Cragging at Crazy Horse

I have been back home here in Thailand for almost two months and have only gotten out to do personal climbing 3 days.......Luckily Katie and I have become great friends with Michelle and Janel. They both work as English teachers here in Chiang Mai, and have a great drive for climbing. We decided to make a two day climbing extravaganza out of it, staying one night at the Sam Kampheang Hotsprings. We were also joined by a Danish climber named Alex and our local Kiwi buddy Jens.

The first day of climbing was probably one of the better days I have had at the crag. I did a bit of instruction, a little climbing, and a little relaxing. I did drink an absurd amount of coffee that morning which made me move pretty quickly on route.

flesh wounds

Jens is strange

Hot spring time

After a long day of climbing in the heat and drinking a beer it was time to sit in a hot spring with 50 Israelis  For some reason, and I heard this before but never believed it, right around 6 pm a tour bus full of Israelis shows up and takes over the mineral pools. There are a few different theories for this however one is the most logical. Evidently there are tour packages offered in Israel in which the cost goes down substantially if you get 50 people to sign up, and one of the stops is Sam Kampheang hot springs. Very random. 

Now here is my cultural sensitivity rant. In Thai culture most swimsuits are modest, in fact most people just swim in the clothes they are wearing. That being said, this tour group was filled with dudes in tight speedos and women wearing little to nothing. Maybe I have been in Thailand too long but this is disgusting. 

Phew, anyway we ended up heading back to the bungalows, which have a large tub for personal mineral baths. We drank cheap wine and talked most of the night.

Woke up at the crack of noon and headed back to the crag. Hung in Anxiety State Crisis cave and helped Michelle get used to lead climbing. After lunch we headed down to Tamarind Village for some lazy climbing. It was a good day. I look forward to the next free day at the crag.

First 6a lead

trying to meditate

planking

owling

Dreaming of Ice

Pete talks about mixed climbing in Montana. Some of the first real climbing I did was with Pete and Erin over at Montana Mountaineering Association, changed my idea of what a career could be.



The Monkey Tales: Episode 1 - "Choss Monkeys on Parade" from Pete Tapley on Vimeo.

Samoeng Loop

I have been back for about 3 weeks now and have been on the move ever since. Days off are sort of a joke when I am catching up on 2 months of work and trying to schedule training for the rest of the year. It is tiresome but extremely rewarding work. There is never a dull moment here and that's what I missed while stateside. Even just a short ride to the market can be an experience, you just never know what will happen. Staying excited about my personal and professional life is never hard.

Since I arrived in Chiang Mai last November all I kept hearing about was this Samoeng Loop. Essentially its a few hour motorbike ride around Doi Sethep. Katie and I had planned to do it but every time we wanted to the plans fell through. Luckily I have been adapting to Thai time pretty well and knew it would happen someday. As it happened our friend Hillary had never done the loop either, and given the fact that she was moving to Cambodia in a few days it just seemed right that we should all share the experience.

The ride itself was amazing. We escaped the heat and humidity down low for the pleasant chill of the mountains air. The route is pretty idiot proof, as its the only road, but there was still some room for adventure on little side roads. Time was not an issue so we took it, stopping in Samoeng for coffee and lunch before moving on. Most people do the loop counter clockwise, starting in Mae Rim and ending in Hang Dong, however the reverse is much more scenic. Not much else to say about the loop except that it was worth the wait.

Maps

Hillary Crip walking

Owling

Its not a Harley but it does the trick

Tourists

Rock Road Trip: Part 3

Rocky Mountain National Park




Unfortunately Colorado has had a pretty bad snow year. After talking to a few CMS guides in the Boulder area I was told that Dreamweaver (Grade III, WI2 or 5.6) on Mt. Meeker was still in shape. Given the string of high temps in Boulder and Estes Park we knew our time frame was narrowing. We decided to give it a shot anyway.

The hike up to Mt. Meeker cirque was pretty relaxed, mainly due to the wide trail all the way up to Chasm Lake. This area receives a ton of traffic from both hikers and climbers going to Longs Peak. For once my pack didn't weigh half my body weight. Starting at 9,405 ft we ascended to our bivy location at 12,100 ft in under a few hours. From our bivy we could see that most of the snow on Mt. Meekers shoulder and into the Loft descent area had very little snow left, not a good sign. We met a group coming down from the Loft who reiterated our concerns. Regardless we were going to have a look at it the next day.

