Wide Open Spaces

"Anything of importance in a man's life must take place beneath the open sky" ~ excerpt from the book 'Game of Thrones'

My body may be back in the UK, but my heart and soul are still at the incredible places that we encountered during our travels, flying free like majestic eagles under the open skies and immense beauty.

It has been both a mental and physical challenge to get back into 'normal' life after the incredible 7 months of travelling that I've just had. It's not easy to adjust from being outside 10 or more hours a day, 7 days a week, to being reduced to such limited sky time, especially having come back to winter! It's meant a change from being out and about every day - either hitting the crags from morning till sundown, or heading off on a long hike surrounded by magical scenery,  or walking our socks off to see all the sites a city has to offer, or even sometimes just chilling on a beach or lying on the grass in a park and reading my book - to sitting in an office 8-10 hours a day, and really feeling the limits on time for sport and outdoor activities.  

Spending the day under the open skies is what drew me to climbing way back when, and has kept me climbing for over a decade, and will keep me climbing for many more years I can guarantee you :) I can't imagine life without these wide open spaces where my soul is free to soar and I feel alive with energy and vitality. I've also found that the people I meet and friends I make through climbing (mostly) share this same appreciation for the great outdoors, whether it's to climb or hike or just soak up the goodness, and this is another big reason why climbing has become such an integral part of my life.  

Over-population, development, cultivation, expansion ... it's happening at a rapid pace all around us.  But there are still loads of breath-taking places to experience, all you have to do is go! Here's some ideas for your next trip ...

1. Torres Del Paine, 4 day trek - Patagonia, Chile (Trekking)

Getting here does take some initiative and planning, but is worth the effort 100-fold, no make that 1000-fold! To get there you fly from Santiago to Punta Arenas, and then take a bus to Puerto Natalas. You can choose to do the trek full-board, staying in refugios each night, or half-board, or go hardcore style and camp (but remember this means you've got to carry camping and cooking gear with you!). We did the easiest option which was full-board, and made our booking through Fantasico Sur.

2. Yosemite - California, USA (Big wall trad, bouldering, hiking) 

Super easy to get to - you can fly into either Los Angeles or San Francisco, hire a car and within 3-5 hours you're there!  I had heard a lot of horror stories about unpleasantness due to crowds in Yosemite, but I didn't find it that bad. I actually think they have organized it really well considering the sheer volume of tourists that pass through each day, which is inevitable considering how spectacular the place is. I would definitely recommend staying in a campsite out of the valley, and just driving down into the valley to do whatever you might want to do down there. This way you're not constantly surrounded by the crowds and so it doesn't feel so bad.  They cater for the organized and not-so-organized with pre-booked and first-come-first-served camp grounds/ RV parks, as well as providing different campsites from the full-electric to the primitive to the hike-in only sites. Definitely a place every breath-taking-view-seeker should go to!

3. Bryce Canyon - Utah, USA (Hiking, horse-riding)

This place was simply incredible.  I just happened upon it while Googling different national parks in the USA, and it did not disappoint, in fact it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.  Your closest fly-in city would be either Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, and from either it's only about a 4 hour drive. The canyon offers a range of hiking options as well as horseback riding, and since it's not as deep as something like the Grand Canyon you can actually walk down and around the canyon floor which I really liked.

4. Rifle - Colorado, USA (Sport climbing)

This spot was recommended to me by a climbing buddy and definitely lived up to it's name as a world-class sport climbing destination.  The only downside that I found was that many of the routes were quite polished, with some being so bad that climbing on them was simply unpleasant. The climbing is in a narrow gorge so not quite what one would class as a 'wide open space', but you're still surrounded by some lovely scenery and a bubbling river, and the campsite provides an uninterrupted horizon to horizon sky view.

Refer to my previous blog for details on the climbing, how to get there, where to stay, etc.

