I left for Thailand the day after Christmas in 2018. Flew across the world to my home for the next 5 months. Going to Thailand was pretty impulsive. I was in a pretty dark place in my life, and I needed something new. I decided to go on a semester abroad, but had no clue to exactly where I wanted to go. I knew I wanted something completely different than the states, or any of the European countries I’ve already visited. It came between 3 or 4 south east asian countries, and Thailand seemed like the easiest place to get to and around.
Prior to my trip I was taking a ton of outdoor education classes. I’ve always had a great admiration for the outdoors. The summer before I was a camp counselor at camp horizons. I was leading and teaching high ropes and rock climbing. It was such a great feeling watching these little groms fly up and into the sky, and seeing the kids blackout all of their outside distractions made me start to really have an admiration for the sport.
My buddy Max took me out to some rocks near the camp on the weekends we probably only climbed a few weekends out of the summer, but that experience was something I was itching to have back in my life.
While in Thailand, I started to get really bored and lonely again, like I was in the states. I started to see that I was acting the same way I was back home, and need to find something to keep me out of this track. I remembered how meditative climbing was, and I started travelling into Bangkok 3 or 4 times a week to climb at a gym.
The gym was maybe an hour away from my apartment in Nakhon Pathom, It was honestly pretty hard to tell because the traffic in Thailand is literally impossible. I would leave pretty early in the morning, way before I could get any feeling of boredom, and start to just drink my boredom away. The gym was in the backlot of an abandoned night market, but was an insane competition gym.
My progression in the sport quickly grew, and I knew Thailand was known for some of the best climbing in the world. Many of the sports leaders have set routes here, and I needed to get on them. I started taking weekend trips to Ao Nang, Railay Beach, and Ton Sai to climb the coasts amazing sandstone cliffs. It was such a crazy experience. It became my meditation.
I never really cared for my body. I grew up with pretty hippy parents so at home I was forced to eat well, but when I got to college, and started to settle into my depression I just didn’t give a fuck. I was chain smoking cigs, and chugging beers as if they were going out of style. As I started to climb however, I started to realize the only thing from keeping me back from progressing was my body. I never really made the decision to quit drinking, but since I’ve been climbing I just don’t like to do it. It makes me feel like I’m not getting fucked up with my friends, instead I’m fucking up my climbing.
Rock climbing is definitely considered therapy in my book. It just makes it impossible to think about your outside worries. You blank everything around you, but the small chunk of rock holding you hundreds of feet in the air. It also makes you feel good about yourself. You accomplished this mountain all on yourself. You climbed that shit and made it yours, it was a feeling I needed to happen to me.
Since getting into climbing, my world has spun completely around. I’ve gotten my drinking to an appropriate level which made it possible for me to be sober enough to find my awesome girlfriend. I finally feel like I have a purpose in this world, and it's to climb, share my climbing, and love nature. That's kind of what I hoped to get out of this blog. As cheesy as it sounds I want to share the power of climbing, and help others in their troubles get what I get out of it. So guys, thanks for sticking with me through these past couple of weeks. I really want to continue this blog, and will only be able to do so because of you guys. Continue to follow me and twitter, and facebook.
PEACE. LOVE. GO FUCKING CLIMB!