Europe Galleries

France 2007 : My last picture series was of Switzerland and I admit it is hard to beat that type of experience of large peaks and huge waterfalls. I met up with a guy named Patrick in Switzerland and we were trying to find out where we should go next to get some climbing in. We figured that there was a certain place nearby with the world reputation to make it extra special so we hopped on a train to head towards Ceuse, France. We didnt really have any idea how we were going to get to Ceuse however since it is near a little town called Gap and the train ticket was going to be much to expensive especially for a return. We didn't have much time and so we decided to try and get a rental car once we got to Bern, Switzerland. The train arrived and we had a few hours before the car companies closed and we were stuck without a car so we worked fast walking right to the companies. The car was going to be much more expensive then we hoped! Almost $300 Swiss Franks for 3 days was much more then I was willing to spend especially since it didn't even include gas. We spent the next few hours running around town calling different companies and even trying the internet all without luck. We headed back to Europcar and stood out in front of the door talking it over for a while when Patrick finally dangled a treat out in front of the deal. He told me "I will put up buy you a ticket up to $100 to anywhere you want to go when we drive back. I am willing to put up $250 for this. I really want to go." Well I just couldn't pass up the deal and we got our little volkswagon golf and headed toward France. It was almost 7pm and we didn't have time to waste so I drove most of the night. Patrick was under 25 so I would be doing all the driving to save money. We got from Bern, Switzerland to Gap, France in about 6 hours and slept in the car. We woke up to a beautiful site of cliffs overlooking the city of Gap. Throughout the night our plans had changed a bit though and we had decided to go to Verdon Gorge instead where Multi-Pitch climbs were abundant.

France 2007

My last picture series was of Switzerland and I admit it is hard to be ...

Updated: Nov 08, 2009 12:26pm PST

Switzerland 2007 : Switzerland 2007

Switzerland 2007

Switzerland 2007

Updated: Nov 09, 2009 2:17pm PST

Czech Republic 2007 : Near the end of the my 3 months in Europe I decided to take a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. While staying in a hostel I met with someone who was willing to share a rental car and we drove it north to Snezku Peak and on to Cesky Raj where we did some great climbing. Patrick had purchased my ticket to Prague and after spending another long night in the airport (Geneva is a terrible airport to sleep in) I was off to Czech. I had heard good things about Prague so I was excited to be heading in this direction. I arrived on a very hot day in Prague and headed to my hostel. I found navigating the subways and buses quite easy, maybe I'm getting used to this! I was also super excited to find that bus fare was very cheap. I arrived at the hostel and put all my stuff in my new room, it was a nice room with big windows and a good bed. It would take a little while to get healed from all the days of sleeping in the car!

Czech Republic 2007

Near the end of the my 3 months in Europe I decided to take a trip to ...

Updated: Nov 09, 2009 2:18pm PST

England 2007 : London is probably the most expensive city in the world to fly into but you can fly out for free sometimes. Everything is expensive except the museums. Some love it and some hate it but you can't deny its popularity.

England 2007

London is probably the most expensive city in the world to fly into bu ...

Updated: Jul 25, 2007 4:14pm PST

Malta 2007 : I have spent the last week in Gozo at a town called Xlendi. Pronounced Shlendy. I met a few great people there and got to finally do some absolutely incredible deep water soloing!! The climbing is astonishing here especially because the rock is world class, high, and strong and there is nobody else around on it. I didn't see a single climber the entire time that I didn't go with! It is awesome...awesome...great! I went back because I really liked the atmosphere and met some great people. By the way for those who don't know what deep water soloing is it is climbing the sheer cliffs with no ropes and only the water to stop your fall. Thanks a ton to Carmen and her brother for their awesome hospitality and showing me around the country. That dog will like me yet!

Malta 2007

I have spent the last week in Gozo at a town called Xlendi. Pronounced ...