5. Moab - Utah, USA (Hiking, think some trad climbing too)

Moab is a place that provides it all ... a charming little town with great atmosphere and range of accommodation options to suit all preferences, while being surrounded by the most gorgeous and dramatic scenery I've ever seen. Within less than an hour drive of Moab you have Arches National Park & Canyonlands National Park, and an hour or so further there is Goblin Valley State Park & Colorado National Monument. Moab is not too far from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, and it's super easy to combine a visit here with a number of other national parks like Bryce Canyon, The Grand Canyon, and Antelope Canyon, as well as loads of climbing options like Rifle, Maple Canyon, and American Fork. 

Canyonlands National Park

Arches National Park

Arches National Park

6. The Grand Canyon - Nevada, USA (Hiking, horse-riding)

To be honest, Bryce Canyon topped The Grand Canyon for me, but that is purely from a visual point of view.  When I read about the history and stats of the Grand Canyon it totally blow my mind and opened up a whole new appreciation for what I was seeing.  The downside for me for the Grand Canyon is that any walk you do within it literally goes straight down, and the straight back up again.  And unless you are equipped to camp overnight you never get to the canyon floor as you can't hike it in a single day.  So the hikes are a little boring in that you're just going down and up, but the view is spectacular and the geology so rich that it is worth the visit.  For getting there, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas are all nearby and the drive there would be through some stunning countryside so just sit back and enjoy!

7. Antelope Canyon - Arizona, USA (Ooo-ing and aahing)

Even before our trip started I had seen photos of the most incredible flowing rock formations on the front cover of books and such like. I never knew where they were from but I knew I wanted to go there! I'm not even sure how to describe Antelope Canyon ... the best I can do is compare it to Alice in Wonderland, where everywhere you look you just cannot believe your eyes.  There is an upper and lower canyon, which from what I could ascertain from all the blogs I read, offer the same magnificence.  The actual canyon is not very long, and the tours through it take approximately 1 hour, with some extra time added on for driving there and back. Unfortunately as with many accessible attractions of this splendour you are one of many wanting to experience it, and you just have to accept that and move on.  You can only enter the canyon with a Navajo Nation tour group, of which there are many.  We chose ours based on the length of the tour, their prices, and which canyon they offered (we chose the lower canyon).  The canyon is near the town of Page in Arizona, 3 hours drive north of The Grand Canyon.

8. Red Rocks - Nevada, USA (Sport & trad climbing, hiking)

This is one magical place! Just half hour drive from the Las Vegas Strip and you're gazing up this ochre & rust coloured landscape. It offers awesome sport and trad climbing, and hiking, as well as the perfect break after a couple days of Vegas craziness. For climbing, the one thing to be aware of is that the rock is a very porous sandstone and requires a drying out period of 2 days after heavy rain. Definitely time your visit too ... summer is VERY hot and there is extremely limited shade. As sun-hardened South Africans we managed to climb still, but it felt like we were being baked in an oven :) Super easy to get to from Las Vegas, you can even stay in a cheap Vegas hotel and drive out each day, but we preferred to stay in the Red Rock Canyon campground which was absolutely stunning. 

Refer to my previous blog for details on the climbing, how to get there, where to stay, etc.

9. Sayward Forest Canoe Route - Vancouver Island, Canada (Canoeing)

I never realized how big Vancouver Island is until we did this canoe trip up north.  One morning as we were gliding across a glass-like lake I pointed to some snow-capped mountains far in the distance and asked my brother (who lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island) if those were the Rockies over on the mainland.  Nope, he replied, those are on the island! 

This canoe trip was such an adventure and pretty easy to organize too.  We hired canoes from an outfitter about 45 minutes from our launch point.  The biggest logistical problem was firstly finding a car for hire with roof racks, and then actually fitting two canoes onto the roof.  One canoe is easy, two a bit more tricky ... but nothing a family of adventurous Vargas can't overcome :) It's a 4-6 day circuit and you don't have to pay anything to do it.  There are campsites all around so you can plan your day according to distances you're wanting to do. Some campsites are on the mainland and offer facilities, while others are on the islands in the lakes and are more primitive.  However even the primitive ones still had wooden tent platforms, tables & benches, and fire pits. This is a true Canadian experience and if you're ever in Vancouver or visiting the island then I would highly recommend it!    

