Schlagwort-Archive: hiking

Thailand

Digital Nomad Stop #15 – Ao Nang, Thailand (January 2023)

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As much as I love Koh Tao, I’m not the biggest fan of the climbing there. Sharp granite and crimpy face climbing / slabs are just not so much my thing. I was excited to get on some pumpy limestone again and get into the 3d-tufa-climbing-action of the Krabi region. While I had spent 7 weeks in Railay a year ago, I decided to stay on the mainland this time and settled myself in Ao Nang.

The climbing there has two main advantages compared to Railay/Tonsai: less people and less polish. What’s more, Ao Nang offers a lot better value and variety in terms of accommodation and restaurants – so I was pretty happy with my choice. Again, I was able to meet up with some friends and ran into some climbers I already knew from different places. The travelling rock climbers community is small, so it is nice to start seeing familiar faces everywhere I go! In Ao Nang, I focused on mileage and on getting into the swing of tufa climbing. Again, I was supposed to stay only for a few days but ended up staying almost 3 weeks. I didn’t get on any really hard stuff, but have plenty of reasons to come back and do exactly that!

I also climbed some multi-pitches with Mattias and Tomas – 2 very short ones and a longer one up Ao Nang tower. Previously, there was only a 6c leading all the way up there, but they had just opened a 6b („Joob Joob“) which I couldn’t miss out on. The climbing was fun, but the whole logistics of getting there in a kayak (which then ripped off the rope we used to tie it to the rocks) were a bit exhausting and don’t make me wanna go back there.

Next to climbing, I also explored the area quite a bit with my scooter – it is such a beautiful region with lots of picturesque limestone mountains. One day, I went on a hike up Dragon Crest with some people, which was lots of fun and offered the most amazing views! Definitely one of the best hikes I have done in Thailand. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Ao Nang and will definitely be back.

Here are all my photos of my time in Ao Nang.

Italy

Digital Nomad Stop #11 – and a holiday: Venice & Arco, Italy

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After spending a couple of days at my parents‘ place in Austria and attending a friend’s wedding, I took a flight to Venice, a city that I’d been wanting to visit for a long time. It was early September, so still peak tourist season and the little alleys of Venice for buzzing with people. But…I didn’t mind. Venice was so beautiful that it didn’t matter.

For my first day, weather was forecasted rainy so I booked tickets for St Marcus Cathedral and the Dodge Palace. I walked from my cute canal guesthouse to St Marcus Square and immediately fell in love with the city. Just so crazy how they built it all on stilts!

St Marcus Square is of course stunning and I was happy that I had paid a little extra for the online ticket to see the cathedral as the line to buy tickets on the spot was long. The cathedral itself was pretty nice, but what I enjoyed most was the view from the terrace. Contrary to what the weather forecast had said, the sun was shining all day long which was great in that case.

I had left the right amount of time between my booking for the cathedral and the Dodge’s Palace afterwards. I didn’t anticipate being rather tired though as I’d had a very early wake-up in Vienna. So while the Palace was really, really beautiful, I was a bit too tired to read all the information. So I mostly just walked through the rooms in awe, telling myself I’d read up on the history later…

The ticket for the Dodge Palace (unfortunately) included a visit of Museo Correr. Unfortunately, because I wasn’t originally interested in visiting this museum and I was super tired already. However, my fomo didn’t let me skip it, so I hurried from the palace to the museum. I walked through it rather quickly, just having a glance at things but honestly being kind of brain dead by then.

Next day, after getting some work done, I set out to explore some more of Venice and hopped onto one of the public boats running on the canals. I bought a 72h ticket which probably wouldn’t have been worth it, but as I realized that, I made sure to get my money’s worth and really took lots of ferries over the next few days! It is anyway such a great way of seeing Venice, without having to pay for an expensive gondola ride.

After a few days in Venice, I took a train to Rovereto and then a bus onward to Arco. It was a long journey, but once I arrived in Arco, I immediately felt happy and stunned by the beauty of the region. Definitely the right decision!

I spent about 1.5 weeks in Arco – on holiday, so actually being able to switch off completely which was really good for me for once again. As a digital nomad, I might live in beautiful places and organise my work in a way to have more free time to enjoy the surroundings. However, often I feel that I’m always „on duty“ as I’ll still get notifications on my phone, see emails coming in etc. So it was nice to have this time off in such a beautiful place full of outdoor activities!

The main reason I came to Arco was to go rock climbing. I went out for 5 days, mainly to crags for single pitch sport and also climbed one multi-pitch in the end. Overall, I was a bit disappointed and shocked by how my climbing shape had gone down over the past couple of months. I was only able to climb super easy grades and had to bail on some routes that used to be well within my limits. I’ll definitely not make the mistake again to not go climbing frequently enough and let all my efforts from the past go to waste… Don’t get me wrong, I still had a great time in Arco. My favourite day was actually my last one when I first climbed a (very easy) multi-pitch with Hérnan from Argentina and we then got invited to join Piotrek for some cragging at Belvedere in the late afternoon. A perfect way to end my time in Arco!

