Beasts in Jungle

February 4th: Reflections on Packing, RIP Blanco

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Day 114

After spending the last 3 weeks living at Jira Homestay, our equipment is scattered about in every corner of our bungalow. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that all of the crap will fit into our bags, which makes me worry that maybe I’ve packed too much. Packing is always a difficult game, because you can always do with less. Surprisingly we have used everything that we came with. Out of 3 months, we have spent 1 month total in the tent. We use our MSR stove on a daily basis and cook at least one meal per day. We have had temperatures as low as 9, and have used our gloves and hats, and have had torrential rains where we’ve needed our rain gear. I’ve used extra parts to repair our trikes and maintained our stove. All things considered we have packed well. Although I may curse my baggage going up hills, I’m thankful that we’ve been prepared.

In the coming months we can lower our baggage weight since we won’t need climbing gear from the time that we leave Thailand until we arrive in Townsville Australia, or roughly the next 6 months. We are going to try to mail our rope, and quick-draws, Gri-Gri, and assorted carabiners ahead and we will retire our 4-year-old harnesses. This will save us about 8 kilograms or 17.6 pounds. I may also consider sending some winter clothing ahead.

While I was cleaning our stove I was reminded of something Cher said, that there are few things that we pass on to future generations nowadays. However, if more things were made like bicycles and camping equipment, we would have more to pass on, at least until they can afford the titanium stove and cook-ware. We spend a lot of time maintaining and mending the things that we rely on to take care of us and it is deeply satisfying. I hope that we don’t forget this when we return to our workaday lives.

On a final note, we learned a sad news today, Blanco died last night. We don’t know how and can only guess but we like to believe that the end to her wild, untamable, willful life was met while carelessly flying after some prey. Blanco was bold, and carefree, and sweet and loving and she lived more in her brief two years than a household dog lives in a lifetime. May we all be so bold.

February 3rd: Chopper’s First 7a+

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Day 113

Jira Homestay has 3 dog that have become quite attached to us. They are an excellent example of how naturally social dogs are. They spend their time split between playing a domestic role during the day, hanging about the bungalows, and begging for food, and freeing their innate wildness in the evening, baying at the moon, and running with the pack. Despite living a somewhat feral existence they respond to any human, in any language, in the most sensible way, apparently understanding whatever is said or gestured.

Today we witnessed some of the wildness as we were followed out of the home-stay by the 3 dogs. In order to avoid leading them across the highway, I did my best to communicate don’t follow by stamping and pointing at their home. This worked on the most timid dog, whom we’ve named Dumb Dumb. Foxy, the only male, also began to retreat but Blanco, the alpha female and Foxy’s dominant lover, took off running across the highway and Foxy followed. As we approached a peasant home near the crag I heard alarmed chickens and knew it was Blanco. A second later I saw her in maniacal joy darting down the hill with a chick in her mouth, which she dropped off still alive and limping, before flying back into the squawking clutch to steal more. I remarked that Blanco, the most wild and willful dog would probably not live long.

While climbing today we ran into friends from Hong Kong, Francis and Donna. Francis is responsible for bolting numerous routes at Crazy Horse Buttress, and he was on a bolting vacation. He’s bolted many of our favourite climbs in in Hong Kong and he bolted what today became my first 7A+, The Absent Minded Bolter. With his usual attention to detail, and safety consciousness his routes always offer excellent protection. In Hong Kong and Vietnam we thought that some of the grades were on the easier side but here we found them to be quite accurate. Grades aside, if you want to climb hard routes and take some whippers with confidence, we recommend any of Francis’ routes.

It’s going to be hard to leave Mae On. We still have multiple climbs that we haven’t even attempted, and we’re both developing the skills to climb harder grades. Cher has now lead several 6B’s and is more confidant and fluid every day. It helps that many of the routes have safe, regular bolting with very few run outs, allowing us the opportunity to work on the finer points with minimal fear of a ground fall. For the both of us the major impediment to harder grades is our heads. Over-gripping, improper breathing, sloppy feet, and loss of fluidity are all mental climbing problems we have begun to address and if mastered change climbing from a fearful bolt to bolt scramble into a joyous, smooth ascent. In the next 6 months we will spend more time cycling than climbing although we will lose a great deal of strength. However, we are confident that man of the mental gains we will stay with us for the long run.

January 26th and 27th: Bee Sting and 7A

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Day 105 and Day 106

My lovely belayer agreed to brave grilling under the sun so I could take a shot at a 7A climb described as a technical masterpiece. Sitting in 34 degrees of heat while I surveyed the route, Cher’s sweaty foot attracted a little sweat bee, which after taking a sip inexplicably became alarmed by her clumsy attempt to put on a pair of socks and left a stinger in her foot. Cher was nice enough to tough it out and belay me in the blistering sun with a stung foot, even though I said we could go. Cher knew she was allergic from previous experience, but her reaction that evening was frightening. She suffered a fever and an irregular heartbeat. Before the sunrise, her foot swelled and morphed from a dainty tack hammer into a crude caveman’s club. For two days her foot was burning hot and swelled even more.

