Ropes not needed

After hearing about our buddy Tom's adventure of deep water soloing, we knew we had to give it a try while in Railay. The combination of climbing with no ropes on karst mountains in the middle of the ocean was too good to pass up. We signed up the night before with a few other folks, nervously chatting about what awaited us in the morning. Once it was time to pile into our boat, everyone was a bit on edge with excitement. On top of all the built up energy, it was also one of the roughest days any of us had experienced on the sea. We were all drenched from head to toe within the first few minutes on the boat.

Once we reached our destination, our guide set out to get our rope set up by kayak. After a half hour attempting with no success we moved around the mountain in hope of another starting point. Finally after many more failed attempts, he got our ladder attached and we were sent out in kayaks. Unfortanetly, not only was the sea against us on this day so was our starting point. We were set back into a small cave and had to work our way out of it before we could even begin to climb the challenging wall. I got to climb the wall twice and Cassie only once before a major storm approached, and forced us to swim back to our boat exhasted as we fought the current, waves, and rain.

I would love to say that this was as amazing as it sounds but unfortunately our experience sort of sucked. Even more dissapointing was when I saw pictures from my buddy's day on the rocks; he was able to climb and jump into the ocean over 30 times. Oh well, not much you can do when rough seas and a storm get in the way of your fun.

Going up! Part 2

After a small break we took a walk around the mountain and found the base for our third and fourth climbs. We strapped up and got right to work. Cassie started climbing like she was a pro, right foot here, left hand their, right hand above that and before we knew it she was enjoying the view from the top. I'm personally not a huge fan of her doing so well because it makes me look bad. 

The nice thing about going second though is you sort of get a clue on what path is of lease resistance. Not that it really helps though, because once you hit the wall it all washes away with the task at hand. I held onto that wall for dear life slowly making my way up and around it's ragged edges. Once I reached the top, I could finally stop cursing the wall and enjoy the views below. Which, I can only describe as breathtaking.

Cassie and I both climbed the fourth wall like little geckos. Grabbing the smallest liitle nook and crannies to pull ourselves up and around bends. Stablizing our big toe on the smallest little ledge to give us a base to work from. The feeling is exhilerating and exhausting, but the reward at top when you've made it is pure bliss!

After a quick dip our guide started to show us how he get's down.. or up.. or sideways. He starting bouldering and made it look effortless. I'm pretty sure there were a few times he was holding up his whole body with only one finger. Insanely impressive he had quite the crowd enthralled. 

Going up! Part 1

After two weeks on islands swimming we needed to find a new activity. We just happened to be close to world class rock climbing so we couldn't resist. We jumped on another boat and headed for the unbelievably lovely karst mountains in Railay. I'm going to leave most of my thoughts about Railay to another post since these next two are just going to focus on climbing. 

We set out with our guide early in the morning and had a quick 15 minute refresher before jumping on our first wall. Cassie gripped the wall and worked her way half way up before finding the wall a bit too challenging. I did the same. Feeling a bit more comfortable we set out for our second wall and we both completed it with ease. I can only assume that the first wall was just jitters since it was our first time actually climbing outside.