Goals

Starting in February and continuing for at least twelve months, I will only be a climber. I won’t have a job, girlfriend, wife, kids, or any other real responsibility. One of the many reasons I am excited about this is that it will provide a lot of time to focus on my climbing and progressing into a better, more well rounded climber. Areas of improvement for me are: pinches, slab, and vertical. I’m not terrible at these by any means but I haven’t mastered these styles either. On the trip I want to improve in every style of climbing including slab, vertical, steep, compression, pinches, slopers, crimps etc. By that I mean I don’t just want to get stronger and crush the steep stuff, I want to also be a smoother climber on technical climbs, especially on sandstone. It’s been a few years since I’ve spent much time on sandstone so I’m very excited that font is the first stop on our trip.

I already feel more relaxed about having so much time to climb. The reason for that is up until now I’ve mostly had weekend trips and the occasional week long vacation to climb. Going climbing for a weekend can sometimes add stress in that I feel like I need to make a list of what I want to work on and what I want to send. With more time I will be able to take some days to just wander around in the forest and climb whatever looks cool without worrying about a ticklist.

All that being said, I will also be psyched to project some really hard lines and to push myself to the limit. Which leads me to a couple of quantifiable goals for 2010. I want to become a solid V13 climber and I would like to climb a V14. I am skeptical that this will happen in Font but I will certainly try to master the bleau sandstone. I think Switzerland and the Rocklands will offer many opportunities to achieve these goals so it will be nice to have several months in these countries.

I haven’t climbed at all this month and it has been painfully boring, but it’s good that I’ve rested my finger and I’m optimistic that I will be back to 100% when I get to France.

My moving plans changed a little once I found out renting a moving truck to drive across country costs $1,300. It turns out that using a moving company and flying home is cheaper and far easier to deal with than 36 hours of driving by myself. So I’m flying home to Atlanta on Saturday where I will be hanging out with family, plus a day or two at Horse Pens until my departure to Paris on February 9th.

The Cost of a Trip Around the World

I use the term ‘Around the World’ loosely because we are only going to Europe and South Africa. I’d love to continue jetsetting around the world for a year or more but I didn’t win the lottery and so far nobody has paid me to climb a rock.

We purchased our airfare for the whole trip through Orbitz. The cost for Atlanta to Paris to Cape Town to Atlanta was $1,694. We haven’t booked a car for South Africa yet but we have one for Europe. In Europe we are doing the lease buy-back program through Peugeot. It is cheaper than renting if you need a car for more than a month but it’s still pricey. It might be cheaper to buy and sell a used car but we didn’t feel like it would be worth the hassle and the likelihood that we would be ripped off since we don’t parlez le french. The way a lease buy-back works is that you pay a set charge like a rental car but they deliver to you a brand new Peugeot at the airport and you drop it back off with them when you leave. It includes a full warranty, insurance, and even roadside assistance. The best part is we booked a Peugeot 207 SW which has a 1.6L diesel engine that gets 60 MPG on the freeway! Considering diesel in France costs $6.50 per gallon, this car will definitely save us some money on gas! For all these benefits we had to fork over $3,758, or split two ways, $1,879 per person. Our chariot for Europe:

Peugeot 207 SW

Typically it is cheaper to fly to Europe so let’s say that portion of the flight is $694 and it’s $1,000 to fly to South Africa. Our total travel costs in Europe are: $694 flight + $1,879 car + $450 gas = $3,023. We are projecting to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000 in housing/camping/shelter and $1,600 in food for our four month stay in Europe. So that brings the total up to $6,623. We tried to be conservative and budget more money than we’ll need but we’ll see how it looks after a few weeks in France.

South Africa is a lot cheaper than Europe but we haven’t decided whether we are going to risk using Best Beetle to get a 40 year old car for $200 per month. We also don’t know whether we’ll be sharing a house the whole time or camping part of the time. Some people have said the camping is awesome and some people have said it’s terrible. We’ve heard the same thing about camping in Font so we’ll have go find out for ourselves. Here’s the rough SA budget so far:

Flight: $1,000
Shelter: $600
Car + Gas (per person): $425
Food: $800
Total: $2,825

Throw in a contingency plus a few hundred dollars for oversize baggage fees (crashpad) and we get to our grand total of $11,000 for seven months of international fun. If you are a climber in need of motivation to save money, I’d say this is a good place to start. I’d take the trip of a lifetime over buying a house or new car any day of the week!

This is all speculation since it’s been seven years since I’ve been to Europe and I’ve never been to Africa before. We’ll let you know how much we really spent at the end of the journey. If anyone has any suggestions for where to stay, whether to camp or pony up for real shelter, and what type of car is best to rent in South Africa, we are welcome to it!

A New Year

I am starting 2010 off with a bang by quitting my full time job of two plus years. My last working day of 2010 will be January 29th. Two days later I will be driving a Uhaul with all my belongings across the country to my hometown of Atlanta with a brief stop in Hueco along the way.

2,200 Miles

From there lots of unpacking and packing will occur and on February 9th me and my good friend Leslie Warnock will be departing for Paris, France. We will start off the trip in Fontainebleau where we will climb for 1-2 months. From there we don’t have a set plan but lots of time will be spent in Switzerland among other countries. We’ll be in Europe for four months before flying to South Africa on June 1st. The Rocklands will be our home until our return flight to the US. Leslie is flying home at the end of July to start grad school and I will stay a few extra weeks before flying home on August 21st. When I get back to the States I will continue the trip here for at least six months or until I run out of money. Up until now my longest climbing trip has been two weeks so this will be a whole new experience for me. I am a little anxious but mostly excited about my new life as a climbing bum.

I’ve been busy selling off things that I won’t be needing for the next year which freed up some cash to buy new film making toys. The best part is that I’ll finally be climbing with someone else who is psyched on filming and editing. Leslie has already made several short climbing vids, so you can look forward to seeing lots of great climbing footage from the two of us as we travel the world for seven months in search of the best boulders!

I just sold my car yesterday, so for the next four weeks I am trapped in the suburbia that is Irvine, California. I don’t even own a bike so my sole mode of transportation is a pair of old running shoes.