Railay East highlights.

We've been on East Railay beach now for a few days, the first 3 days we got some nice short routes in. The last two, Dr. JoJo has kept me on strict R&R, as I've had two fevers reaching towards 102 F. Thankfully, I haven't had one today. It's great to be here with Jo, being sick and traveling by oneself would be hard... It's so tempting to get out on the karst pillars despite feeling quite low energy. But, I'm on the mend in a big way today, so, *hopefully* we will get out and climb again tomorrow.

The Karsts rising out of the Adaman Sea are absolutely amazing. They are all limestone, and quite textured. Unlike at home, the objective hazard has less to do with the quality of the rock, and more to do with the quality of protection. Standard stainless steel expansion bolts have a pretty short life in this humid/salt infused air. The scary thing is that they can look fine from the outside, but, inside they can just be a pile of rust. There is a solution, titanium glue in bolts and staples. According to the books and local guides, the only bolts you can trust are those that feature red hilti glue. If you show up with a supply of this stuff, you're treated like a god. Next time, I'll bring a bit of it. There are something like 800 routes on the phra nang peninsula. There are plenty in the 6 range, which encompasses 5.10 a - 5.11 b. If I'm climbing in the 5.11 range by the time we leave, I'll be psyched! JoJo is hoping to start leading again on some easy routes tomorrow, which I know she can handle physically, but it's her head that needs a bit of work yet........ She'll get it for sure.

The bungalow we stayed in for the first few nights, 750 Thai baht per night (about 25 USD), expensive by Thai standards, but, a great place with a Robinson Crusoe kind of feel. The north Daimond wall rises up in the background.



Jo working out the moves before her TR start on a 6a+ on the 1, 2, 3 wall. This is a great spot to get comfortable with the area's climbing, but, you've got to time it right as it's "guided" most of the day. This entails a bunch of Thai guides screaming at their newbie clients, "Right foot up, right foot up! Left hand out, left hand out more. Is left foot broken? Why you no move left foot?" Needless to say, we're not frequenting this crag too much now....



Two classic Thai longtail boats with a ferry in the background. The longtails are ingeniously simple, I'll do a post on them later. They've got the "re-use" part of the 3R's dialed here.



The locals talk a lot about "Freedom" here, and not in the dept. of homeland security kind of way. There's a lot of dreadlocks around the peninsula and reggae can be heard quite often. Of course, I'm not complaining, rather, we're loving it. Pictured here is one of the local beachfront bars, the, "Skunk Bar."

I'm hoping to get across Phra Nang beach tomorrow to climb in the Escher World before the sun starts roasting the place. That beach is incredible, and we'll be sure to grab some photos. Time for another Thai Gatoraid and maybe some time by the pool.... Much Love, Grant & Jo.

Images from a foriegn Metropolis...

Hey all,

I'm feeling a bit wrecked at the moment, caught a nasty cold/flu here in Railay, so, no climbing, beaching or other stresses for me today... he he he.....

Here's a little feast for the eyes. Certainly no photo shop I can use here, so, all images are as captured.

Smiling Buddah at one of the smaller "Wat's" in Bangkok

Figured it was best to pay some respect to this figure before climbing all over an area with TONS of snakes...



Jo acuating the gong. This had an amazing tone that resonated through your body. Quite addictive. Sort of a deep, Ohm sound.

Another Wat as viewed from the public river ferry/taxi. Can't remember the name at the moment....



Yet another temple. These places are pretty cool!



Amazing Thai food near Rambutri street in central Bangkok.



My favorite image from Bangkok. The train station just before our long and chaotic journey South.



Why yes, I'd love another Chang beer babe!

I'll get some more content up this evening. We're loving Railay. I'm back to my moderate climbing level, french 6a+ (5.10 b/c Yosemitie) Now, the trick is to get healthy and get to 5.11!

Thanks for tuning in!

2 Days in Bangkok

At first, Bangkok was a little intimidating, and our original plan was to book it for the South of Thailand immediately, but, as we were packing up to go, we decided we'd take things a little slower, and spend a day in Southeast Asia's, "City of Angels." Second travel lesson: Create some type of game plan in a "safe" place (i.e. room or restaurant) before heading out onto the street! As soon as you are looking at the Lonely Planet guide, your another floating Dollar sign out there to be taken advantage of. We were mildly "touted" by a taxi cab driver who seamed all so helpful. He also was not running the meter on his cab. He took us to a few different places, all of which were super expensive tourist traps. We reisted, and took matters into our own hands after parting with about 200 b, or $6 USD. At the train station, we purchased our own tickets for the following day. We also got some great advice from the railway staff, and set out to see some wat's (buddhist temples.)

After visiting the temple, we wandered about central bangkok for a bit, taking in the sensory overload in all it's glory. Crossing any street is an excercise in critical mass. It's a delicous banquet for the senses for certain. We wandered back streets, took in amazing and cheap street food, and explored for the better part of the day. We started negotiating public transport. We found our way to the river and took the public ferry back a stop near our guest house on Rambutri road.

That evening, we ate a delicoius little Thai Muslim Curry restaurant in the bangpaulu district of Bangkok. Incredible dining, very little english understood, and a grand total of 169 b.

Yesterday we toured bangkok once again using Tuk Tuk, high speed Sky train, and river taxi. We visited the MBK "mall" which is like an american mall, but you can barter, and the whole experience is absolutely ridiculous! The Thai food court however, was awesome, Jolene particularly liked the iced coffee. I was glad to leave after getting some provisions for our trip!

Last night we began a 17 hour journey south. We started with the overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to Sarat Thani, then got on a 3 hours bus, then a taxi, and we're now oh so close to our final destination, Railay beach. It's been an excerise in Chaos to say the least, but we're reveling in the experience, and filled with the rush of doing something that we've dreamed about for so long.

This internet connection is poor, and we've still got to get on a long tail boat to get to Railay, and then secure accomdation for the evening, and there's only 3 hours of daylight left, so that's it for now. Hopefully Railay will have a better internet connection, but, likely not.... I'd like to put more photos up, but, it's not working to well right now..... More to come.... lah gorn kap! Grant & Jo.

Welcome to Bangkok!

Woah! We arrived in Bangkok around midnight local time, which is 15 hours ahead of Mountain time. We decided to go "adventure" style, and didn't book anything in advance. We managed to get our visa's, a taxi to Rambutri, and a guesthouse. Our friend Anna recommended the Four Sons, and low & behold, we found it! 450 baht per night gets us a decent little room, with a shower over the toilet. We had two tiger beer each, and went to bed somewhere around 3 am local time.

First lesson, don't use the towels provided. They've got bugs in 'em, and the bugs bite! I'm greatful we decided to bring the 'lil travel towels.

Our original plan was to rush to Krabi town via the overnight train, but, we've decided to hang out in Bangkok today, and leave tomorrow night. This place looks like it has so much to explore! Today's agenda includes visiting a temple, a Thai market, and hopefully a real Thai dinner somewhere. I'm looking forward to leaving the Tourist ghetto that is the Khoa san road area.

That's all for now, I'll start posting photos soon!

Utah Avalanche Center Field Work

Alright, I'm really going to try to update more often. I know I've been slacking, but I've been redlining both figuratively and literally at work.

Literally redlining at work......

Mountain Animals 2009 Winter Rendevous