Bear food cache!

Desert Escapades

Las Vegas glitz and glamour

Tucked in the southern corner of the great Nevada desert is Las Vegas, the city of sin.  Neon lights, free cocktails, glitzy glamour with the tantalizing promise of extra cash in the pocket.  But just half an hour from the infamous Strip, and only 10 minutes from the outskirts of the city, you're in the desert once more and gazing over at the Spring Mountain Range, home of Red Rocks and Mount Charleston climbing areas.

New York Hotel in Las Vegas

Our plan was simple: break up the climbing with a couple of city stints (… or break up the city chaos with some climbing peace, depending on how you look at it :). The hotels are so cheap in Las Vegas and the climbing so close that you could stay in the city and drive out to the climbing each day, but we preferred to get out into the wide open spaces with our campervan, and treat ourselves to hotel nights when in the city.

Bellagio water fountain show

We arrived in Vegas at dusk, just as all the lights were twinkling on.  The place made me feel like a hypocrite, I detest the obscene and crass use of our power resources, no doubt sucking some non-renewable energy source dry, and yet I couldn't help but oooh and aaah at the spectacular light displays. The vibe on the Strip is electric (excuse the pun :) and there is so many awesome things to see and do.  Many of the hotels have a theme of sorts, and have free shows each evening. The Treasure Island Hotel & Casino has a free show called Sirens of TI, complete with ships, temptresses, pirates, singing, dancing, and acrobatics into the water! But my favourite is the Bellagio Hotel's (a really swank posh hotel) water fountain show, which uses a dramatic combination of music, water and light to deliver a show that is breath-taking. And the best bit is that each time it's to a different piece of music so it's always changing.

Slots and cocktails

Once we had discovered our '8 cocktails for $6' trick the casinos didn't know what had hit them!  It boils down to 2 simple rules: 1) if you're gambling drinks are free, if you're not gambling you have to pay (and it's pricey too … $8 for a Gin & Tonic); 2) tip your waitress.   We would find the cheapest slot machine possible, which was sometimes a 1c per bet machine, or otherwise 5c per bet.  We'd put our $1 in and play it slowly.  That $1 would usually last for at least 45 minutes, and in that time we would get in 2 cocktail orders, tipping the waitress $1 each time.  So $3 bought us an hour of entertainment ($1 gamble) and 2 cocktails each ($2 in tips).  And so the night continued :)

After 2 nights of this we were more than ready to hit the wide open spaces and get in some cranking. Red Rocks was my destination of choice, the beautiful sandstone rock appealing to my style of climbing. But unfortunately the rock is very porous and requires a drying-out period following rainfall, and since it had been raining out in the mountains for over a week the locals said it was a no-go for the moment.  However the forecast showed the rain clearing up in a day or two, so we decided to go to Mount Charleston for a few days, then back into the city for a couple days, and then hit Red Rocks once it had time to dry out. 

Mount Charleston (photo grabbed from the internet)

Mount Charleston was an ok place, but I wouldn't rate it as one of my favourites. To be fair, I only climbed at a few of the crags, so perhaps it has more to offer than what I experienced.  It is 45 minute drive north-west of Las Vegas, and tucked up quite high in the Spring Mountains. The altitude change from Vegas is massive … from 2000ft up to 9000ft, which resulted in a big temperature drop which caught us off guard. We were so used to the overwhelming heat of the desert and Vegas that it was quite a shock to our systems to suddenly be donning down jackets and beanies.  The rock is limestone, and the style varies from crag to crag, but mostly I would say angled edges and laybacks.  The grading felt pretty much spot on actually, which was a nice change after battling up the routes at Rifle.

