Bram Adventures

Climbing Down Under: A Month of Desert Rock and Kangaroos

bramski — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:41:05 +0000

On April 4th I flew to Melbourne and met up with Matt for a month long of Australian climbing adventures. It didn’t disappoint, Australia has some great, albeit short mountains with plenty of high quality climbing.

Dirtbagging it

Australia is expensive these days. Petrol is pricey, food is pricey, accomodation is even pricier. Here is a list of our major ways of saving money:

Our rental car, East Coast Car Rentals we rented a Getz, which is about the most gutless tiny car you can have. But it gets great mileage to the gallon and for a month we managed to get $25/day.
Camping and camping equipment. Matt brought his whisper international stove which you can use standard unleaded petrol in (BP ended up being highest quality for fueling the stove without hiccups and cleaning it incessently). Filling the fuel for your stove for 50 cents is a great savings in cooking fuel. Most of our caming equipment we bought at kmart for about $30. Zing.
Food. Sweet potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, onions,eggs. We ate pretty simple but spiced it well and ate well. Everything went on the pot or the fryer. When we splurged we had kangaroo steaks, yum.
Showering. Like most folks in the Arapiles or Grampians, we showered once a week for $3 or $5. The Mt Stapylton campground in the Grampians has showers at the campground. Heat some rocks in the fire, throw it in the shower and you’ve got a hot shower!

Climbing Arapiles

The Organ Pipes at Arapiles

You’ve probably heard of the Arapiles. Declared “The World’s Best Cliff” back in the 1960s when people started climbing it. It’s hard to deny the access and ease of use of this area. The camping and climbing scene is fantastic. Thousands of routes within walking distance and lots of great climbs of interesting and incredible quality. The protection is often more interesting than your typical area. Bring a double rack of nuts and remember that when you read the guidebook “Adequate” protection generally means just enough protection that you won’t die! Our only major complaint about this area is the general lack of clean bolted anchors. Lots of classic climbs end on junky ledges with no bolts to lower off of . So you often do a 20-30m climb and have to do some lengthy downscramble to get back down to the base.

Our Favorite Climbs

Kachoong (Grade 21 – 5.11a)
Auto Da Fe (Grade 21 – 5.11a)
Orestes (Grade 24 – 5.11d)
Have a Good Flight(Grade 25 – 5.12a)
Christian Crack(Grade 20 – 5-10d)

Climbing at the Grampians

Matt working on Sandanista.

This area is definitely a new standard in route quality & beauty from the Arapiles. The Grampians is a massive national park, and as such climbs are of great quality but pretty far apart and pretty “adventuresome”. Double ropes are a requirement on all the climbs at the Taipan wall, and anchor situations are pretty brutal with exception of the well known sport climbs. Our rope was stuck for nearly 2 hours at the top of “Dance of Life” on the left hand side of the Taipan Wall while trying to rappel.

Our Favorite Climbs

Dance of Life – Taipan Wall(Grade 24: 5.11d)
Dreamweaver – The Gallery (Grade 22: 5.11b)
Sandanista (Grade 22: 5.11b)
Gotham City – Cave Cliff (Grade 23: 5.11c)

Climbing at Moonarie

Climbing Downwind of Angels

Wow! What a scenic location. This beautiful but lesser visited climbing area has some ultra cool climbing, though a lot of it is dirty and not well documented. We loved the views and the awesome deep red rock. What sucks here is the complete lack of facilities for camping (read: ZERO water) and the long downscramble off of any routes but those on top of the Great Wall. The guidebook here hasn’t seen much of an update since the 1990s, and once you decipher the code of where the climbs are and how you do them you’ll get on some cool shit. You can expect stuff to be confusing, run-out, and perhaps lichen covered. We do highly recommend climbing there though; the weather is fantastic, the scenery great. You won’t have much company but you’ll discover some amazing and relatively easy to access climbing.

Our favorite climbs

Downwind of Angels – Great Wall (Grade 19, 5.10)
Hypertension – Great Wall (Grade 24, 5.11d)
Casablanca – Checkers Wall (Grade 20, 5.10d)

Motorbiking Vietnam!

bramski — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 05:23:38 +0000

Yes, I did it. I rode a motorbike made entirely of chinese plastic parts from the north of Vietnam to Saigon all the way to Otres Beach in southern Cambodia. What follows is a tale of 110ccs of throttle, terrifying traffic, beautiful beaches and mountain roads, and a man and his bike. Following my brief but daily account is a google earth tour de force of my route and some of the interesting things that happened.

