Travel Tips

Useful Tips for Climbing and Travelling in the Caucasus

TheCragJournal6 Comments

The Caucasus region is an amazingly diverse area, sandwiched between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. It is truly transcontinental, with an enormous amount of culture packed into a relatively small area of land. The ‘heart’ of the Caucasus consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. To the north is Russia, with Turkey in the west and Iran in the south, just adding to the areas impressive cultural diversity. The region is famous for mountains, climbers can find almost anything in the Caucasus, from peaks over 5000m to stunning canyons and abundant cliffs. We spent 10 weeks in the Caucasus and we genuinely loved it, it is one of our all time highlights – for the people, the culture and the climbing.

Silhouette of a climber on a pinnacle protruding from the left hand side of the tall sided canyon which is made from dark volcanic rock with long crack feautres.
Exposed climbing in Noravank, Armenia

In this article we will discuss hints and tips for travelling in the region to help you get the most out of your trip. Below is a map of the all the different crags we visited during our trip to the Caucasus region, as well as our favourite rest day activities. If you would like to read more about specific areas, please visit our individual posts about Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

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Tips and Tricks for your first time Deep Water Soloing

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Deep Water Soloing (DWS) is one of the most enjoyable and unique styles of climbing. In many ways, DWS combines the skills from other disciplines of climbing and rolls them all together. In DWS, you’ll be climbing onsight or ground-up and just like in trad climbing, you’ll have to think about your fall, the trajectory and any potential consequences. If the rock is steep and the water is deep, you can really go all out, like you would when sport climbing. DWS can give you an amazing feeling of flow. When it comes to falling it is more like bouldering, you’re either going to top out, or jump/fall back to the very bottom. Falling off DWSing is obviously different to bouldering, but similar rules apply. You wouldn’t jump onto a bouldering mat with straight legs, or your knees might explode. Likewise, if you jump off into the water it is essential you make an effort to enter the water safely.

Climber reaching up along the line of holds on a pink and grey slightly overhanging granite cliff over the deep lake below. Further in the distance the shore is densely lined with pine trees
Beautiful granite climbing above Lake Saimaa, Finland
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Useful Tips for Climbing and Travelling in South East Asia

TheCragJournal9 Comments

South East Asia is a fantastic region to visit as a travelling climber. The rock is amazing quality, there are areas to suit everyones taste, there is a never-ending amount of culture to learn about & experience and the food is delicious! We decided to write this article to help give climbers an idea of what to expect and how to make the most of their trip. The planning stage of a trip to South East Asia can be quite time consuming. Hopefully the many hours we spent planning before our trip, as well as our experiences on the trip, will yield some useful information and tips for other climbers.

Climber deep water soloing, hanging from only their arms on a steep overhanging roof section of limestone high above the turquoise blue sea.
Fantastic deep water soloing at Koh Poda, Thailand

Below is a map of all the different crags we visited during our 5.5 months in South East Asia. If you would like to read more about specific areas, please visit our individual posts on Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and The Philippines.

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