That's One Crazy Horse!
No, I didn’t go horse back riding today, I went climbing… Crazy Horse Buttress. Its named for a massive 60+ foot rock that looks like a horse’s head…
The climbing here is fantastic. The rock is grippy, but sharp. When the guide (Nui) picked me up this morning, he told me I was the only one today. 2 days ago he had 10, but today with one, we would do tons of climbing and all the routes would be customized to me. Climbing in Chiang Mai is very new. Nui told me there were only 20-30 people in Chiang Mai that climb… so gear is really expensive. About double what we pay in Canada. The gear they had was pretty beat up, but useable. The shoes on the other hand were brutal… there was no rubber left on the inside of the big toe on either foot. This added another half level to each climb i figure. Not only did I not have grip, but I could feel all the sharp rocks through the bit of leather that was left.
Still, the climbing was awesome. In the morning, we did 5 routes.. an easy 5.8 to start, then a 5.9 chimney, which was my first… pretty cool… but completely new climbing techniques. Then did a 10a overhanging route, followed by an easier 5.9 friction climb. We finished up the morning with a 25m 5.10, which was exhausting.
Lunch was pretty good. It generally is on these ‘tours’, but then again, I can’t think of when the food wasn’t good in Thailand. Because I was the only one climbing today, he asked me what I wanted to try. I told him I wanted to do a multi pitch as he had mentioned one earlier in the day.
So off we went. There was another climbing company using some routes in the area, as well as some tourists who had come to climb without guides. The only open multipitch was a 5.10a/5.10 for the 2 pitches respectively. The start was near impossible. My hands were already tired, and I couldn’t get any grip from my shoes since they didn’t have any rubber where it was needed. But after a whole lot of help and advice from others on the ground, I got up the first pitch. The second pitch was easier, but by then I was tired. I thought about quitting after the first pitch, but I thought, “when else am I going to get to do this? and in Thailand no less?”
So up I went. The rock was incredibly hot, being sharp didn’t help the matter either. But it was grippy, so I can’t complain too much. It’s a great feeling at the top of a route that you struggle so hard to climb. So a great day of climbing, my first chimney, and my first multipitch. Keegan’s often said, if you don’t fall when you climb, you’re not trying hard enough routes. I’d have to agree… on that note, where’s Keegs?