UKC

As of next June/July i am starting my gap year. Im a keen Trad and Sport climber, but not so into my bouldering. Im trying to sort out what i want to do with my climbing life for the next 15 months from June.

My plans at the moment consist of going to Ceuse for a couple of months. Thats as far as i've got.

Im generally pretty keen to get super fit in Europe, then come back to British trad towards the end of my year, and crush my long term projects.

Can anyone offer advice/ideas on places to go/ways to find psyched like minded partners/any other usefull advice?

Cheers,

Will

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

Will,

I'm very jealous.

If I had the holiday for a long trip these days with the criteria you specify then my 2 big things would probably both be extended roadtrips. One around Europe, hitting as many of the major climbing areas as possible (alpine and subalpine stuff plus obviously Ceuse, Buoux, Verdon etc). Probably trying to swing across the continent, maybe start in Spain in the winter and then move gradually back upwards throughout the spring before hitting the Alps and Dolomites and stuff in the summer. The other would probably be a similar idea but across the states - Yosemite, Squamish, Indian Creek, Red Rocks, Joshua Tree etc. Again you could probably start in the winter and move from place to place as the climate warmed up.

In terms of places to meet psyched partners, I'd say that at the campstes at Ceuse, Chamonix (Bernard's in Argentiere, where the conville people go) and Siurana are the places I've been where it would be easy to turn up and find a partner. Chamonix it might not be to do your exact routes of choice, but then alpine stuff is always going to be less compatible to random partner meetings than just turning up and clipping bolts. The others you should have no problem.

AJM

In reply to Will Goldsmith: Why did my post get deleted :S

In reply to Rob15:

Maybe the mods meant to delete mine as I nearly put a 'cuss word' in it??

In reply to Will Goldsmith: Depends on your budget. A flight to Bankok costs a fair whack but once you're there living is cheap. If it were me, bolt clipping...

Fly to Hong Kong in September. 12hr bus to Yangshuo, live for 60Y (£6) a day, stay for one month/6 weeks. After that take your pick of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Obviously Thailand has a pretty big scene and is easy just to rock up. Some of the other places might take a bit more research to find the good spots. At Yangshuo at least finding partners is very easy, lots of western climbers working there.

That said, there is several lifetimes worth of climbing in Spain alone, and it doesn't have all the awesome tropical diseases/mozis etc...

In reply to AJM:

Hey Andy!

Im loving the sound of a Euro roadtrip, epecially migrating north as the temps rise!

Pretty sure my main problem is finding psyched partners who are keen for a road trip, as i dont really fancy touring Europe on my own, just finding people at the climbing spots - Could get a bit lonesome.

That said, im keen as hell to go out to Ceuse (i've deffinitly got a mate whos up for it for 3 weeks) but im keen to stay out there longer and see how things develop.

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

Think the hotrock lot will be in Africa at that time. www.climbhotrock.com/

In reply to gareth uglow:
Yangsuo is an amazing area to climb, there are loads of unclimbed areas as its just starting to become popular. also Thailand is good but mainly sport climbs. also hampi in India has really cool bouldering/ shortish trad routes and its one of the coolist places i've ever been, i think johnny dawes and jerry moffart went out there a few years back

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

I agree, it could be a bit lonely, but then it depends on who you find and how long they are there too - you might hit another "whole summer" person to climb with which would probably work better than a load of one-day-stands (so to speak

Some point over next year I might be moving jobs and getting a bit of a break between them, so if so and its after the summer I could be tempted to join you as long as you can cope with having to find crags with a wider (lower) spread of route grades! I've also got a friend who is quitting his job in August next year for a massive break too.....

Ceuse is ace. Would love to go back, especially now I wouldn't drag the crag average grade down by quite so much!

Andy

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

Try South East Asia for a bit on some bolt ladders, but then onto the worlds greatest crag....

ARAPILES in Australia. The best trad anywhere.

The US, super cool hippy climbers, really nice positive vibes yeh....

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

I guess in céuse you will easily meet people with a similar situation to yours (gap year, lazy asses, people working 6 months/year, etc)...if you are not a total asshole some of them might be happy to make some road together.

that said, a few gap years/lazy asses I had known in céuse did something like that :
céuse until september
gorges du tarn
rodellar ('til they realized it started to be too f*cking cold and no one was there anymore)
siurana
el chorro (december?)
siurana

if you like bouldering, magic wood in summer and albarracìn in mid-season are known as safe bets.

In reply to All:

Thanks all, lots of good advice! Much food for thought.

AJM:

Sounds great to me! You've got a beastmaker now, havn't you?! No excuses! Deffinitly come along if your keen for it. When abouts in the summer you changing jobs?

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

I do, and I'm planning to have a bit of a session on it later.

Changing jobs - thats the 64,000 dollar question. Basically I'm planning to move near to Birmingham, which is where Ali is now. I'm going to start looking after the new year, but the market is quite slow so it could take me a while. I might be done and dusted before you even start, but I might still be searching come midsummer. If I am, I'll be sure to let you know.

AJM

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

Hey Will,

Its Dan, sounds awesome man. Ceuse for that long would be awesome. enjoy it whatever you end up doing! you climbed with thom over at bristol ends yet?

Dan

In reply to munro:

Hi Dan,

Yeah it does sound good. Its so hard trying to work out how many fun places i can go in 15 months. Life is such a bitch .

No, i havnt seen Thom. So is in Brizzle at the moment? I had no idea...

In reply to NorthernRock: I 100% second this man,araps is the most awesome place to live and climb when ur travelling! GO TO IT!!

In reply to Will Goldsmith:

sounds tragic ;P

yeah thoms at uni there now...