This was a day of recovery, new friends, and climbing.
We started the day hung over as fuck. We we still planning on going climbing with Beckie.
At this point in the journey I want to note that we’ve been waking up before 8 am basically every single day. I don’t wake up this early in my normal life. But that’s just how it goes when you go on an outdoorsy vacation.
So we wake up at 9, and go down to a restaurant to get some food. When we’re there, we run into some of the Kiwi’s from last night. They join us at the table across. We get some food, try to recover. I have the TERRIBLE spins, to the point where I don’t feel safe driving a scooter. I wasn’t sure I’d recover in time for climbing. Beckie also happens to walk past us and confirmed she’s hung over as well. Whew, I was afraid it was just us!
Anyways we eat, drink tea(Vietnamese tea is great!), and try to recover. We finally make it out around noon.
On the way to the crag we get lost 2-3 times. We keep getting directed down these ally ways that turn into dead ends. We also run into Beckie(again!) on our way, and together we finally find the way to the crag.
There was a bit of a hike in, and we took some pictures with the local cattle:
And the CUTEST THING EVER happened on the way in. We ran into some kids, and they guided Beckie BY THE HAND down the path to the crag. So cute:
Which reminds me, the previous day we had run into some local kinds when we were climbing in Butterfly Valley. They were watching us, looking at our rope and stuff. Sean asked if they wanted a picture and they posed like this:
They promptly ran away right after the picture, before Sean could show them. Lol.
Anyways we finally get to the crag, and we have it ALL to ourselves. Beckie leads the first climb, a 5b, and then I lead it after, followed by Sean. Pretty fun stuff.
They beckie leads another climb that has an overhangy bouldery problem near the start. It was pretty tough. I was able to get up it on top rope after falling a couple times.
Here’s me trying to cruse over the crux:
Beckie leading it:
Note this picture is a weird angle, I promise I was spotting her better than it looks!
At this point Beckie had proven she was a bad ass, and lead the rest of the routes for the day. I learned a new term for someone who just throws up routes: a “rope gun”. Thanks Beckie!
She then lead a fun dihedral climb:
Not sure what climb this is, but she’s looking like a BAMF:
(Great photography skills btw Sean!)
More obligatory butt shots:
Here’s some of Sean following on this route:
Next, Beckie lead this hard fucking 10b. After following her on it, I realize I still have a lot to learn before I can confidently lead all 10b. This one was scary AF, and a bit runout in places (change for 20-25 foot fall). It was also VERY sustained and pumpy.
Here I am following:
Me being silly on top of a tufa:
And here are some other random pictures:
Beckie Hanging out, being a cool belayer:
If you want to see the full album of pictures, it’s here:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOfp9xz1bNxGBqjs0yR1R7ima3vGuH2hwT1TA0ZQnbcE0eC0m6PMWNhPxDJyp0mtQ?key=aDNXVmtHNy1WaTd2MVdzbW55RGFUZ3ZxTkF3ZjBB
After that, we headed back. We returned our gear to Asia outdoors.
I then took a picture with Travis, our guide from our first day of climbing:
This guy was great. He took time out of his day to teach us SAFE climbing. I’m sad that I didn’t get to do screw loose, but part of being a climber means sometimes letting go of your plans to stay safe and stay alive for the next climb. I’m also sad we lost a day of climbing so we could go over some climbing fundamentals with Sean. BUT, it allowed us to explore the island, I learned a new technique for lowering that didn’t require me to undo the rope, so that was pretty cool. So thanks Travis!
Also a BIG shotout to Asia Outdoors for all their help, suggestions, etc. They also maintain 90% of the bolt routes out here. Definetly one of the coolest outdoor shops I’ve been to. You can check out their website here:
www.asiaoutdoors.com.vn
Also worth noting that it’s customary to lower off the rap rings here, which is much safer than how we do it in America. Of course that wears out the bolts faster. I was going to donate some money to their access/bolt fund, but I forgot to do it before I left. If I ever find myself in Cat Ba again, I’ll be sure to donate. Thanks for all your guys hard work!
That’s it for today. I’m typing this ON the party boat right now, at 11 am. Time to go enjoy the scenery.