. It was probably the most dirty / slick rock I have climbed in awhile, but that just adds to the fun factor I guess. Turned out to be a pretty great day of climbing and I look forward to going back at some undetermined time in the future.

Long Overdue

Hey Everyone,

          I has been awhile since I slapped up a post so here is the 411 on the show.

My time in southern Chile ended up going into extreme flexibility mode to say the least. We had originally planned a giant traverse of the Northern Patagonian Icecap, however our instructor Ben had to fly back to the states on short notice due to a friend that passed away. So, given the circumstances we decided to plan two shorter trips ourselves. Our first trip was supposed to be a traverse of the Cerro Castillo area seeking out and destroying as many fresh powder bowls we could find, and our second trip was going to be a traverse in the Exploradores area with chances of alpine objectives. Needless to say that all went out the window, at least to some extent.
         Due to the extremely low snow year down in Chile we were forced to hike a fair way into Las Horquetas to even find traces of snow. The weather was good the first two days march in but once we reached our camp in the Alslado Valley the weather just turned sour. I think we spent 6 or 7 days up at the Alslado camp and were only able to get out and ski properly one day before our egress. Everyone went back to camp after one run, but Linus and I bolted back up for another before the weather yet again started closing in. Below are the photos that survive.

Planning

Jake rocking the rations

Our trusty fire pit

Alslado Col.

Our lines down

After the Cerro Castillo trip I received a bit of bad news from back home concerning a family member, as such I decided to fly back. The second trip from what I have heard from the guys went pretty well except for a stretch of bad weather (thanks mama Patagonia) and a dangerous river crossing.




                 Upon my arrival back in the states I took care of what needed to be done and have been working for my old man since. Pinching pennies is the name of the game when your as broke as I am. That being said it hasn't stopped me from training on my climbing wall, working on friends motorbikes, and most recently an attempt at the Maah Daah Hey trail.

Andy and the 1976 175cc Kawasaki

After a little sandblasting and paint

The Maah Daah Hey trail, which in the Mandan language means "an area that has been or will be around for a long time," is a 96 mile trail through the heart of western North Dakotas badlands. Yet again flexibility mode reared its head. After completing roughly 1/3 of the trail I decided to pull the plug, mainly due to lack of adequate water sources between established NFS campgrounds and the unusually high heat index for this time of year.