D ------> best time

August 26, 2013

My summer 2013 in the USA was the best and most amazing, unforgettable I had so far personally and professionally experience in my life. Because I 've got to climb great Alpine and Trad climbing, I also made new friends along the trip, learn to adapt to a new culture, eat new food, etc.

 

 

After living in Boulder Colorado for two and half months. I flew down to Salt Lake City to catch up with my folks from Chiang Mai. We met our suppliers and partners at the distributors OR show 2013 for a couple of days and we got new exciting product for Thailand in the future. Then we headed up to Maple Canyon- it's kind of reunion time for climbers folks. Climbing there is super unique with Cobbals style. We climbed a lot and I had so much fun camping, and hanging out with friends, living a full outdoor experience. 

 

 

The whole point of this trip for me was to climb different types of climbing as much as possible with a special focus on Alpine climbing.In that regard one of the highlight of the trip was to climb the Grand Teton with my boss Josh Morris. We drove about 5 hours from Salt Lake to Jackson Wyoming  where we catch up with Pi Josh.com and Pi Pui our friends who used to live in Chiang Mai. We spent few days at their place and it was great to hang out with them. Climbing on the big mountain is always challenging, alpine climbing window is super short and the weather is the main concern because it can change suddenly, so we want dialed on the route. The difficulty for both of us was to climb without people who know the route well. We hiked 7.4 mile within 6 hours to the lower saddle where we camped for the night. From the camp the place didn't looked beautiful but when we got up there! Oh man! It was stunning. I was so happy we made it because the view was even more beautiful than I ever thought it would be.

 

 

That night we cooked a light diner and planned the ascent before sleeping. Next day we woke up at 4am and walked along the black dike to the bottom of Petzled Ridge Route and started to roll around 6 am ish. Mark Hammond's friend had recommended me to climb this route and told me it was one of the most incredible alpine route there. It took us about 10 hours ish to make it to the summit. It was one of the most unforgettable day of my life and there is no word strong enough for me to express how much i appreciated this USA summer trip.

 

 

I just want to say thank you for the great support from all the people involved with me, this trip couldn't have been successful without all of you. Home sweet home!!!

Psyched for more...

 

 

The Diamond

July 19, 2013

6 years ago, when I started climbing I made a promise to myself that one day I will  go climbing in the USA. I started  climbing close to my home town(Crazy Horse Buttress) and training at CMRCA's backyard bouldering wall. Today my dream became true I've been living in Boulder Colorado about ten weeks and I enjoyed every moments of my time here.

I've been able to do a lot of different types of climbing here! sport, trad, alpine, crack and every time I went out there I 've told myself to have fun and enjoy as much as possible. I've learned so much about climbing in Boulder honestly I didn't realize before how big climbing sport was and how many kind of climbing there was. I really enjoyed to experiment almost all of them here and it makes me feel i will never stop learning with climbing.

What's up Diamond

 I remembered couple years ago I've read Jonathan Siegrist's blog about his battle on Honeymoon is over at the Diamond. It was such an epic story,  not only about climbing but also about the process of growing as a climber. 

                                                Jstarinorbit

One of my goal on this training trip was to climb at the Diamond. I wasn't sure I will be able to make it as the climatic conditions were very bad the last couple of weeks in Boulder and therefore I was running out of time. The more I was watching the weather forecast closely the more it seems  unlikely  for me get on that radical wall. Finally Andrew Councell " Click here " and I decided to take the risk with 50 percents chance of thunderstorm and I think we both didn't sleep at all the night before the climb! We left the trailhead around 2 am and went on the five miles hike to the base ground and cruised up the north chimney by 6.30 am. I started to flake the rope and jump on the Pervertical Sanctuary, this route first aided by Ron Olevsky and Bob Dodds in 1974 and is the second easiest free route on the Diamond. I led the first pitch 5.8 and I think this was the scariest pitch on the route. I felt like my muscle didn't want to work at all,  I breathed heavily and I was terrify and excited at the same time to climb at 14000 feets high. We combined the second pitch and third pitch together because we just wanted to move as fast as possible. Andrew lead on the crux pitch 11a ( On that elevation ) on jamming pitch. I've got my bud kick on this one and I felt like a super beginner with hand jamming. I guess I made this crux even harder than it should have been because I always found crimps from the face wall and not from the crack itself . The clouds started to build up and we called to bail off the route for safety reason. 

                                                                 trailhead

                                                            Half way there

                                                          Sunrise at long peak

                                                 More hiking to North Chimney
    

                                                              Broadway

                                                          Pervertical Sanctuary

 Upon 14000 feet highs!

                                 He is real EXPERT mountain guide

The Diamond is such a special place, wilderness environment,  you have to make a good plan ahead and it's a long day hiking and climbing, so you don't want to miss the last little step before the climb and it makes you stress for sure!  Failure is a part of adventure and it would be less fun if it was easier. Al thought it was big deal for me and one the best climbing day in my life. We hiked down around 11.00am and I think we made the right decision to safely go down, it would have been way too dangerous to stay on the wall while the big thunderstorm hit. Sometimes even if you are passionate and want to make it to the top you have to make the right call for your safety and that's an important lesson for a climber to learn.So even we didn't go to the summit it was a great experience and I am super Psyched about it!

 

                                                    breathed heavily and need rest

                                                          Cruised upon crux pitch

Big thanks to Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures, Colorado Mountain School and Boulder Rock Club for these training programs for helping me make my accomplishments and I am psyched to bring those experiences I've learned to help develop climbing in Thailand.

                                              Colorado State flowers on the long peak

Psyched for more...

Petit Grepon

June 30, 2013

It have been half way through with my Guide advance training trip in the USA, my life here has been awesome everyday. I tried to climb, hang out with locals and enjoy my time here as much as I could and I feel very grateful about this opportunity. I'm not going to lie about how much I miss home, family,friends, food... But on the other hand I know that I'm learning to growth in my personal experience, development and I try to contribute to other people when I can.

Recently, I went out for  my first alpine climbing with CMS guide Norie Kizaki and her guest is Bruce Hodson at the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We started out our journey by checking all the gears, food, and carefully planed our trip with a safety strategy in  mind. We left from the parking lot about noon and hiked about 5 miles to the base camp it took us about 3 and half hours to get there! It was my longest approach to the climb "Click it here" to see my magic legs! During this trip I got to see the snow for the first time in my life, there wasn't much snow left up there but even thought now I can say I have seen the snow!!!

 

The weather was super windy and truly cold for me when we got there. I was super exhausted from the hike and the high altitude but I felt super happy to be there!  This place got definitely something like an aura and I believe anyone who comes here can sense this is a powerful place. We tried to eat lots of food and get to bed early to be ready for climbing the next day.

The Petit Grepon is one of the best 50 classic alpine climbs in North America " here are more info about the route" and I was so happy to get the chance to climb it. Big thanks to Norie Kizaki for leading the pitch for me and Bruce Hodson. It was an amazing experience and another learning step for me to become a better mountain guide! 

Psyched for more...