In my life I have been lucky enough to visit some amazing place from my first route in Wales top roping red, Yellow, ….. on Rainbow Slab in the snow, through trips to font during my University years. Then my first big trip to attempt Troll Wall which resulted ultimately in failure, but at the same time rescued by climbing many rock routes to stunning Alpine Peak.
I graduated and made my way via the US and Yosemite to India and Thailand, return for three consecutive years to yosemite, one starting in Squamish. I then looked at the most adventurous places to head I could find for alpine/big wall rock climbing. Making ascents of the most amazing route in the world the Lotus Flower Tower, and then a new route in the same complex of cirques and hanging valleys.
The next adventure took me to Alaska, and the remote Kichatna Spires, and that was 2004. My life to me anyways seems to have ground to a halt ever since when it comes to ‘Big Adventures’. My money dried up, and I was force to work. Mostly I would describe it as subsistence working. Living quite literally hand to mouth, worrying where the next months rent would come from, occasionally making enough to treat myself to a camera or a computer.
Last year though I had a two week holiday to America, it is a place that has captured me so much that I seem to be pulled there by a strange gravity. The place is so big and so empty in places that adventure actually feels real. In that two week holiday llion and I knocked out loads of routes across the great nation. and now we are looking to return to climb The Nose of El Cap, another two week holiday for Llion and Katie, but for me I feel the need to spend a little more time out there to explore.
My plans are only starting to form, but I am thinking of buying a car and travelling coast to coast, and trying to get a few more classic routes done either before or after the Yosemite mission. My question is what sort of price does the average American wreck cost? Or should I rent? Where should I go? Where should I start? Is there anyone out there keen to join me on a leg or two?