Robber's Roost crag

My favourite crag, and the one that I think is the most popular, is Robber's Roost.  It has some stunning long routes, the best being a 7b+ called Glory Daze, which has such a variety of moves and grips that you can't just be a one-ova-kind climber … power moves, slab moves, technical moves, pockets, slopers, crimpers, edges, flakes, nobbles, and everything in-between! It is a solid 40 meter climb too, so a wonderful test of endurance and stamina.

After 4 days in Mount Charleston we were fed up of the cold and keen to get back to the city where the heat envelopes you like a nice warm blanket (at least that's how it first feels after being chilly for 4 days, but after about 30 minutes that wears off and you're just damn hot).  

Our campervan being towed away

We had planned to spend only a couple nights in the city and then head out to Red Rocks, but unfortunately our little campervan broke down, so we ended up being stuck in the city for 4 nights in total, which was very frustrating as that meant less time in Red Rocks.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada, USA

Glorious red rocks

But eventually we did get out there and it was incredible.  Face east and you see the massive spread of Las Vegas city, face west and you're graced with a stunning red and orange landscape of rock and mountains.  Red Rocks is in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just 30 minute drive from the centre of Las Vegas.  It is sandstone rock and the dominant feature is thin flakes and small edges, which is why it is especially important to allow that drying-out period after rain, otherwise the rock is brittle and breaks, forever changing the route for the next person.  
Besides the flakes though, some of the routes have an amazing flow-like feature with rounded holes, almost as though it were carved out by water at some point (and quite possibly were).  Of course when I talk of the climbing here I'm referring to the sport climbing, but there is a whole ton of traditional climbing here too.

Red Rock Canyon Campground

We camped at Red Rock Canyon Campground which is a beautiful spot not even 10 minute drive from the climbing.  It's perfectly equipped with picnic table & benches and a large roof shelter overhead, fire-pits with benches around, and large flat tent sites.  There are vault toilets (well kept) and running water, but no showers.  But it's so hot that we just hung up our camp shower and used that.   

Walking out from The Gallery crag

Unfortunately we weren't at Red Rocks at the prime climb time; in fact we were there at what is probably the very least climbing-conducive time - midsummer! Being from South Africa I'm used to climbing in the heat, my general philosophy being that I can just chase the shade.  Little did I know that there is no shade in Red Rocks :).  Well, that's not entirely true, the Black Corridor crag does offer shade, but the grades there only go up to 5.11s and all the crags I wanted to climb at were bang-on in the sun all day.  Come autumn though Red Rocks apparently gets very busy, because not only is it cooler but there is also less rain, so more climb time.

The Black Corridor crag, Red Rocks, Nevada, USA

Since we ended up having only 3 days climbing in Red Rocks I got to climb at 2 crags - The Gallery and The Black Corridor - and both were really awesome. And there is a whole heap more crags that I never got to see or sample, so loads more for me to go back and do.  The Gallery mainly holds appeal for the routes on the far right … longer steep gym-like routes with big moves between very small crimpers.  The rest of the routes are decent but a bit short for my liking (about 10 meters high).  

The Gallery (photo from internet), Red Rocks, Nevada, USA

Unfortunately this crag (and most others) is only in the shade until 10am, at which point the sun starts to hit the lower section and by 11am it is practically glowing in the direct sun rays. Being enthusiastic climbers we tried to get there early and get some shade time, but even with getting up at 6am and getting to the wall by 8am I was barely warmed up when the sun started shining on the routes, and would manage to get in maybe one redpoint attempt before it was in full, very hot, sunshine.

But heck, I can't exactly complain … we were on a 53 day campervan cruise in the USA and it was just so amazing to get to climb at these magical destinations.  The focus for me wasn't on ticking only hard routes, it was so much more about the experience and the places and the climbing.   Red Rocks was another place that simply spoke to my soul … the gorgeous rock, the stunning open landscapes, the warmth of the sun, the Milky Way stars and bright full moon, and big roaring camp fires.  I will most definitely be back one day, soon I hope!