Max, why must you make me choose? So cruel…

If I’m flying anywhere, it’s probably southern Spain. That has more to do with my old stomping grounds in Granada than with the climbing, but apparently near Malaga there is some great sport as well as some multi-pitch.

Otherwise, Switzerland… Turkey… Yosemite… Ecuador… I could go on and on. I too could spend a while at HP40. And I wouldn’t mind living at the Red for a summer. Font would be awesome as I have a cousin in Paris.

If my boss knew how little I’m working because I’m daydreaming about this stuff, we’d both be fired :)

No other comments? You guys aren’t dreamers like me?

I would definitely pick Railay Beach (Thailand) as my dream spot. Not only is the climbing superb, the area offers world class snorkeling, scuba diving, and kayaking as well. what’s more? you can pretty much live off of $5 per day, and that includes lodging, food, beer, and the occasional local herbal remedies to heal your sore muscles and ego

Before the plane I was on landed in Chicago and this life started I lived in Vence, France in a cottage on a high hillside where I did a lot of writing. Up above in the mountains that overlooked the sea there were some rugged lands to hike and climb. It was goat and berger country! I was a hiker and for a while a quiet intruder. When I’d had enough of the novelty of being an American writer abroad (winter was proving to be little more than a dull consuming raincloud and the propane heater I needed for warmth made the air painfully arid) I got a bus ticket to Nice and found a 2-car/12-passenger train heading north. The train out rolled straight into and wound though those mountains I’d hiked which soon became the Alpes Maritime. The sculpted boulders we chugged slowly past seemed to be deliberately hidden remnants of the pressures that lifted the Alpes out of the sea and striking monuments to the lesser whims of geology. To ride that train again with the freedom to jump off at the nearest village, rent a room for a few nights and to roam and explore that forested landscape to find a few of these boulders would be the dream for me.

My place doesn’t really exist as I know it. I don’t want a destination. No one goes there for climbing, it’s probably hard to get there, but when you’re there you can sustain yourself. Something fresh, no beta, no guide book, no chalk marks. It is all up to me.

If that’s not possible maybe Nova Scotia or Ireland/England. Try some old school spots.

Zac, this spot is for you!