Jaunted

It's Summer Somewhere / Climbing / → All Tags

Craggin' New Zealand

It's climbing lite: Take advantage of the sunshine to go cragging on a small peak or cliff at a park near you!

The sport of cragging is a subset of rock climbing that eschews multi-stage climbs or complicated set-ups, instead preferring a short approach and quick retreat. It's perfect for the intermediate to advanced climber who'd rather do several short climbs than take a bunch of gear on his or her travels. New Zealand offers a ton of cragging opportunities, from roadside hills to back-roads routes with names like "Last Night of the Poms" and "Doing It By Degrees."

Cragging isn't confined to the Southern Hemisphere--you could even do it in some warmer regions of the US right now--but we'd rather enjoy the climb, as much as we can after the vertigo has subsided, without also having to worry about getting frostbite.

Related Stories:
· Is New Zealand Really Pure? [Jaunted]
· Rock Climbing Tom Sai [Jaunted]
· It's Summer Somewhere coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of a crag on the Banks Peninsula, NZ: funkenclimb]

Andaman Sea Field Trip / Climbing / Islands / → All Tags

Rock Climbing Ton Sai

Thailand... Are we nuts?! Nah: The airport trouble is over, and while politicians keep bickering in Bangkok, the rest of the country is ripe for exploration. Claire Duffett just spent two weeks in southwest Thailand sailing the Andaman Sea from Krabi to Phuket.

Just a 20-minute boat ride from Krabi town is Railay, a peninsula surrounded by limestone cliffs with three distinctly different beaches. East Railay is perforated by mangroves, making swimming impossible and accommodations cheaper. Since it’s the site of the port, however, foot traffic and boat noise is heavy. Further along, gated, swanky resorts emerge, alongside honeymooners riding around in golf carts. A few too many tourists find this wide stretch of beach inviting, though the sand is powdery and white, the water turquoise and the accommodations luxe.

Where you really want to go is Ton Sai. Long-tail boats take travelers across the small bay for 50 Baht, or $1.50, and the minor difficulty in accessing this beach makes it that much better with fewer people, cheaper accommodations and clearer beaches. The sand is darker and the rooms a touch rougher, but the rock climbing here is unparalleled. Small pockets dot the vertical volcanic rocks, ready for hands and feet to wedge their ways in. Even novices can clamber up to perches offering impressive views of the bay.

Rock climbing is, however, the only strenuous activity available on Ton Sai. Other popular diversions include indulging in cheap massages, exploring the winding dirt roads, gazing at monkeys and eating. There’s even a delicious Indian restaurant that serves palak paneer to kill for. The place is called, quite simply, Ton Sai Indian. A plethora of signs lead to the restaurant, hidden down a long, bungalow-strewn dirt road. Of course there’s always the option to, ahem, indulge in appetite-inducing herbal hors d'oeuvres--but I saw "Brokedown Palace" at a far too impressionable age to get involved in any of that.

Related Stories:
· Andaman Sea Field Trip [Jaunted]

Southwest Australia Field Trip / Climbing / National Parks / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Climbing the Gloucester Tree With No Disclaimer

Our resident expert on all things Down Under, Amanda Kendle, will be sharing the best of South-West Australia this week.

The Gloucester Tree is one of those places where you’d have to sign oodles of disclaimer forms if it were anywhere other than in the remote southwest of Australia. It’s a 201-foot karri tree that has the world’s highest fire-lookout platform and anyone can just wander over and climb up the less-than-safe-looking pegs to the top.

Located just outside the town of Pemberton, you have to pay A$10 ($7) per car to get into the Gloucester National Park, but after that nobody pays you any mind. The climb is unsupervised--except the day we were there, when a large Indian family spent two hours at the bottom applauding anyone who made it back down the tree alive.

And while it looks a bit risky, there’s no record of bad injuries or accidents for Gloucester Tree climbers. It probably helps that the climb is daunting enough to make 80 percent of climbers turn around not long after they start. That statistic sure says something.

Related Stories:
· Gloucester National Park [Official Site]
· Western Australia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Active Travel / Film Festivals / Climbing / Adventure Sports / → All Tags

Adventuring Vicariously: Reel Rock Film Tour

As you know, there's not much we like more than movies and adventure travel, so when we heard about the Reel Rock Film Tour, we were naturally pretty excited.

A traveling film festival devoted to flicks about rock climbing and other adventure sports, Reel Rock is screening movies about bouldering in South Africa, rafting through the Grand Canyon and a bio on legendary aerialist Dean Potter.

The tour sticks to its roots, kicking off Wednesday night in the mountain town of Crested Butte, Colorado, with a grand opening September 10 in Boulder and then continues over the next two months across the country, hitting up mostly smaller and mid-size cities, like Santa Cruz, Boise and Asheville.

Related Stories:
· Real Rock Film Tour [Official Site]
· Active Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Film Festival Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Reel Rock Film Tour]

Active Travel / Ice Climbing / Climbing / Adventure Travel / → All Tags

Alaska Travel: Ice Mountain Adventures

We've seen plenty of Alaska before: The state's unpredictable wildlife, epic hiking and even its surfing. But if you want even more out of a trip to America's last frontier, hit up Mica Guides.