The Ins and Outs of Vietnamese Traffic
The rules of the road in Vietnam are more similar to the rules of life than actual sanity. Many have described it as a giant game of chicken, or simply organized chaos. About all I can say to prepare you is “Drive on the right side of the road. Remember that you are small but mobile. Drive with aggressive caution.” Trucks in Saigon are allowed to hit 3 motorcycles a year, though they try not to kill the tourists. Nobody is trying to kill you but people in Vietnam drive as aggressively as they possibly can. The cars and trucks pay little attention to lanes and flows of traffic, they abide by rules such as “I’m bigger and I’m moving in your direction, therefore you had better move.” There is no right of way, so don’t expect people to look out for you, they will merge into your lane ruthlessly and trucks on the other side of the road (oncoming trucks mind you) will use your lane to pass other cars if they see that you can pull onto the shoulder to allow them to do so. Be ready to pull over at any time, and hop on the brakes at any moment; it’s a system that does work, but mostly on reactions and people just not wanting to get killed. It took me nearly my entire trip to adjust to the pace of life on this motorbike and relax and ride the zen way. Good luck!

Dealing with the bike
My bike ate stupid amounts of oil. My exhaust blew a hole twice, the throttle completely gave out on me, and at one point the rear brake fell off my bike. I bought a 110cc Honda Wave with a chinese engine. Parts for my bike were so ridiculously common that when my chain guard fell off near Cuc Phuong national park a farmer handed me a replacement. There are a few spaces of road in Vietnam where nary a “Xe May” (mechanic) can be found, but in most areas a town of 40 people will have 2 mechanics who will fix your bike for a few dollars. My most expensive repair (replacing my drive chain) was 200,000 VND or 10 dollars. My bike literally threw the chain in front of a mechanic shop and I walked 10 feet to have it repaired!

Roasted Cats on the side of the road

Day 1: Cats with a side of terror
My first day on the bike! Cloudy cold weather all the way from Hanoi to Halong city and constant onslaught of trucks made this area one of the least desireable rides I’ve done.

Climbing some excellent limestone over the ocean.

Day 2-7: Climbing Halong Bay!
Despite being constantly cloudy, wet, rainy and about 10-18 degrees celsius Cat Ba had tons of great people and an incredible cadre of quality limestone climbing. Unfortunately when I was there (Feb 26th – March 2nd) there simply was not weather for Deep Water Soloing. The climbs we did in Butterfly valley were simply great, a high quality and very fun crag. All this was out of Cat Ba island, and all the climbing there is controlled by Slow Pony Adventures. A great little company of climbers doing route development and DWS in Cat Ba.

I ride on as the sun sets.

Day 8-9: Gripped and Terrified
The shit gets real. I spent 2 days riding from Cat Ba Island in almost nonstop rain in endlessly terrifying stretches of road. I screamed endlessly in my helmet as the constant onslaught of trucks driving me into wet mud after nearly hitting me as well as driving at 80 km/h in light rain soaked me to the bone. I had a brief respite of good weather near Ninh Binh before I found the most mudded out road I’ve ever seen north of Cuoc Vuong park just before I finally made my way onto the Ho Chi Minh Highway. Somewhere here I literally sank my bike into the mud; some Vietnamese guys stood by and laughed while a swore up a storm pulling my bike out while ankle deep in the mud. One blown exhaust and a destroyed chain guard later, I made my way onto the Ho Chi Minh highway on Day 9.

The Amazing Paradise Cave

Day 10-11: The limestone mountains of Vietnam
The Ho Chi Minh Highway is a beautiful stretch of road. I relaxed and enjoyed life riding from Cuoc Vuong National park south to Nha Trang where I spent a day relaxing and exploring the incredible caves of Nha Trang. This place is home to the world’s biggest cave. I visited the Paradise Cave which is a 31km cave so big you could fit an army of t-rexes in it and still have room for a few skyscrapers.

Friends at the beach in Hue

Day 12-14: Hue brings beaches and friends
I rode from Phong Nha to the Vinh Moc tunnels and onto Hue where I met up with riders I’d made in Phong Nha. I contracted a cough that followed me the rest of the trip from a swimming pool here, as well as we attended a very strange motorcross event.

