Advice for year-long climbing trip
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Hi MP! Please help me decide on a place to visit (outside of N. America). I'd like to be in one country for 9-12 months. |
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Europe. Bounce between the in-season crags. Easy enough to get by on english and a phrasebook, usually plenty of americans and british around to help smooth that part of it. Between the alps, french and spanish limestone, font, etc you can find something in-season all the time, and with a "scene" to find partners. No shortage of cultural stuff, easy enough to get around, trains and such. Not as sketchy as south america. |
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Thanks. I'm specifically looking to be only in one place right now. If you had to choose one destination, what would it be? |
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Don't make this difficult, go to Australia. Has everything you want minus the ice. The country is an entire continent fer chrissakes... |
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I could easily spend a year in New Zealand. Everybody is super friendly there and has similar seasons to Colorado except in reverse. You could spend the spring, summer, and fall on the South Island then head to the north island for the winter. Or just stick around and do winter things. |
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You could probably climb out all of Vietnam in 9-12 months if you wanted, great limestone sport climbing and DWS in the north- couple crags 45mins to 2.5 hours away from Hanoi, then all of Ha long bay...sport climbing and DWS there, just 3ish hours away from Hanoi. Plus a tiny sweaty bouldering gym in town! |
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my european country ranking: |
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max huecksteadt wrote:Its funny reading Australia because its the opposite of cheap...If you can dirtbag in the US, you can do it in OZ. The OP is apparently an Anglophone only and the Australians speak an almost comprehensible form of English. I lived in Perth about 15 years ago and remember the exchange rate being 2 to 1 (that is for every $US I took I got 2 $AUS.) It was like the entire country being fifty percent off! Alcohol was crazy expensive, I do remember that...and shitty. Gawd, Australian beer is terrible. |
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Thank you to everyone for your responses! I'll focus on learning about the countries that you've suggested. I have studied French and Chinese for more than 8 years combined, but I find foreign languages to be something I struggle with so ideally I won't have to depend on speaking one. |
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If you go to western/central Europe, you have to plan ahead to not run afoul of the Schengen zone visa rules. Read this nomadicmatt.com/travel-blog… |
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pierref wrote:my european country ranking: spain, italy, france: pro: 4 seasons climbability, history and culture, quite cheap against: few english speaking people in south, not very open community, not safe austria, swissland, germany: pro: many english speakers, history, safe cons: quite expensive, winter is winter My suggestion: staying in the swissland austria north italia area (the distances are short) allows to extend the climbing season, in safe environnment, historically reach countries, with limestone and granit, trad, sport and boulder.I spent 2 months climbing in spain this winter and a little over 5 years in france (a good portion of that time traveling and climbing solo) and I'm going to throw out my personal experience of having always found partners in both countries, the only days I haven't climbed during my stays at major spanish/french crags where the days I wanted the rest. As for openness switzerland is a louzy place to pick up partners, I have done a good amount of climbing there and have almost invariably (11 out of 12 pick up partners) climbed with other foreigners. The main reason I chime in here is to adress the "not safe" part of the comment. Outside of maybe a few crags where car-crime might be an issue (in this regard western europe is no different from the united states; use your common sense and you'll stay out of trouble), That judgement is totally misplaced. Regarding language barriers if you stick to major crags its not an issue. If you live in america and you've heard of the crag, there will be people from all over the world climbing there, many of whom will speak english. I find myself speaking english more often than french at some french crags Another thing to consider is that for non-residents car rental can be a bit tricky in europe. The other option is to find a place to rent in a climbing town (grenoble, cham, illeida, the list can get pretty big if you do some research) |
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Hi Benj, |
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South Africa has awesome sport climbing, trad and bouldering. People are friendly, the history and culture are unique, and the wildlife is fantastic. Your US$ will go very far as the currency is weak. Watch 'Africa Fusion' for a taster 😆 youtu.be/8LmGhIYWDlM |
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Hey Pierro, |