The rest of the days were filled with many other outdoor activities: I did my first solo via ferrata (delle Amicizia) which involved a long hike before and after and consisted of several long ladders with big exposures. Something that I’m not usually that good at – but I managed to keep it together and was happy to have done it!

In my time in Arco, I did two other (mini) via ferratas, walked from Arco to Lake Garda, explored Riva del Garda and Arco – both cute towns and I also joined a windsurfing trial lesson and went canyoning in Rio Nero (my first time!). I enjoyed windsurfing much more than expected and can definitely imagine doing that again. As for canyoning, I’ll have to see. It was loads of fun, but I’m really not a fan of jumping into water from anywhere higher than 1m. On this tour, you weren’t required to jump, you’d just get lowered on most spots in any case and there were only 2 places where those who wanted to, could jump. Not sure if that’s a usual or not, hence I’ll have to see whether I’ll do it again once to opportunity comes up!

Overall, I totally fell in love with Arco and its surroundings. There is just sooo much to do. Climbing, hiking, via ferratas. All sorts of water sports. Mountain biking. Canyoning. And the towns themselves are cute and nice to walk around in as well! I’d love to come back here and explore the Southern part of the lake region as well. Without a car, it was sometimes a bit tricky to get around, so I sticked to the stuff close to Arco – which anyway was more than enough for the time I had. Arco (and surroundings) is one of the first places where I could imagine getting settled eventually. I left part of my heart in Arco and will definitely be back, one or the other way…

USA

Digital Nomad Stop #8: USA – Yosemite National Park

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During my time in the US, Kesh and I visited Yosemite National Park 3 times, and every time was special in its own way.

Our first trip to Yosemite was straight away on my first weekend in the US. Yay! It was mid-April and still a bit chilly at times, but perfect weather for climbing and the sun was shining all day long! We spent 2 days climbing 2 different multi-pitches, starting with The Grack, a beautiful 5.6 following very obvious cracks up to the top. Next day, we went up Munginella, another 5.6 which in my opinion was much harder than The Grack though. I thought about leading a pitch, but still felt a bit unsure about the different climbing style that Yosemite requires and placing trad gear at the same time, so just followed. The views were once again amazing! Kesh also showed me around some famous viewpoints in the park and of course we had to check out El Cap and spy on some climbers on The Nose. So cool!

During our second trip to Yosemite, we had a special mission: Half Dome. On our first day though, we just took it easy as we had arrived late in the night and went on Sunnyside Bench, a 5.4 which was easy enough for me to lead. I was a bit scared on the first pitch, but managed my way up. The rest was easy. Very happy to have led my first trad route in Yosemite with hopefully many more to follow!

Day 2 was Half Dome day. We woke up super early and started hiking at 5.45am, as it is a very long approach to the start of the route Snake Dike 5.7 R. The day started with a long approach, but a beautiful one leading past gushing waterfalls!

During the climb, we unfortunately got stuck behind a group of 3 that probably cost us around 2h. So despite starting early, finding the start of the route quickly and not getting lost, we arrived late at the top. The climbing itself was easy apart from two slabby parts that were the cruxes of the route. I was very happy not having to lead any of the pitches, as it was by far the most runout climbing I have ever seen. There are almost no bolts, and no options to place trad gear. The route ends about 1/3 of the way up to the top from where on you have to walk up on never-ending slabs. A true calf- and achilleas-tendon-burner! We were very happy when we finally arrived on the summit – a flat area full of granite blocks with stunning views into the valleys below.

What followed, was a decent that took forever, and ever. It was a bit shorter than the approach, but somehow felt much longer as we were tired and the day was coming to an end rather quickly. We spent the last hours hiking robot-like (out of tiredness) in the dark, arriving back at the car at 11.15pm. A looong day, but one that I will remember forever!

Our last and final visit to Yosemite was mid-June when the road into the High Sierras was open. The idea was to climb one of the famous routes, like Tenaya or Cathedral Peak – but unfortunately Kesh got ill so I spent the first day going on a hike by myself. The hike I chose was Mount Hoffmann – a great choice with amazing views all the way up (and down). From up here, Half Dome suddenly looked like a dwarf.

Next day, we drove onward to Lee Vining and Mammoth with lots of photo stops. A beautiful region with quiet lakes and bizarre rock formations. We went on short walks here and there and also took a dip in one of the hot springs of the region. A nice and relaxing day! On our last day, we visited Owens River Gorge, a famous single-pitch sport climbing crag where I climbed 6 or 7 random easy routes as we didn’t have a topo on us. I enjoyed the climbing, even though it was a bit less my style than for example Red Rocks. Or maybe I just had a weaker day. A really cool location though and a good way to end our time in Yosemite! Here you can find some more photos.