Climbing at the Buddha Cave in the Marble Mountains

Day 15-17: Oh the sights you’ll see
Oh if only I had my camera for this. Somewhere near the marble mountains I saw a man on a motorbike with his wie hauling what I can only refer to as the “Vishnu of Ducks”. I’m uncertain how this guy was driving his bike since he was holding onto buckets full of ducks with both hands as his wife hung off the back of the motorbike holding onto at least 20 ducks with each hand. There feathers flying everywhere, and bills quacking hanging nearly 4 inches off the ground. It was an unbelievable sight to see, feathers and motorbike sounds drifting down the road!

I had a pretty amazing time in Hoi An. Francois and I found some nice climbing in the Marble Mountains and I crossed paths with my good old friend Ben Glenn and we drank ourselves a bit silly out and about in Hoi An which is simply a beautifully majestic little town in central Vietnam.

Da Lat Lake.

Day 18-20: Hoi An to Mui Ne
Looking at the time I had remaining in SE Asia, I needed to bust through quite a bit of Vietnam in order to have enough time in Cambodia to hang out and sell the bike before going to Australia. So, in three days with lots of riding I went from Hoi An to Mui Ne. Regardless to say, this was a bit stressful. I undoubtedly had the best ride of my trip going from Nha Trang to Dalat. Right up until my brake pedal fell off riding down from Dalat, holy shit! I pulled the front brake and flintstoned myself to a full stop. A 50 cent clip and I was back riding again, right through the night, and a rainstorm into Mui Ne.

Riding my Ostrich, Everett.

Day 21-24: Mui Ne and Saigon
Mui Ne is easily one of the strangest tourist spots I’ve seen. More Russian than English, one street for the entire town. It’s an easy drop-in if not for the odd and eclectic folks you’ll meet here. I rode an ostrich, and explored the giant sand-dunes of Mui Ne.

Not soon after a day’s rest in Mui Ne, I rode into Saigon. Soon to be the most terrifying and stressful experience yet. I couldn’t jive with the culture of this city, particularly riding the bike. It was BIG, MEGA BIG. So big it was hard to find much of anything in Saigon. Aside from the one tourist street and the downtown area this city is dirty, ultra dirty. I was forced to make repairs to my brakes here and hung out perhaps a day too long. I made a brief attempt here to sell the bike with very little success. I was incredibly happy when in a few days I moved on to the great culture and invitingness of Cambodia.

The Google Earth Tour

Below is a google earth tour I’ve generated for the motor bike tour. You will need to download Google Earth to watch the tour. Hit Play and either watch the path unwind or zoom out and check out the highlights and placemarkers.

A Tribute to my Grandmother

bramski — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:17:18 +0000

Grandma and I at Tanque Verde Ranch.

On December 15th, 2011 my grandmother turned 80 years old. I know because I was there for it.

I get this question all the time – “Don’t you miss your family & friends?”. It’s the #1 reason people tell me they couldn’t travel like I travel. The answer is YES, absolutely I miss my friends and family. All the time in fact. It’s a big sacrifice you make to live the vagabond lifestyle. I missed a good friend’s wedding this year (I swear I will meet your husband someday Andrea!), and missing out on big events in the lives of people I care about is tough. I pride myself on being dependable and selfless; it is however an attribute which this trip has not been excellent at fostering. So in keeping with being good to my family and being dependable I returned for Grandma’s special birthday. The importance of family to me grows every year and so being there became an important priority. It made mom & grandma especially happy to see me, and for those of you in Seattle & San Francisco I’m sorry to have not seen you and spent more time with you, but family is family. I’ll return to the states in the future for a lengthy reunion I promise, but I didn’t want to come back to see people for a few bittersweet days; my journey is far from over and I’m not ready to come back yet.

Enough of that though, let’s talk about my grandmother. She’s amazing and it’s hard to believe she’s 80. What’s more impressive is she may be the first person to read this statement. Not just because she gets up at 530am most days, but because she’ll read my blog on her laptop when she gets the email update first thing in the morning. I’m pretty sure Grandma was the first in our family to own a kindle too.

My grandma is cooler than your grandma. I was 17 and had flown once again to ever interesting Middlefield Ohio for a family get together on my Aunt’s ranch. It’s 8 hours of travel at minimum to get there from the west coast. I sit down at the plaid table and grandma says, “You look tired dear! Would you like a beer?” I’m pretty sure mom never offered me a beer before the age of 18.

