chesky raj

climbing in the czech republick is AWESOME! we started by taking a 2 hour busride up to cesky raj (czeck paradise) and asked the lovely lady at the info desk (who spoke english) about getting from jacin to the national park... she replied that we were already IN bohemian paradice, and where would we like to go specifically... so was got out hte map and dutifully got the bus schedule. the we headed over to the climbing store where we bought a book on climbing in the area. the helpful little man there told us the best places to go, helpfully explained that the bolts there (metal peices in the wall) were spaced 5-15 mters apart (yowza!), and that the sandstone was very soft, so no chalk or nuts (metal trad gear) in the rock, if you please.... yeah, yeah, yeah...

2 hours later we were hiking to the hostal. no such luck, they are not open for tourist season yet. so we hiked to the petrovsky skale (the pinnicles) and tried to find the routes the little man recommended. found some and realized that there are no bolts if you can place gear (to try and preserve the rock)... and that meant maybe one bolt if it was below a 5.10... so to climb something reasonable meant throwing trad gear in the wall... but no trad gear allowed... only rope knots! headed out to ponder this and find a place to sleep. hiked about 5km looking for a hostel and found a hotel room around 930pm.

in the morning we returned to the wall, climbed a friggin' 5.10 called "emporer's hat" to the top of a pinnicle (AWESOME view with lots of tourists taking our picture), and enjoyed being about as close as you can get to god without falling off a small roacky perch... curt estimates the top to be about 21 square feet...with commanding views...

clibed some other suff, placing rope instead of metal in the wall. "this knot is not a nut". the sandstone was so soft that we walked on sand on the ground, sand crumbled into our palms when we climbed, and i lost a foothold and scraped my shin on what felt like sandpaper! no wonder no metal!

we had a great time, and hiked 7km out to jicin this morning in the rain. the countryside is beautiful!

back in prague for the night where we are enjoying the buzz from our first absinthe... can accurately tell you that absinthe = drunk + happy!

tomorrow we head out for bratislava to see annie and sean! oh boy! we are leaving REALLY EARLY!!!! so now, i think, it is time for bed! hope you all are well!