A trad climbing heaven, Refugio Frey is a self-contained Disneyland where the only ticket for admission is a 4+ hour hike and stoke to climb. Whether spending a week or a month there, the Refugio Frey is a rare gem in the world of backcountry alpine climbing: even while easily accessible from town, the only thing stopping you from climbing there for months on end is the tedium of the hike to town so you …
Let’s talk about the next climbing destination: Cayman Brac. New England winters can be brutal. Some years we have a blizzard on Halloween and then another on April fools day. Cruel joke, Mother Nature. So how do we deal with 6+ straight months of depressing, gray, cold weather? We escape it! That’s right, we run away. This year, in the middle of March, when we had had enough of the New England winter my husband …
For hundreds of years, sheep herders roamed among the cliffs and caves dotting El Chorro, resting in the natural shelter-forming limestone caves. In the 1920s, the Spanish King ordered a hydroelectric dam built, cutting through “la garganta” (throat) of the valley. In order to ensure the workers stayed on task, he also had a “caminito” (little walkway) built along the sheer side of the cliffs, hundreds of feet above the pummeling river, which would later …
Climbing Destination Kalymnos Greece: I usually come home from a vacation thinking, “That was fun, beautiful, and relaxing, but there are so many other places I want to see and explore.” This wasn’t the case with Kalymnos. Instead, I returned thinking, “How can I restructure my life, work remotely, and move there permanently?” Of course, I settled back into my normal life and haven’t figured out how to answer that question (yet!), but I can …