On the second day, despite the fact that her foot would barely fit into her roomy crocks, she crammed her club into her snug climbing shoe and led a 6A. It’s moments like this that I know we were truly meant to be together.

January 25th: The Archway, Cher leads a 6B

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Day 104

As our climbing grades slowly get higher so does the temperature. The Archway is a fantastic structure which channels a cool breeze and provides good shade any time of the day. I had the pleasure of onsighting two 6C’s – Tree Surgeon and Grunt Fest and Cher led an overhanging 6B, Crazy Hot. Later to build my case, a young buff American (not me, of course) struggled on a section that Cher cruised up.

We estimate that we’ve climbed over 100 different routes since we started this trip and that in one month we lead outside more than we do in a year. This is the most pleasant way to improve our climbing skills.

I’ve been trying to motivate Cher to lead harder routes. I’m not really sure why, since she’s happy with top roping I’m happy with leading. But I can’t resist a gentle nudge here and there. I’ve witnessed other fellow climbers (mostly men) making ridiculous, insensitive comments towards their climbing partners, such as “I don’t lead anything below 5C’s, they are a waste of time and energy” or “I wish you climbed at the same level as me.” I confess that I too said something similar to Cher. However, if you have a dedicated partner who belays you and loves you so that you can climb safely every day, you are fortunate, a billionaire among paupers! My climbs may be harder and my life shorter if I have to do them free solo, without my trusted belayer.

January 24th: Spelunking and Climbing in Windy Cave

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Day 103

Windy Cave is a must-see at Crazy Horse Buttress. For access, the guide-book says a headlamp is not necessary, but I highly recommend taking one. There is a bit of a drop as you enter and it’s quite hard to see when you squeeze through the narrow channel.

Also while climbing in the cave, some of the bolts and hand holds are obscured by shadows depending on the time of day and headlamp will definitely help. Climbing the 6A+ in the quiet of the cave makes you acutely aware of the sound of your breathing and the clinking of quickdraws. We found ourselves whispering as if we were in a temple. If the 6A+ is sacred then the 7A sacrilegious. Under the headlamp, you can clearly see the sparkling limestone formation. Since the cave is an enclosed environment, everything is coated in a fine layer of dust, which makes the second crux nerve rattling. With a lot of shaky breathing, screams, and several falls I made it to the anchor.

January 23rd: Visa Run – Chiang Mai to Mae Sai/Tachiliek

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Day 102

Our 30-day VOA is going to run out and we have to make a visa run to the Myanmar border town Tachiliek to get another 30 days (which used to be 15 days if enter over land). For official information on visa issues, click here. A list of nationalities and length of visa granted can be found here.

We took the Green Bus which isn’t green literally nor metaphorically. The bus terminal is by no means easy to find if you are on foot:

Many blogs recommend buying tickets ahead of time, however we didn’t want to make 2 trips into Chiang Mai for this visa run. So we were up at 4am to catch the first local songthaew into Chiang Mai, hoping we would be able to get early bus tickets for the same day. We were at the bus station before 8am, and luckily we managed to get the 9:30am tickets.

If you want to travel from Crazy Horse Buttress to Chiang Mai and you are motor bike impaired, the best option is to take a songthaew, which is a pickup truck with 2 rows of benches in the back. From Jira Homestay, go 2 km north to the local market, you can’t miss the yellow buses parked across the street. The fare is 50 Baht per person, one way, and they leave every 20 minutes, starting at 5:20 am. The trip takes about 1.5 hours.

Coming back, the trucks depart from where they dropped you off, but make sure you’re there before 5:40, or you’ll have a relatively expensive ride back. The truck will stop along the way picking up or dropping off passengers, but don’t worry about missing your stop as the last stop is the market where you started.

The visa run put us back in Chiang Mai at 8pm, and unfortunately we missed the last songtaew back to Mae On. However, there are plenty of transportation choices at the bus terminal. We took a tuk tuk for 300 baht and only 30 minutes later we were back at Jira safe and sound, with our new 30-day visa.

January 17th to the 22nd: Full-time Climbing at Chiang Mai Crazy Horse Buttress

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Day 96 to Day 101

Staying at Jira homestay is yet another home away from home run by a an extremely friendly, generous and helpful couple. We pay 300 Baht per day for our own bungalow which has a huge porch with a rug and pillows for hanging out, quiet fans both inside and on the porch, a bug net over the spacious bed, and a t.v. with a DVD player, and free wi-fi connection. If you don’t have your own vehicles they have bikes to borrow and a yellow scooter with a side car that you can borrow free of charge for local trips to the market 2kms away or the hot springs just 8kms away. We split our meals between Jira and the local market and estimated that the cost is about the same since the portions at Jira are large. However, since we have a large front porch, we generally cook breakfast here with our MSR stove.

