Climbing Adventures

Deep water soloing is a popular form of rock climbing in which you climb above deep water and just fall in if you fall.  The term, Soloing, refers to climbing without the protection of ropes, pads or buddies.  Deep water soloing is especially appealing here in Texas because it gets so hot and the water feels good even if you don’t climb.   It also allows climbers to have a different experience regarding the consequence of falls.  You can still get hurt falling on water from high elevations but at lower levels, you can goof off without worrying as much.   This is what got my attention and has me excited about climbing over water.

We’re excited to be planning a trip to try deep water soloing on Lake Travis, Austin Texas, planning is half the fun.  This is my first blog post on the new website for our Motion Mod, chalk bags.   We are planning on meeting some friends on the second weekend of July in Austin for some fun on the lake.   Lake Travis is known to be one of the best places for lots of overhanging climbing routes.   Our chalk bags happen to be really really perfect for the water because they are lined with a water resistant material.  More commonly, you find a felt liner in chalk bags but we wanted ours to be as water resistant as possible.

There are supposedly over 800 possible routes if you are creative.  If you want routes that are named and rated, there are those too starting in the 5-10 area.  We’ve decided to use cheap, inflatable 2 person kayaks to launch from.  You can buy them on Amazon for around $75.00 as of this writing.  We may change our plans and rent a boat and guide, like the ones in the video above that I found on youtube.

In the meantime, I like to figure out how to find cheap adventures hidden in plain sight.  In Dallas, we used our inflatable 2 person kayak to ride the fast waters on White Rock Creek that happen right after a good rain.   You can find the flow rates on americanwhitewater.org.  Similarly, I found a couple of guides for planning our deep water soloing.  There is also a website that tells you the water levels so you know if it is safe when you are going.   We are planning to go to Pace Bend Park for the easy parking and because of this handy website that tells you if it’s sketchy or reasonably safe.   I don’t know what the water levels will be when we are going so we will be sure to check the water levels of the lake with a quick Google search as well to be safe.  Safe levels and current levels are posted on bloodyflapper.com.  Bear in mind, I am still learning this, so don’t take my word for anything as far as safety.  I read that this site is reputable from another site so I will have to try and update this blog after.

We are planning to go Saturday, July 13th if anyone wants to join just call or message me from the contact us page.   Some places we hope to go are Little Thailand Cove as well as Pace Bend.  We are planning to take all our climbing gear just in case we want to play around on anything interesting.    There is a guide book, Austin Climbing, you can buy to see the different routes that have already been set and rated.   If nothing else, we can just play around on the water with a cool drink and enjoy the beautiful hill country scenery!  We’ll update the blog with some gorgeous photos and let you know how it goes.

Below is another video I found with some areas I want to hit.  Little Thailand is especially exciting because my wife is from Thailand.  We will probably hit the climbing areas in Thailand that look like this area but on a much grander scale.  I’ll leave you with this gorgeous video from VTP.

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