My grandma is hardier than your grandma. When I arrived in Tucson, Grandma suggested we go to the national observatory to have a tour of the evening sky. What was somewhat overlooked was that the tour would go from 4pm-9pm, and temperatures in December in Tucson at the observatory at night were dropping into the teens. Most of an evening tour of the observatory involves sitting in the frozen & cold atrium of the giant telescopes and gazing at absolute wonders of the universe. I recall there were two girls there from Philadelphia in their early 20s. They ditched out on the tour because it was too cold for them. Grandma didn’t complain a bit. She’s tough like that.

I’ve met some ancient looking women in my travels. 70+ year old ladies in Nepal who’ve probably never ridden an airplane. Old chinese grandmothers who don’t know what the internet is. It makes me proud to look back at the savviness and self-reliance of my own grandma; she’s not old or ancient, she’s savvy and well to do.

Here’s to you Grandma. May I have something equally fun to write when you reach 90.

Thank You: A year goes by

bramski — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:38:39 +0000

On November 3rd, 2010 I left my job to begin embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. On November 3rd, 2011 a year has passed and I am now at 5360 meters, viewing the tallest mountains in the world. My journey has taken me halfway around the globe and I have experienced an incredible amount of life in the past year. However, my adventures would not be possible without the support of friends, family, and those that I meet and show me great love & compassion.

For those of you that have had a special impact upon my journey, I’d like to thank you personally. Below is a list of everyone who has been important to me & my journey over the past year. Aside from this public call out, you’ll be getting something from me in the future. Here is everyone, in chronological order. THANKS!

Emily & Shadrack: For the garage space, I hope Chance hasn’t grown out of that FCB hat yet!
Paul & Audria: For taking the rest of my stuff, enjoy my speaker system!
CJ Favour: For your company, your furry company, and the great place to live.
Glen Trickett: For hosting me in Van and the great ski days.
Evan Kutter: For being my ski-bumming buddy. I will never be able to eat couscous without thinking of you.
Andrew & Alison: I love spending time with you guys in Utah. POWDER!
Mikey, Aili, Gen, Kelly, Amber & Cory : For the ice! And for the surprise birthday cake, nobody has ever done that for me.
Kristen: Your company in CO was great. I’m still a dirtbag, so I’m sure more embarrassing Safeway moments are in our future.
Jed: For the fun & beardy times in Aspen.
Kelly & Aili: For the rad couch in Minturn.
Jay Amin: For the basement bed in Denver, and an awesome dude to do some partying with.
Matt & Rachel : For the great trip to RR and Utah. And helping me keep my head on straight when my stuff was stolen.
Robin & Chad : For the home, good friends, and great company in Montana!
Cora & My Brother : For a beautiful wedding, and great family.
Ben Brown : For the bed & buddy in Seattle.
Greg & Tatiana : For giving a good home to a wonderful car.
Erika: For the company and all your help. It really meant a lot to me.
Zack Jessel: For the whole roasted chicken, the french cheese, and the skiing of course.
Dave Kesonie: Oh. Yeah.
Tim & Kristy: For the big mountain. I can still taste those brownies.
Matt Livingstone: For the place to crash and good times in Cham. Hope to climb again someday!
Chris Joosse : For being my “ship it” guy. There are more beanies in my backpocket for you!
Jonathan Holgersson, Angel, & The climbing crew: Having friends like you guys in Granada was pretty amazing.
Eva, Lidia, and Luckio : For being my family in Granada. Particularly when I was so sick, not sure I would have survived without those cinnamon apples.
Kristin : For the Fanta, and for your company for almost 2 months. Hope to see you in Asia!
Kosta : For the travel company & the BRRRRR! *Drinks Beer *
Markus : For the climbing & beautiful views of Finland.
Irina : For being the greatest couchsurfing hostess I’ve ever had! Amazing!
Vera : You made Moscow amazing. I’ll miss you.
Julie & Sean : For the snowy, beautiful days in Mongolian saddles.
Lorenzo : For the climbing. We’ll have another reunion sometime and demolish beerpong players and routes again.
Sabrina : For the goods from home! I hope the Mongolian warrior has a good resting place.
Rem & Johnson : For the trekking. The dripping noses, the strange chinese goods, and the endless Dhal Bhat.
My Mother : For handling all my mail, and not freaking out when I’m out of touch for over a month.

THANK YOU ALL!

Everest and the Long Journey Home

bramski — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:25:29 +0000

Oh strange places to find a starbucks.

