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Welcome Aboard!
June
15, 2009: We're back out West! Sure feels like home again! We spent the
last few days climbing at Lumpy Ridge, near Estes Park, CO. Lumpy is definitely
one of our top 5 favorite areas in the US. For years, it was our "summer
week-end commute" while living in New Mexico. We had not been back in
three years and had almost forgotten how good the climbing is...
Big update this time. It features some of the climbs we have done in the Northeast this past fall. So far, we have posted pages for the Adirondacks and several crags we visited there: Pitchoff Chimney, Washbowl Cliff and Spider's Web, Moss Cliff and Poke-O-Moonshine. Also new are several routes we've done in New Hampshire at Cathedral Ledge and Whitehorse Ledge, as well as two outings we took to Cannon Mountain. All are best accessed from our "Rock Climbing in the Adirondacks and NH" page. Also check out our latest travel page: Adirondacks to Acadia National Park.
For more details about what we've been up to recently, browse our News and Climbs pages.
Still the perfect time of the year to visit Tahquitz, The Needles, or Lover's Leap in California! Check out those pages for route suggestions and beta.
Not
sure what to do... where to go? Then start here
and follow the arrow signs. This will take you through a chronological sequence
of trip pages. Some of these pages also have links to various climbs. Or,
start from the end for the most recent
travel page:
Previously posted pages (by area): Cascades (WA): Main page, Careno Crag, Colchuck Balanced Rock; Index and Static Point (WA): Main page, Davis Holland - Lovin' Arms, Godzilla - City Park - Sloe Children, Online; Needles (CA): Main page, Igor Unchained, Airy Interlude, Thin Ice, Atlantis, White Punks on Dope; Tahquitz and Suicide (CA): Main page, Left Ski Track, Fingertrip, Super Pooper, El Camino Real, On the Road & Traitor Horn, The Vampire, Whodunit, Suicide Rock; Tuolumne Meadows (CA): Lucky Streaks and the Regular Route on Fairview Dome, Oz and The Hobbit Book link-up; Eastern Sierras Cragging (CA): Bony Fingers, Pratt's Crack Buttress, Cardinal Pinnacle, the Gong Show Crag and Patricia Bowl; Red Rocks (NV): Epinephrine, and the summary page with more than 15 links to the most popular routes; New Zealand: Main page, Cragging in the North Island, Ngauruhoe, Tongariro, Mt Ruapehu, East Ridge of Taranaki, Mt Rolleston, Mt Barff, SW Ridge of Mt Aspiring, Mt Somers, Bowen-Allan Corner on Moir's Mate, Only in NZ, Christchurch to Oz; Australia: Main page, Canada: Ice Climbing in Quebec (main page), Québec city, South Ridge of Gimli, North Ridge of Assiniboine.
Yes, II! Our first trip ended over three years ago. We have been on the road again for a bit more than 15 months now!
We spent last winter in the Southern Hemisphere, climbing in NZ and Oz. We've been back in the US since mid-april.
Our
goals are the same as during our first bus trip: find a good mix of cragging,
alpine rock, waterfall ice and mountaineering throughout North America. This
time, we are also spending 6 months in New Zealand and Australia, between
September 2007 and April 2008. Other destinations this time around will hopefully
include the East coast (New York, New Hampshire, etc, for rock) and Quebec
for a season of ice climbing.
Besides the fact that we are going oversees for part of the trip, the only significant differences with the last trip are 1) we took our bikes with us this time, 2) the cost of fuel... about three times what it was during our first trip, and 3) the exhorbitant prices charged by publicly owned campgrounds in the US.
Fees in Forest Service and other public campgrounds have continued to sky-rocket at rates vastly exceeding official inflation rates. As an example, poorly maintained camps along the Tieton river (WA), with dirt sites, pit toilets, and no host are now asking for $17 to $20 per night! This is simply ridiculous. For anyone wanting to spend significant time in those camps, it translates to about $600/month. You can still rent a small, fully equipped apartment in many areas of the US for that much money! For us, it means that we will have to be even more careful to avoid official camps than during the first trip. These outrageous camping fees also combine with the spread of all sorts of "recreation fees" in most areas of the country. Just in the first 3 weeks of this trip, we have already paid $13 for a Fish and Wildlife Vehicle Pass for the Tieton river, and $60 for two Northwest Passes (one for the bus, and one for the Jeep). It is time to do something about this. If you care at all, please start writing letters to the managers of your local public lands.
If you were looking for our original Bus Trip website (2003-2004), you can find it here. We finally completed the last few remaining pages. We are hoping to find the stamina to document this current trip in a similar fashion.
Hope you enjoy this new series of reports!
If this is your first visit, you may want to read the section below to learn a bit about our background.
We are two temporarily-retired engineers & climbers who have decided to suspend their professional careers and otherwise "normal" life to undertake a 2 year long (or more...) road trip to climb throughout North America (and other places).
Originally from Belgium and France, we have lived in the USA for several years. We started climbing in 1995, after moving to the small town of Los Alamos, in Northern New Mexico. Climbing instantly became a life-altering passion for us and has occupied every hour of free time since. We practice most every form of climbing on rock, waterfall ice, alpine terrain, and high mountains, with a preference for longer multi-pitch technical routes. Before this trip, we have climbed extensively throughout the Western US and Canada, as well as occasionally in Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, France, and Italy (for more details, click here).
After "tying the knot" in 1998 on the summit of Longs Peak, CO, and after several years of intense "weekend warrior" climbing life, we decided four years ago to take a second plunge together: quit our jobs and go climb full-time for a while. In January 2003, we both quit our full time engineering jobs and vacated our rental apartment to go spend a good part of our savings on the road, climbing as close to full time as weather and physical ability would permit. A year earlier, we'd purchased an old 1963 GM 4106 passenger coach, which had been converted into a motor home by a retiree in California. This bus would become our only home for the duration of the trip.
That first trip lasted over two years. We went back to a more "normal" life in Los Alamos for two years, before leaving it all behind again for a second trip on May 20, 2007.
This site is essentially an account of our travels and climbs. As we do not have internet connections or cell phones, it will also hopefully help us keep in touch with friends and family. The site contains mostly photographs, as well as short summaries of our adventures along the trip. Do not expect English literature here, just an honest account of our experiences. The photographs included in the site are shown as low/medium resolution thumbnails. Higher resolution images (JPG files around 500KB) can be viewed by clicking on any thumbnail. Full resolution images (a few Mb each) can be obtained if desired by requesting them by e-mailing webmaster at ericandlucie.com.
All contents, including logos, text, trip reports and pictures are copyrighted to the authors of this site; please ask for permission before using them for anything other than personal viewing.
We
will try to update this site as frequently as possible, but depending on the
availability of suitable internet connections in public libraries, universities,
and other random places across the country and Canada. Since going out to
climb will always take priority over editing a web site (duh!), there may
be times (like long periods of good weather!) when we fall behind (way behind!).
Please do not hesitate to send your comments (and bug reports) to: webmaster at ericandlucie.com.
Thanks for Visiting.
Lucie Parietti and Eric Ponslet.
