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
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!
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.
Psyched for more...
