Here you go, finally! The first two videos from the Kailas Rock Searching Trip - A short intro clip and the Yangshuo segment, enjoy!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Search Continues...
Things have been going well here on the Kailas Rock Searching trip and we are now nearing the end of our stay here in Xi'an, our 3rd destination.
After Yangshuo the team headed off the Le Ye in western Guangxi Province for a few weeks. After some scouting we settled on developing a massive cave system just near town comprising of two enormous through caves that look like over sized aircraft hangers dripping with tufas and stalactites. The caves already had 10 routes in them on the more vertical walls and we set to work developing epic new routes through the amazing steep sections of the caves.
In all we put up 32 new routes making the total there 42 routes in one place from 5.11 to 5.14 and despite this there might be 50 more routes to be added to complete just this one crag. Le Ye has amazing potential and is without a doubt a possible future site of some of the best hard climbing in China with this cave on its own having potentially 20+ routes to be added in the 5.14 and higher range.
Amazing to say the least - I will be back for sure!
After Le Ye we headed to our 3rd destination: the granite walls of the Hua Shan area outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
This area is a maze of huge valleys leading into the massive mountains that sit right on the outskirts of the city and was a little bit more challenging to decide which one of the many amazing potential sites we should concentrate on. In the end we developed 2 single pitch areas in one valley, adding 17 new routes from 5.10 to 5.13 and then another few single pitch routes in another valley called Da Yu (Big Valley) plus a huge 12 pitch monster wall weighing in at 5.12+ with about 8 pitches in the 5.12 range... Epic!!!
Next we head to Hangzhou for a few days and Dave and I will go represent Kailas at a trade show in Nanjing then it's off to develop a nice cave and wall near a place called Quzhou which is a local crag for all our Shanghai friends. Psyched!
Here are some pics courtesy of our photographers Superman and Lei Feng. Enjoy!
After Yangshuo the team headed off the Le Ye in western Guangxi Province for a few weeks. After some scouting we settled on developing a massive cave system just near town comprising of two enormous through caves that look like over sized aircraft hangers dripping with tufas and stalactites. The caves already had 10 routes in them on the more vertical walls and we set to work developing epic new routes through the amazing steep sections of the caves.
In all we put up 32 new routes making the total there 42 routes in one place from 5.11 to 5.14 and despite this there might be 50 more routes to be added to complete just this one crag. Le Ye has amazing potential and is without a doubt a possible future site of some of the best hard climbing in China with this cave on its own having potentially 20+ routes to be added in the 5.14 and higher range.
Amazing to say the least - I will be back for sure!
After Le Ye we headed to our 3rd destination: the granite walls of the Hua Shan area outside of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
This area is a maze of huge valleys leading into the massive mountains that sit right on the outskirts of the city and was a little bit more challenging to decide which one of the many amazing potential sites we should concentrate on. In the end we developed 2 single pitch areas in one valley, adding 17 new routes from 5.10 to 5.13 and then another few single pitch routes in another valley called Da Yu (Big Valley) plus a huge 12 pitch monster wall weighing in at 5.12+ with about 8 pitches in the 5.12 range... Epic!!!
Next we head to Hangzhou for a few days and Dave and I will go represent Kailas at a trade show in Nanjing then it's off to develop a nice cave and wall near a place called Quzhou which is a local crag for all our Shanghai friends. Psyched!
Here are some pics courtesy of our photographers Superman and Lei Feng. Enjoy!
Monday, July 2, 2012
KAILAS: Rock Searching 2012
So as I mentioned previously we have started on KAILAS: Rock Searching 2012 - our epic trip around China to develop new climbing areas and make a film about it. The trip will be taking us to Yangshuo, Le Ye, Hua Shan and Guangzhou to develop new routes and have a blast doing so.
The team is made up of a group of us that are all sponsored athletes on the Kailas team as well as some support crew and our photographer / videographer.
To start we opened a whole new crag in Yangshuo called 'Golden Riverside' where we put up a whole swag of new sport routes: 13 single pitch routes from 5.9 to 5.14 and 2 multipitches.
Morgan and I worked together to establish an awesome new moderate multipitch called 'Bless You In The Face' with 4 pitches going at 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 and 5.11 which tops out the huge wall of Golden Riverside with amazing views across the Yu Long River valley - superb!
After Yangshuo we headed to western Guanxi Province to a place called Le Ye where we are in the middle of developing some epic big caves that are stacked with endless options of routes through tufa and stalactite studded roofs. Such an amazing crag!
Here are some pics from the Yangshuo leg of the trip all taken at Golden Riverside, enjoy!
The team is made up of a group of us that are all sponsored athletes on the Kailas team as well as some support crew and our photographer / videographer.
To start we opened a whole new crag in Yangshuo called 'Golden Riverside' where we put up a whole swag of new sport routes: 13 single pitch routes from 5.9 to 5.14 and 2 multipitches.
Morgan and I worked together to establish an awesome new moderate multipitch called 'Bless You In The Face' with 4 pitches going at 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 and 5.11 which tops out the huge wall of Golden Riverside with amazing views across the Yu Long River valley - superb!
After Yangshuo we headed to western Guanxi Province to a place called Le Ye where we are in the middle of developing some epic big caves that are stacked with endless options of routes through tufa and stalactite studded roofs. Such an amazing crag!
Here are some pics from the Yangshuo leg of the trip all taken at Golden Riverside, enjoy!
Some of the team. From left to right: Superman, Abond, Toni Arbones, Me!, Xiao Ting, Spiderman Paul, Simone, Zhang Yong, CJ Neff, Morgan Gerlitz
Me cleaning some holds on my route 'Fat Monkey', maybe about 5.13
Me working out the moves on my route 'White Men Can't Jump', 5.12+
Me leading pitch 2 of 'Bless You In The Face' - Check out the amazing view down the Yu Long River valley!
Hands free on pitch 2 of 'Bless You In The Face'
Morgan and I scoping out pitch 3 of 'Bless You In The Face'
Morgan leading pitch 3 of 'Bless You In The Face'
And again
And again...
And one more :)
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