Parallel Dreams

Photo by Dustin B, courtesy of mountainproject.com

I didn't know that senioritis was a thing of grad school...but alas it has come. I officially have 19 days until I graduate, but my final reports are due in 3 days. And I have hit a wall. All I want to do is drop all my school crap and jam my hands into the splitter goodness that is Indian Creek.

For the last year and a half, I have missed out on the spring and fall Creek trips of my undergrad days. I wish I could adequately describe to you the joy and pain that is unique to Indian Creek. It is by far my favorite place in the world to climb (I'm guessing that Yosemite is going to steal away that place in my heart very soon). And can't be explained, but must be experienced.

I remember once explaining to a non-climber about a recent trip to the Creek, and the joys of climbing a 140ft splitter handcrack, and all they could say was, "Doesn't it get boring doing the same move over-and-over?" I don't think I even knew how to respond.

The Creek is a place of so many good memories and good times...from fights with lactic acid while sprinting for the chains, to sitting around the whisperlite cooking beans and rice while watching Mike P. have a conversation with a rock. And I don't think I will ever forget belaying Sean to lead Supercrack (for his second trad lead) and then watching him deck before battling it out to the top. That place will always have a soft spot in my heart.

But now, as the grad student I am, I have been banished from those parallel pieces of heaven, to the position of "armchair climber". So I accept my current place in life, and tirelessly scour Mountain Project for the most aesthetic lines, dreaming about the day when I will once again return to the sharp end armed with nothing 8 #2's ...Oh March, why are you so far away?

你好 (Ni Hao) and 谢谢 (Xie Xie)

Hello and Thank you. Those are the only 2 phrases I know in Chinese. This might not pose a problem living somewhere like Saudi Arabia, however, during a weeklong trip to China, this could be a bit more troublesome.

Two of my good friends Ryan and Carly Decker and I just returned from Hong Kong and mainland China. After meeting and getting to know several Chinese students here at KAUST, Ryan and I decided that we had to go to China. We needed to find out if all Chinese are as rad as our Chinese friends here at KAUST. I think the verdict is YES. During our entire time there, I don't think we had a single bad experience. Although I must attribute our great experience to two things, God's grace, and my good friend Jian Li. Jian translated a few pages of useful sentence that we used to navigate our way around. Sentences like "Where is the train station?" and the one we regret not getting, "Where is the bathroom?".

Our first stop of the trip was Shenzhen, China via Hong Kong. Ryan, Jian, and I were attending a 3 day international conference on Eco-City development. The conference was quite different than I had expected, but I believe I learned a great deal from it. Long story short, China is doing a lot in the area of urban development, and if left uncontrolled, much of China's nature beauty and ecology could be destroyed. I was very surprised with the development of Shenzhen. Shenzhen felt much more like a city of the 21st century than most cities I have visited outside of the US and western Europe.

After the conference, I had planned a little trip for Carly, Ryan, and I to traveling further inland to a (relatively) small city called Yangshuo. Getting to Yangshuo included running through the train station to catch an overnight train (with 3-4 min to spare), defending ourselves from the Chinese scam artist, and taking a bus through rural China. Then finally arriving at our Hotel/Resort.

Looking out from our Hotel

On an awe inspiring scale from 1-10, this place scores an 11. It is just outright beautiful. Maybe I am a little biased since I was traveling here from the dessert of Saudi Arabia, but I don't think there are many places that I have been that are quite as stunning.

Seeing as we had just been on a train for 13 hours, we decided that we should go on a hike to explore the area. The "mountain" formation there are very unique. They are basically solid limestone and seem to shoot up out of nowhere.

First day in Yangshuo, enjoyed a nice hike

On the hike, we walked through a chestnut orchard and were greeted with a nice surprise...AUTUMN!!! It was amazing. After living in Saudi Arabia for the last 2 Fall's, I had forgotten what it was like to feel crisp morning temps and to hear the crunch of leaves beneath my feet.

We had to go to China to experience Autumn

After our hike, Ryan and Carly we out for a bamboo raft ride down the river in front of our hotel, I decided that I would take a trip into town and mingle with the locals. Unfortunately, there are very few locals in Yangshuo. Its more like the tourist attraction of southern China. I was able to meet up with a local rock climber and chat with him for a while. It was good to chat about rock climbing for a while, and find out about some of the local climbing areas. It turned out that one of the areas was just a short walk from our hotel, through the rice paddies. Eventually, I made it back to the hotel, and got some much needed sleep.

The next morning, we decided that we would go for a short bike ride to a neighboring village with a large open air market. A few wrong turns and about 10 miles later, we made it. I don't imagine that many western tourist make it out to this village very often. The only english words we heard apart from our conversation were "Hello, Hello!" We tried to find a place to eat, and ended up having to point at food on other people table to get something that we were vaguely familiar with.