Besides waking up a few times to scare off some marmots we slept in until 4 a.m. , ate breakfast, and then headed over to the snow slope. The temperature that night did not dip as low as we were expecting and upon approaching the base of the snow slope we saw some melting ice. The snow had frozen slightly with around 3-4 inches of crust with very rounded snow below. Previous parties steps were still visible but pretty melted out. We ascended without rope or crampons to the base of the couloir on hard-ish snow, reaching 12, 600 ft around 5:30 a.m. All it took was looking at the large amount of exposed rock and rotten ice above for us to decided to retreat. Though the bottom looked doable it was the top section that concerned us most. The high temps the previous few days had melted the route out considerably.

On our way out we ran into a party of 3 who were going to attempt Dreamweaver that day. They had quite a bit more rock protection than we had brought, and looked more comfortable doing mixed climbing if needed. We sat and watched the group ascend the snow slope until they got into the couloir proper. Given their speed, it took them over an hour to reach the route proper and it was already 8 a.m.,  I assume they ran into some very unstable snow higher up and on the descent.

Pride can be a dangerous thing sometimes, but luckily Linus and I are pretty much on the same page when it comes to pushing a climb when all the factors are stacked against us. We had hoped for a snow climb not a mixed climb on rotten rock, we just didn't have the gear to do it. Such is life. We headed back down to the truck, which was not faring well to begin with,  and back over to the Front Range.

Meeker to the left, the Diamond on the right

Ships prow

Bivy

Conditions

Ideal conditions

The rounds

Red Rock Canyon

After cruising through Castle Rock again, with a short pit stop, we headed south to Colorado Springs. The idea was to stay in the lower areas to save wear on the truck, as it was belching white smoke everywhere. Two climbing destinations are immediately adjacent to Colorado Springs: Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Canyon. The former is a tourist trap, so we decided to check out the latter. The area is unique in the sense that the sandstone substrate is exposed rather than the granitic formations just miles west. Red Rock Canyon is actually owned by Colorado Springs and is designated as a open space. Earlier in the trip we had run into lots of elitist local climbers who were very unwelcoming, however at Red Rock Canyon we experienced quite the opposite. Due to is close location and relatively new development the canyon is filled with tons of families out for a few climbs, hikers, cyclists, and just people walking around. Our goal on this trip was to see and climb in as many destinations as possible. The sandstone was very very soft and most of the climbs were slabby sport climbs, however there are a few great trad routes as well.

Because the stone is so soft, the use of top roping is actually incising the rock face. Some of these rope troughs are over 2 inches deep. Now considering this area is only about 8 years old that is staggering. Our first day there we saw a few climbing schools running top ropes all day with no regard for the environmental impact, sad.

Unfortunately due to the unusually high temps we were only really able to climb from early morning until around noon. Overall the area was nice, though something needs to be done to save the rock for future climbers.

Beta

Storm rolling in

Rope cut

The vertical lines on the rock are actually rope cuts

Well, the trip was a success, more or less anyway. We ended up climbing in a lot of different areas and on a lot of different stone types. However, my told truck didn't fair too well. I limped home with the old girl, but I don't think she will be doing any long road trips again. Now its time to get prepared for the post-vacation madness of work.

Rock Road Trip: Part 2

Castle Rock and Castlewood Canyon

We decided to drive south of Denver to my aunts place in Castle Rock to shower and take an off day or two. Though we ended up going out to Castlewood Canyon for a short bouldering session one day. The stone out there is pretty unique. It is a conglomerate stone, which is really interesting to climb on.

Up was easy

Down, not so easy

Linus getting schooled by a V0

While we were there we also experienced a freak storm system. Large amounts of hail fell for nearly 5 hours leaving a path of destruction everywhere. It has been a long time since I have been in the middle of a flash flood warning, tornado warning, and thunderstorm warning. There was still drifts of hail on the ground the next morning when we left for Boulder.

Hail

Specimen 

Boulder

We cruised up to Boulder, mainly because I was slated to take the AMGA Single Pitch Instructor course, however we also plan to do a number of snow and rock climbs in the area as well. The SPI course went well and I learned a lot of new techniques. Many knowledge bombs were dropped on my head. Needless to say the 3 day course left me a bit wore out. Below are a few photos from the course.

Demo lead

Hanging out

Haul systems