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?
Chiang Mai
Well, it’s been a few days since I last posted… partly cause the internet cafe here in the hostel closes early, partly cause I’ve been out and about…
The last 2 days I went on a jungle trek. Compared to Nepal, it was easy… except for the crazy humidity and heat… We had a group of 13 people… which then split into the 2 day and 3 day treks… My group, the 2 day group was awesome… great people from Holland, Germany, and France… The first day was pretty much an uphill slog… the tour groups had given people these horrible canvas backpacks for their stuff… me, being uninformed, hauled all my gear in my Bora… good thing though… at least I had a pack that fit!
The village was from the Luha tribe, people who had migrated over from Burma (Myamar) to avoid wars. We had an awesome dinner, and then the kids of the village put on a little song and dance… which sounded like one 10 minute long song, but was really a medley …
Day 2 was great… downhill for about an hour, then swimming in waterfalls, then following this river down for a bit… lots of log bridges, and rock hopping… Then we got to the elephant camp… these things are huge… and a little intimidating, but really quite gentle… my elephant, was an old male, and was all over the place… he went from one side of the road to the other instead of travelling in a straight line… sometimes to eat, and sometimes just for kicks… fun times though…
We followed that up with an hour of white water rafting (class 2-3) and then bamboo rafting before heading back to town. After a shower and a fresh change of clothes, our group headed into town for dinner and some drinks… somehow we ended up in Chiang Mai’s …um… ‘alternative’ district… it was interesting… here, the ‘lady boys’ as they are known, were quite obvious… they would all dance in unison to the songs that the bars played… like some sort of routine to lure tourists… there was also a thai boxing ring in the middle where cocky tourists could try their hand at muay thai… quite funny…
around 11:30pm, there was an earthquake hit… i thought, oh crap… one of these lady boys have spiked my drink… luckily though, there really was an earthquake… didn’t get home till late, and had to get up early today… climbing at ‘Crazy Horse Buttress’.... one of these days I’m going to need to just sleep…
Well, it’s probably warmer here than where you are, so I’m going to go sit in the sun….