Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Three
Yangshuo Climbing Festival Day 3: Steady Drizzle.
The morning's scheduled outdoor climbing workshops were moved to the Yangshuo Kungfu Training Centre. I biked over around 9:30 a.m. to watch Alex Honnold give a lesson on "knee-bar-ing" -- using one's knees, rather than feet or hands, to stabilize -- for a dozen reverent twentysomethings.
One was Pyry Tuominen Tampere, a twenty-six-year old Finnish climber with a scruffy blond beard. Tampere, who is traveling around the world with his girlfriend, explained why he was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning: "It's not every day you get a lesson from one of the best climbers in the world!"
A few minutes later, Tampere and co. ceded the bouldering wall to a bunch of Chinese dudes with electric drills. The latter were designing new "problems" for the second and final round of the Yangshuo bouldering comp. According to "Xitang" (aka Alex), a local climbing guide who oversaw the wall's construction, wall materials were sourced from as far as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
The remainder of our Sunday morning felt sleepy in a good way. A Seattle-like mist was shrouding downtown shops. I spotted several climber-types huddled over lattes and late breakfasts at Cafe China, a foggy-windowed local haunt. Tom, my new Australian buddy, went for a massage. I slurped noodles at a market.
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November 16, 2009
Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Two
Fire and rain bracketed my second day at the 2009 Yangshuo Climbing Festival. The former began in the common room of my rustic hotel, a 4-kilometer bike ride from downtown. Someone had stored a pile of scrap two-by-fours too close to the wood stove. When I looked up from my coffee, a mini blaze was threatening to creep up the walls. Fortunately a cook doused the flames with water.
After breakfast, I went biking with Tom, a friendly climber from Australia. Tom and I were looking for a famous local crag called "White Mountain." But we couldn't figure out how to hold our trusty Yangshuo map.
Yangshuo, as it turns out, is a great place to get lost. A two-hour cycle-jaunt whizzed us past livestock, farmland, smiling kids, orchards (those "peaches," on reflection, taste more like apricots) and majestic karst pillars. The landscape here looks like a land version of Vietnam's karst-tastic Ha Long Bay.
Thanks to Tom's Mandarin phrasebook and a friendly local villager, we found White Mountain by mid afternoon. This is where festival organizers have funded construction of a permanent toilet for Yangshuo climbers. Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, says this and other projects
White Mountain was crawling with climbers from Shenzhen, a large Chinese city near Guangzhou and Hong Kong. A few of them graciously allowed us to climb their top rope. The view from route's end showed karst, farmland and trees stretching out toward the horizon. And storm clouds.
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November 14, 2009
Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day One
Ni Hao, Outside Readers,
Mike Ives here -- a freelance writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. For the next few days, I'll be filing dispatches from the second-annual Yangshuo Climbing Festival in Yangshuo, China. If my aching fingers will cooperate.
A little background info on Yangshuo: This touristy town in Guangxi Province (which borders Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin) is an overnight bus ride from mega-cities Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The late American climber Todd Skinner set some of the first Yangshuo routes in the early 1990s. Last year's inaugural fest drew more than 350 climbers from 15 countries.
And a word about me: I've been living in Asia since May. Before that, I was a staff reporter at Seven Days, the alt weekly in Burlington, Vermont. I'm not a particularly committed climber -- my favorite part about top-roping at the "Gunks," near New Paltz, New York, is the post-session souvlaki. But I understand words like "beta," "crimp" and "jug," and I know good climbers when I see 'em.
Many are in Yangshuo this weekend. It's easy to see why: Yangshuo's urban core of dumpling shops, touristy boutiques and internet cafes is flanked by postcard-perfect karst cliffs. Fifteen-minute bike rides past farms, mud-brick houses and peach orchards land you at the base of more than 300 primo sport routes. Indeed, says Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, Yangshuo has lately become "ground zero" for climbing in China.
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November 09, 2009
The Results Are In: Decoding Dog Breeds with DNA
Last week on Outside's dog blog, OutsideK9.com, readers guessed the breeds that make up Assistant Editor Carr's dogs, Rio and Odin. Results from the Canine Heritage Breed test were in transit from the lab.
Today, the results are revealed. Head over to the dog blog to find out if you were correct!
And be prepared to be completely shocked by the findings.
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November 02, 2009
Decoding Dog Breeds
Ever wonder what breeds make up your mutt? Certain breeds are happier to live an outdoor lifestyle than others are. Rhodesian ridgebacks, for instance, can withstand extreme heat and cold and they love miles-long runs, so they make good companions for distance runners. Chesapeake bay retrievers, on the other hand, are some of the strongest swimmers, making them ideal for river trips.
Assistant Editor Alicia Carr tries to crack the DNA of her two shelter dogs with the Canine Heritage Test, which involves only a simple cheek swab. Head to Outside's dog blog, Outsidek9.com, to read the first part of the story. And, to take a guess at what breeds make up Editor Carr's dogs.
There's already a pool going on in the comments section.
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October 19, 2009
Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston
Nearly 9,000 rowers descended on Boston this past weekend for the largest crew
race in the world, the annual Head of the Charles Regatta. The three-mile
upstream race is considered to be one of the highlights of the fall rowing
season, with almost 300,000 spectators lining the banks of the Charles River
during good weather years, according to the race organizers. Crew is a rowing
sport featuring long, slender boats that can hold one, two, four, or eight
people rowing in unison. Some fours and all eights also include a coxswain
(pronounced COX-un) who calls out commands and directs the boat.