Based just two hours from Anchorage on the Matanuska Glacier, the company offers glacier tours, adventure trips and, most importantly, ice climbing! Every day during the summer months, tours depart at 10 am and last about six hours. Best of all, no experience is necessary, as they'll tailor your tour to fit what you can handle.

It will only set you back $130 per person and that includes all the gear you'l need. You probably should bring your own sunscreen, sunglasses, gloves and some warm clothes. Once you get good, Mica also offers an advanced class where they'll mix things up and get you climbing some seriously wild ice.

Related Stories:
· Mica Guides [Official Site]
· Alaska Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Mica Guides]

Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Outdoor Travel / Active Travel / Summer Travel / Climbing / Hiking / → All Tags

Summer Vacations With An Edge: Climbing the Grand Tetons

Jackson Hole is famous for being the adopted home of VP Dick Cheney, being on the fringe of Wyoming and not having a home for sale for less a couple million. While these three facts may deter some, it's also a mecca for American climbers and average people who want to be guided to the top of the Grand Teton, one of North America's coveted mountains.

Lucky for those with little or no climbing experience, Exum Mountain Guides has been in business in the Jackson Hole area for 79 years, offering more expertise and successful summits of the Grand than anyone else. This isn't for the faint of heart or those inspired from watching those Everest reality shows. If you decide to tackle this in your lifetime it's time to take out your polishing cloth and get those cojones their shiniest.

Trips up the Grand can be arranged in private or group trips, and the Exum guides are always mindful of your skill level, safety being their top priority.

Related Stories:
· Exum Mountain Guides [Official Site]
· Climbing coverage [Jaunted]
· Summer Vacations with an Edge coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Adam Dale]

Alain-Robert-Climbing-Stunts-Map / Publicity Stunts / Alain Robert / Climbing / → All Tags

Publicity Stunt Travel: Alain Robert Climbs Another Landmark

French stuntman Alain Robert picked an awesome target for his latest publicity stunt: The Renzo Piano-designed New York Times building in Midtown Manhattan. We can't think of a better way to get some ink!

"Spiderman" scaled the entire 52-story skyscraper without any sort of special equipment; the cops corralled him on the roof and peacefully led him away.

While we think it's pretty amazing that Robert did the whole thing without even a rope and harness, a police officer was less than impressed, given the building's latticed facade:

To be honest, looking at this building, you don't have to be a professional. This building is like a ladder.

In honor of Robert's latest coup, we've put together a map of some of his previous climbs. Don't try this at home!

Related Stories:
· Man Scales Times Building and Is Arrested [NYT]
· Alain Robert Climbing Stunts Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: NYT]

Geocaching / Mount Hood / Climbing / Adventure Travel / Active Travel / Hiking / → All Tags

Geocaching Travel: GPS Treasure Hunt Saves Climbers

Justin Votos and Matthew Pitts didn't have a GPS device when they went climbing on Mt. Hood earlier this week, but that didn't keep them from stumbling upon a geocache that would lead rescuers to the stranded duo. Luckily, the climbers, who were stuck on the mountain after bad weather set in, had a cell phone and could call up authorities to describe the cache, which led to their backcountry rescue.

Most people explicitly go hunting for the hidden treasure stashes using handheld GPS receivers, but since all the boxes are listed on the geocaching website, rescuers could pinpoint Votos and Pitts' location from afar. It only took a couple hours to find the pair once rescuers knew their coordinates.

Lesson learned? There are two really. First, don't forget your cell phone and your own GPS receiver when hiking off-trail or in challenging conditions. Second, Geocaching is even cooler than we thought.

Related Stories:
· Geocaching [Official Site]
· Climbers Rescued on Mt. Hood Aided by Treasure Hunt Box [King5 News]
· Mt. Hood Climbers and the "Climbable" Paradox [Jaunted]
· Adventure Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of a geocache: Francois Schnell]

Climbing / Active Travel / → All Tags

San Diego Still Rocks

As long as it's not flying out of a volcano, rock doesn't burn. So there's still plenty of it to climb in the recently scorched San Diego area. With year-round sunshine and all classes of climbing available, there's no better way to do your part to inject some tourist dollars into the SoCal reconstruction effort.

We caught up with San Diego's Front Range Climbing mid-ascent, giving us the latest from their badass version of the mobile office: a cellphone and a backpack. The outfit's main stopping (gripping?) grounds of Mission Gorge was spared the kind of scorching it got back in 2003. Four years on, the burnt forest has bounced back with fresh greenery--it's an ideal backdrop for a day's climb.

The rock at Mission Gorge offers a variety of surfaces and routes to match all tastes in climbing--boulders, cracks and 185 leads and topropes. (In other words, you'll end the day satisfied.)

Front Range San Diego fields five guides for all classes of climbs. Also on offer are team building exercises like interpretive hikes and GPS Scavenger Hunts. Sure beats doing trust falls in the break room with Gary from accounting.

Related Links:
· Front Range Climbing [Official Site]
· Mission Trails Regional Park [Official Site]
· Active Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Nicholas Brown]