Day 24-26: Bram the Human Drying Machine

Lukla

2 rest days

I thought I might be developing some tendonitis from all the steep downhill, and felt it would be best to take 2 rest days. I washed my clothes, and then it seemed, the bad weather in Lukla was starting. This bad weather would persist for about 8 days and strand 3,000 tourists in Lukla. Since Lukla was constantly enshrouded in a cloud my laundry wouldn’t dry. So I sat at the starbucks with free wifi and wore my clothes so they would dry and shivered over cups of hot milk tea. This is why you never hike in cotton clothing, fyi.

Namche Bazaar.

Day 27: Tourist Land

Lukla to Thame

Distance 23.9km Gain: 2049m Loss: 1120m

The Khumbu was an interesting place compared with where I’d just been. Prices for goods skyrocketed, and I passed hundreds of tourists of all kinds on the trails, old ones, fat ones, giant groups, porters carrying absolutely ridiculous loads. You could set up shop between Lukla and Namche in high season and have some entertaining people watching. The park entrance reported 10,000 people in October, yikes! Apparently most people do this section of the trail in 3 days. Meh, I hate wasting time.

A video of the panorama of Renjo Pass

Day 28: The Big Mountain at Last

Thame to Gokyo

Distance 19.5km Gain: 1702m Loss: 718m

Nothing but clouds all day. Then I finally hit the pass, at about 3pm. The clouds parted, the vision was sublime and I had time to meditate and to reflect. One year had gone by and I was staring at Everest on the other side of the planet. Sweet.

Gokyo Lake.

Day 29: Fitness Test

Gokyo to Gokyo Ri to Namche

Distance: 25.4km Gain: 1600m Loss: 2959m

The most commonly thing done when you’re in Gokyo is to go up Gokyo Ri for great views of Everest, Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam. It’s an amazing view, I recommend it. I wanted to see what kind of shape I was in today, so I sprinted up Gokyo Ri and logged an ascent time of 53’54″. Fully acclimatized and unencumbered I can do 640m/hr (2092ft/hr) at an altitude of 5000m (16350 ft). No idea how that compares, but it’s a good benchmark. I then trail ran the majority of the distance to Namche with a Nepali guy who was moving pretty fast with a small backpack, it’s always nice to have company .

A frosted tree near Namche. Weather conditions were not very good at the time.

Day 30: Far from Over

Namche to Khare

Distance 28.96km Gain: 2067.4m Loss: 3021m

As it turns out, there’s a 6 day backup of people waiting to get out of Lukla. Unless I want to wait 8 days, it will be likely more expeditious for me to walk out. I really didn’t want to, but, I wanted to be back to Kathmandu to enjoy some real food and lower altitudes. I dropped fuel, excess food, sunscreen, and anything I didn’t think i needed. The trail to Jiri is easy and covered in villages, you hardly need to carry snacks, the food is cheap and frequent enough that there’s little point.

A destroyed house between Kharikola and Junbesi.

Day 31: Everything hurts

Khare to Tonenko
Distance: 27.3km Gain: 3530m Loss: 2688m

About halfway through my day I caught up with a couple of Nepali guys going relatively the same speed as me. We pushed it until 6pm, which made the 11th hour of hiking that day for me. All I remember was that at some point, everything hurt that day, fortunately not all at once.

My Nepali trekking partner and I in a snowy village just below the pass. Conditions were very icey that morning from the fresh snow.

Day 32: DONE!

Tonenko to Shivalayu

Distance: 27.3km Gain: 2368 Loss: 3668

I tear out of Tonenko at 630am with my Nepali company. Keeping up was tough for me, the downhill was hard on my knees and the fact that the first 10km were covered in ice was less than helpful. Finally the days cleared though, and we hit Bhandar just after noon we were making such rapid work of the trail. Some blisters were starting to form on the bottom of my feet just as I hit the top of Bhandar and met some other trekkers and decided I would slow it down and be a bit social for my last 2 hours. Beer tasted really good, I was done and caught the bus the next morning at 7am and arrived in Kathmandu the next day at 6pm.

Elevation Profile for Lukla to Renjo to Namche

Elevation Profile for Khare to Shivalayu

The Google Earth Tour

I’ve spent significant time and taken the GPS coordinates I logged, the maps we used, and what’s visible from the satellite photos to bring you an interactive and extremely accurate representation of our trek in Google Earth. You will need to download Google Earth to watch the tour. Hit Play and watch our path across the GHT. Hit Pause at any time and check out the views.