Updated: Nov 10, 2009 7:07pm PST

Austria 2007 : I headed to Austria after spending a fun time in Germany with Paul the friend I had met in Malta. Now it was time to get to the mountains though and I could hear them calling my name. I got a free ride from Padeborn to Linz and spent 48 euros taking a train to Innsbruck. Innsbruck is a famous town for climbing and has spawned some very impressive mountaineers such as Hermann Buhl. I got off the train at 9pm. A little later then I had hoped but figured it wouldnt be to hard to find a place to stay. That was a mistake. I wandered around the town for 3 hours until i finally gave up and resolved ot finding a place to put my tent up in a park. It was around 11:30pm and I was fully decked out in my backpacks, standing at a bus stop not really thinking about much. I wasnt worried about finding a place to stay I knew I would I was just not really looking forward to walking to it! A guy walked up to me who spoke very little english and after a little conversation he told me to go to the Youth Hostel on the other side of town. He also told me that he would drive me there! A guy who says he lives in another village and is on a walk through a different town just for the heck of it at almost midnight wants to give me a ride....so what do I do? Well I am tired of walking around town so of course I say sure! He was a nice guy though and actually brought me to the youth hostel, what luck!

Austria 2007

I headed to Austria after spending a fun time in Germany with Paul the ...

Updated: Jul 25, 2007 4:25pm PST

Liechtenstein 2007 : Spent an afternoon in this small country and I felt that was enough. The country is really nice just very small. There are mountains around though for those who have time and adequate weather to hike them.

Liechtenstein 2007

Spent an afternoon in this small country and I felt that was enough. T ...

Updated: Jul 25, 2007 4:36pm PST

Germany 2007 :

Germany 2007

Updated: Jul 25, 2007 4:41pm PST

Italy 2007 : I was helping someone change a tire when he offered to let me stay at his place in Bozan (Bolzano). It was an offer to good to refuse! I had stayed in the town for a day when I decided to head into the mountains even though the weather looked incremental. I figured I could go in and camp the night and hopefully have a large enough gap to climb a peak and head out. Roberto gave me a ride to the base in a town where, yup once again, I took the tram. The 2 hour run back down Brandjoch in Austria 2 days earlier had made my legs puddy and they had not yet recovered. The pain on each down step was intense and sometimes I would lose balance just going down stairs! So the tram was inviting. The day was July 3rd and summiting a peak in the Dolomites was going to be my own personal 4th of July celebration. Last year on the 4th of July I was camping at 11,900 feet on the Grand Teton preparing for the climb in the morning. Gotta keep the streak going.

Italy 2007

I was helping someone change a tire when he offered to let me stay at ...

Updated: Oct 18, 2009 12:41am PST

Spain 2007 : I have spent the last 9 days in Mallorca and island off the Iberian Peninsula belonging to Spain. The island is considered a Mecca of deep water soloing which they call Psicobloc. Recently what is possibly one of the hardest routes in the world was put up by Chris Sharma on Es Pontas. It is considered to be 5.15a or 9a by Euro standards. Although he does not rate the climbs himself I'm sure the repeats will be few and far between. I met up with Shasta in Wales and we tooled around that country for a while before deciding to head to warmer areas. Looking at tickets we decided to head to Spain for a week and a half and have some fun at deep water soloing, we had hoped to climb a 7 pitch route on a mountain called Sa Gubia but were set back by lack of gear. We first arrived and found a bus to S. Arenal where we trying around for a hostel finding one for 30 Euros per night. The hostels here are not your normal hostel as they are bed and breakfasts and proper dorm hostels are pretty much non existent. The beach is 4 miles long and is sand all the way. Besides the sand is thousands of bodies lined on every little area. To me that is not a fun way to spend time so we decided to bail on the crowded beach scene and see if we couldn't find something a little more pleasant. We headed to town called Cala Dòr and had to settle on a an apartment style renting accommodation for the night which was 40 Euros, as cheap as any bed and breakfast was in the area. This was a really nice place with a kitchen and a living room! Still though we knew this was more then we wanted to spend and resolved the next day to finding some proper camping accommodation. We had however heard that it is illegal on the island so figured it could be tuff. We packed our bags for the walk to Cala Sa Nau. We walked to the beach to find a beautiful area surrounded by nice looking climbing. The cliffs got bigger as they went out and there were plenty of areas we could tent.

Spain 2007

I have spent the last 9 days in Mallorca and island off the Iberian Pe ...

Updated: Jul 25, 2007 4:51pm PST

Wales 2007 :

Wales 2007

Updated: Jul 31, 2007 3:11am PST