Monday, April 9, 2012

Climbing in Thailand

After I completed my Search and Rescue Management course, Legal Liability and Instructional Skills certification a few friends and I decided to escape the Canadian winter for a while. From the 25th of February until the 6th of April we chose to go on a climbing trip to Thailand where we toured the country for 2 weeks and climbed for 3 weeks. We started in Bangkok and from there went down to Railay Beach which is on the coast off of Krabi where there is world class sport climbing. 

The pictures below are of a few of the sites around Bangkok.























Photo credit to Santiago Espinosa and Martin Bustamante for some of the pictures taken of me climbing. The next pictures are of the climbing on Railay and Ton Sai beach South Thailand. 




 The picture above is of a very cool 5.10d climb on Ton Sai Beach







The next 3 pictures below are of my favourite 5.11c and is amazing with a very cool crux to the anchor.


This section of the climb is interesting as it has no foot holds as you traverse the hand rail.







Martin on the same 5.11c 









The picture below is a view out to West and East Railay Beach on the top of the second pitch of a really cool 5.10d


Santiago repelling off the second pitch of the multi pitch.


Me having some fun on the beach after a day of climbing by soloing a pillar.


The pictures below are of us deep water soloing which is really popular in this area and is known to be the purest way of climbing. The picture below is of me on an amazing climb which goes through this cool roof. I find more adrenaline in the huge falls you take deepwater soloing rather than from the climbing its self.





If you look closely you'll see Martin way up there. And yes the only way down is to jump.





After climbing one day we decided to set the rope up and take a few jumps and swings off the cliff.


Sometimes the climbing ended a bit late and we ended up having to repel and walk home in the dark.





One thing about climbing in this area is no matter where you are climbing there is always a beautiful view. The water below was so clear that we could see big turtles swimming below.


Santiago on a very tiring 5.10d








Below are some views of the area and my rope burn.











The trip was a success as I'm back in Canada in one piece. Between the 3 of us we managed to take over 3000 pictures but of course i could only select a few for the blog. Besides the climbing, we also spent time in Phi Phi island, Phuket and Chang Mai up North. We met lots of cool people along the way and were able to pet tigers, ride elephants, go bungy jumping, spend time at the shooting range, go snorkelling, see amazing places and eat good food. Thailand is recommended to all travellers no matter what your interests are as there is so much to see and do. Now that I'm back in Canada i teach a rock climbing course in Skaha for a week and then do 2 rope rescue courses and hopefully climb all summer long. 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Bradley - you had an amazing time! Beautiful pictures!

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  2. Very jealous - looks like you had an AMAZING time! Superb photos too.

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