a day of climbing

Today was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. Years ago, with my Chilean climbing partner Leo, I remember seeing rock climbing pictures of Thailand and Vietnam. They blew me away and I thought that would be the trip of a lifetime. Now I feel like I am finally doing it. It is just not a climbing trip.
A big boat dropped us off between islands and we kayaked to this bay, Moody’s Beach. We climbed the rock on the left. Our guides, Slo and Pony (www.slopony.com), were really nice guys and truly love Vietnam.

Ha Long Bay is known for the thousands of limestone islands that stick out of the emerald water. For climbers this is a unique experience to climb so close to the water. It was about 4 meters from the water (the tide was dropping) to the first overhang. Luckily, big strong “Truffles” was able to help me get there. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it much further!



“Pony” had no problem shimmying up the inverted face! It made for quite a spectacular dismount.