Like many expensive sports, crew has a reputation as a white collar, elitist sport. But under the matching spandex onesies, crew is a lot like NASCAR: lots of fast moving vehicles on a predetermined course, and, though no one likes to admit it, everyone’s kind of hoping for a collision. Three years on, the rowers from the University of Maryland in Baltimore County laugh about a nasty collision at the Head of the Charles that ended with an entire eight-man team abandoning their boat as it sank and swimming for shore in the dirty brown water. The best place for watching crashes? The John W. Weeks Footbridge, smack in the middle of the Harvard campus. A right-angle turn in the river and a bridge with three narrow arches makes it the deadliest spot on the course.
Above: The Harvard Men's Team passes the Riverside Boat Club during a practice. See photos of the race and practices the week before after the break.
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October 17, 2009
Hawaii Adventure: Best Things To Do on Your Last Day
It was my last day in Hawaii, and I fully intended to fill it up. My flight wouldn't leave until 11 p.m. from Honolulu, so I made sure to schedule in as much as I could. If, like me, you're going to be sticking around for a full day before departing, here's what I recommend:
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October 15, 2009
Hawaii Adventure: Keala Kennelly's Top Five Tips for Beginning Surfers
Keala Kennelly, who's starred in Blue Crush and John from Cincinnati, has been surfing since she was in her mother's womb. Her mom was still riding waves at six months pregnant, so KK's been at it longer than she can remember. Add to that the fact that Laird Hamilton is her godfather, and it's no surprise that she turned out to be someone who can really rip. Kennelly's retired from the pro tour, but she still travels around the world to promote women's surfing. The 2009 U.S. Open offered a historic $100,000 prize to the winner for the men, but the top woman got $10,000--and that's only because KK demanded more for the girls.
I was lucky enough to get a chance to learn from her one on one. It was my first lesson, and she shared with me her top tips for beginning surfers:
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October 14, 2009
Hawaii Adventure: Swimming with Dolphins
I got in some dolphin time today on Wild Side Specialty Tour's morning wildlife cruise (8 to 11 a.m., $105 per person, sailhawaii.com). If you're looking for a way to get in a short tour of the Waianae coast, snorkeling, and a chance to swim with dolphins, this is your best bet. You're guaranteed to see a lot of fish and probably a few sea turtles, too. And if you're good--i.e., quiet enough in the water--you could get to see dolphins swimming by. Just make sure not to splash around when they approach. That scares them off. Fast, stealth swimming will do the trick. The trip back to the harbor, showcasing the mountain range along the coast, is also a mesmerizing treat.
If you're looking to spend a lot more time in the area, try EO's Waianae Tour (call 808-699-5910 for rates, eowaianaetours.com). You'll get to kayak, snorkel, and paddle board while learning about the history of the place, too.
Later in the day, I drove to the North Shore. The area has a very provincial feel, and you'll be able to see the swells from the highway, which looks more like a country road. The only hotel out here is the Turtle Bay Resort (rooms from $255 per night, turtlebayresort.com), but you won't lament that it's the only option once you get a gander at the view from your beachfront room. If you don't want to stay at the hotel, you can rent a cottage or villa on the property.
--Aileen Torres
Photo: Courtesy of Wild Side
The most popular annual Ironman event will take place at Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii Saturday, October 10. Outside Online's Aileen Torres will be covering the big day, and she's also writing an accompanying blog, "Hawaii Adventure," for tips on what to do and where to stay if you're planning to visit.
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October 13, 2009
Hawaii Adventure: Ocean Kayaking
I took a little trip to the Hakipuu Valley, about 45 minutes away from Waikiki, where I'm staying. When the Bike Hawaii bus picked me up for the Rainforest to Reef tour (9 a.m. to 4 p.m., $105.05; bikehawaii.com), I was happy to ride away. As usual, there was traffic around town, but once we got on the highway, it was a straight shot to the valley. Once you go through the tunnel along the highway, you'll see a whole different world on the other side. The rain hit us once we crossed over, and the lush greenery told us we were definitely in the countryside.
The tour takes you on a short hike in Kualoa Ranch, which includes part of the Koolau Mountain Ridge--but the best part is getting to kayak in the ocean, along Kaneohe Bay, towards Mokolii, an island where you'll make a pit-stop to put on snorkeling gear and get back in the water. The kayak ride here is a beautiful thing--nothing beats paddling along gentle ocean waves. The traffic is nil, and you've got a great view everywhere you look. The snorkeling isn't as good as in the Big Island, but you'll still get to take in a whole lot. Especially when you have lunch on Mokolii. You can gaze at the cliffs of Koolau and ponder the fact that you're sitting in a flooded old caldera of a volcano. And you'll get happy knowing you've got a lovely kayak ride back to shore.
The guy who owns Bike Hawaii, John Alford, is a serious mountain biker, so most of his other tours offer a combination of biking with hiking, sailing, and/or snorkeling. You can check out the combos on bikehawaii.com.
And if you're looking for a way to wind down in the evening back at Waikiki, try a massage at the Serenity Spa, located at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach. Sign up for the 50-minute Lomilomi Massage ($105, outrigger.com). It's supposed to be a chakra-opener, so watch out which chakra you choose.
--Aileen Torres
The most popular annual Ironman event will take place at Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii Saturday, October 10. Outside Online's Aileen Torres will be covering the big day, and she's also writing an accompanying blog, "Hawaii Adventure," for tips on what to do and where to stay if you're planning to visit.
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