Not long before jumping back on our bikes, we made one more pass through the market and found ourselves in the butcher section. Complete with pork, live eel and fish, snake, and dog (both roasted and raw). At first, this was a pretty difficult sight to see, but you have to make yourself realize that to some people, dogs are pets, and to other people dogs are simply animals. I don't think my trip to China would have been complete with seeing dog meet for sale. However, it did cause us to be a little more cautious when ordering food. Anything with the generic term "minced meat" in the title was avoided.

Ryan and Carly riding doubles

After getting back from our biking adventure, I was able to talk Ryan into doing a bit of rock climbing with me. We walked over to a crag called twin gates. I had a slight idea of what the routes were graded, but decided to just jump on some of the more aesthetic lines in the area. The lines that we climbed were really cool, vertical to slightly overhanging limestone. We climbed two routes one day, and then two routes the next morning. This was a good fix for my climbing addiction, but it really only stoked the fire for my upcoming climbing road trip.

Ryan climbing a really cool 5.9

Walking back from the rice fields and the climbing crag

Our last day had finally arrived, and it was a sad good bye, but it left a strong desire to want to come back. I mean, with views like the one below, who wouldn't want to spend years exploring this place.

Insert 1000 words

On our way home, we made a few stops in Hong Kong. First, we had lunch with one of our professors from here in Saudi who was visiting home over the break. After, meeting with him and eating some delicious Cantonese style food, we took a tram ride up to the top of the city to see the sun set and watch the city lights come alive. Lastly, we made a stop for dinner with the parents of a friend of Ryan from Colorado. We were warmly welcomed and enjoyed a delicious American style dinner, complete with a tall glass of Boddingtons.

Finally, we made our way over to the airport only to find out that our flight, which was supposed to depart at 1am, was delayed 7 hours. It was nice of Cathay Pacific to put us up in a hotel for the night and then give us a $50 certificate to the on-board duty free.

Eventually we made it back to good 'ole KSA, a little late, and a little sick (on my part). Back to the grind but at least it is the home stretch.

Looking out over Hong Kong

Climbing on the Moon

My Scottish friend (Mark) and I decided we had had enough traversing around the same bouldering wall on campus. It was time to set out and climb some real rock...outside. Mark works at the climbing wall on campus and only gets one day a week off. So finally a couple of week ago, our schedules lined up, enabling us to get outside and climb on some real stone together.

After the typical Saudi delays, we were able to finally make it to this "climbing" area that I had been a few times before. The formation that we were climbing on is called Jebal Qamr (or Moon Mountain). Our goal was to get out and start climbing no later than 10am or so...low and behold, we didn't get our of our car till nearly noon. In most areas of the world, that is not too big of a deal in late October. Here in Saudi Arabia, that mean you are climbing in 105+ degree F (40 C). Never the less, we are rock climbers, a little heat won't kill us.

I took Mark over to a "sport" climb that I have done in the past. This thing is spicy. There are 3 bolts in ~100ft (30m) of climbing. I let Mark have the lead since I have lead the climb several times now. Its not a very difficult climb, but since it is a slab, it is fairly insecure in nature. Needless to say, Mark handled it like a champ and sent it with no problems. Below you can see a couple of photos of the climb.

Mark rapping the "sport" route

Finally making it to the second bolt

After topping out, we realized that it is pretty unbearable climbing in direct sun in 100+ degree weather. So we sought refuge on the shady side of the mountain. Fortunately, there was a shaded chimney system that looked climbable. So I racked up with our set of nuts and 2 cams and tied into the sharp end. Nothing like first ascents in the desert with 2 cams and some nuts. It turned out to be a choss pile, but oh well, it was fun. I decided it should be called "The Dark Side of the Moon". The name seemed appropriate. After that pitch, we were all psyched up for climbing in the shade, it was actually reasonable.

So we walked around for a little bit before finding short little crack system. Mark decided he would have a go at it. Unfortunately, crack climbing isn't too common in the UK, so Mark conceded and offered me a go at it. Fortunately, Turkey Rocks, Vedauwoo, and Lumpy has allow me to hone in on the technique know as thrutching (See The Obscurist for example). This advance climbing technique allowed me to snag another first ascent. I named this one "Bloody Scotsman", because after I finished it, Mark followed me up, and in the words of Cedar Wright, "Once you start to thrutch, the blood just starts pouring."

Bloody Scotsman, short but burly

There you have it...a Saudi Arabian climbing adventure. I only have a little over a month left here, but I hope there will be more adventure to come.