Welcome Aboard!not ours... but one just like it!

June 26, 2008: We left Tahquitz for the Needles (another stellar crag in Southern California) a week ago, spent a few days there, and are now making our way north along the Eastern Sierras, concentrating on classic cragging this time around (we climbed some of the classic alpine routes on previous trips). We just climbed Bony Fingers (3p, 5.10c) at Whitney Portal yesterday and had a blast. Happy browsing!

Four new pages: this update has three new North Cascades pages: Sisyphus, a good multi-pitch sport route on the Goat Wall, near Mazama, Burgundy Spire, near WA pass, which we climbed last August by linking the West Ridge of Paisano Pinnacle with the regular North face, and Center Stage, a relatively new slab route on the Roan Wall near Darrington. Also check out our New Zealand main page, with a clickable map and links to several climbs. And as always, you can browse our News and Climbs pages, to find out what we've been up to more recently.

Start your trip here; aka "Clay's button"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 will also have links to various climbs.

Recently posted pages: Los Alamos to Salt Lake City, Cragging at Little Cottonwood, Salt Lake City to Tieton River, Cragging at Tieton River, Cascades main page, The Kone and Tidbits, East Wilmans Spire, Silver Star Mountain, Ruth Mountain, Mt Shuksan, North Twin Sister, East Face of Lexington Tower, Minuteman Tower, Prime Rib, Clean Break, Rebell Yell, East Ridge of Inspiration, Southwest Buttress of South Early Winter Spire, Restless Natives, Winthrop, WA to Parhump, NV, Pahrump, NV to Auckland, NZ, East Ridge of Taranaki, Mt Rolleston, Mt Barff, SW Ridge of Mt Aspiring.

Yes, II! Our first trip ended over two years ago. We have been on the road again for a bit more than a year now!

We spent last winter in the Southern Hemisphere, climbing in NZ and Oz. We've been back in the US since mid-april. After spending a month at Red Rocks, we drove to Tahquitz, the first of a series of Californian crags we plan to hit in the next few weeks before heading North for the summer.

Parked at Bow Lake, Icefield Parkway, AB, Canada

Self portrait at top of "Hydrophobia", WI5, Waiparous Valley, AB, CanadaOur 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. We are also scheduled to spend 6 months in New Zealand and Australia, between September 2007 and April 2008. Other destinations this time around will hopefully include Alaska, 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, and 2) the exhorbitant prices charged by publicly owned campgrounds in the US. Fees in Forest Service 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 you 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!

Sunrise on Mt Rainier, WA Eric on "Malignant Mushroom", WI5, Ghost Valley, Canada Lucie on the North Ridge of Mt Baker, WA Eric on Castleton Tower, UT

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, 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 on May 20, 2007.

This site is essentially an account of our trips. 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.

Lucie working hard on the siteWe will try to update this site as frequently as possible, but depending on the availability of suitable internet connections in public libraries and university campuses 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.