The walk to the crag is about 12 minutes from Jira. If you are only coming to climb, this is the place to stay. If you would like night life and shopping, Chiang Mai is a better option.

Crazy Horse Buttress is exceptionally well run. Many of the belay stations are covered in gravel and have been leveled. The improvements to the belay stations and the groomed trails are not only for convenience, but also prevent erosion and ensure that climbing in the area is sustainable. This also goes for the bolting which is for the most part quite safe, with the exception of one 6A+ Kee Gai (a.k.a. Chicken Shit, which had a long run out at the end and an expansion bolt that I tightened with my finger tips before clipping in). Most of the routes have bolts at regular intervals whether you’re on a 5B or a 7A. The majority of the climbs use stainless steel glue-ins, which will last for the next 50 years. Although we are here during peak season, we have seen very little crowds and normally share an entire area with no more than a couple of other climbers.

Climbing styles are greatly varied, and in one day you can have powerful juggy overhung tufa, technical thin crimps and balancy hand jamming cracks. We have felt that we have had to re-learn some technique after being in Tha Khek where many of the climbs tend to be on the powerful overhung side. In our limited climbing experience this is one of the best places that we have climbed.

January 14th to 28th: Capreo Hub Saga – ICE trike Maintenance

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Day 93 to Day 107

Now that we are in our new home it’s time to address some maintenance issues. First our chains are filthy. My chain lubricant wore out and since we have mostly been off the beaten track I’ve been using motor oil. It’s not great, it’s made to run at high temperatures so it’s thicker than lube for a bicycle chain, and it usually contains detergents which means it tends to get sticky once the oil dries up and attracts dirt. The best way I’ve found to wash the chains is to immerse them in gasoline in a large mouthed container and shake. After 2 minutes the chains come out like new, leave the container open and let the gasoline evaporate, away from any fire. Wipe the chains and hang them to dry before reapplying lubricant.

Next, both Cher and I’s rear hubs were having issues which both started right around 4,000 km. Mine was making a grinding and clicking noise while Cher’s cassette came loose and could not be tightened. I took an entire day disassembling and cleaning them to see if I could locate the problem.

Mine had some sand in the pawls which caused the clicking.

Cher’s cassette body was shorn off at the top, while mine was showing similar wear. 9 speed Capreo hubs have 2 sprockets, gears 8 and 9, (the smallest or hardest gears), which do not attach directly to the splines on the cassette body. Sprocket 7, presses down on the rest of the sprockets to provide tension to keep them in place. However, this sprocket had shorn off the splines and when tightened was slipping onto the top of the cassette body and therefore no longer keeping tension on sprockets 1 to 6, even though 7, 8 and 9 were locked down.

I carefully reassembled the cassette and found that it is quite easy to misalign the 7th sprocket and have hypothesized that it was misaligned on both trikes which is what caused both trikes to have similar problems at the same time.

The next day we went into Chiang Mai to see if a local bike shop could fix the problem. We quickly found out that no one was familiar with Capreo cassettes. One shop suggested adding spacers, which would have made the situation worse, and the others didn’t have the necessary tools to remove the lockring.

I had to contact ICE and sent videos and pictures of the wear and after agreeing that the problem was the cassette body, they agreed to send us two new ones and a new lockring spanner, (which I stripped trying to tighten Cher’s hub) for free! We received the tracking update which listed the parts as “warranty replacement,” although the never did say whether this was an assembly error or a part failure. I’m guessing the former since I couldn’t find any similar problems after a great many hours of internet research. A week later the parts arrived and I quickly removed and replaced the old parts and after a couple of test drives, everything is running smooth. It will take a few days on the road, fully loaded before we can cycle without keeping a cautious ear out for any suspicious noises, so for now we are cautiously optimistic.

Despite this small issue I would still recommend ICE trikes, because this is the kind of customer service that inspires confidence on an extended trip. Breaking the spanner was clearly my fault but they sent a new one anyway and we weren’t even charged for international FedEx shipping. While investigating the cause we regularly corresponded with Patrick Selwood, ICE’s engineer, who answered my multiple lengthy e-mails immediately. As for the trikes and the other components, they have held up wonderfully and I have confidence that they will do so for the remainder of the trip.

To rekindle our affection for our trikes we spent one more day completely cleaning and re-greasing our trikes. Even though they will be dirty again, cleaning is a great way to find any areas of wear or loose nuts or bolts. Not only is it satisfying to look at a clean machine gleaming in the sun, in my mind it feels faster and sometimes perception is more important than reality.