Ryan Williams

    http://wanderinglondon.wordpress.com

    Ryan grew up in the south and learned how to climb in the mountains of North Carolina and West Virginia. Upon graduating from NC State University in 2007, he travelled all over the world working as a guide, bartender, furniture mover, farm hand and anything else that would fund his next trip. Ryan is currently living in London with his wife, trying to get his life together and use the UK as a home base from which to explore the mountains of Europe.

  • Oct 31, 2011, by » 2 Comments »

    California Part II – Lover’s Leap

    “I was feeling strong in July when I got to hit City of Rocks for a few weeks but that was six weeks ago and I haven’t climbed a foot since then. Maybe I should start on something easier?” Many thoughts went through my brain as I was racking up for my first ever pitch in California. Megan had just picked me up at the airport and after a day of driving and a night of stealth camping  just south of Lake Tahoe, we were standing under “The Line,” a classic 400 foot crack that splits the East Wall and tops out via several smallish roofs. I had to remind myself that even though I had been sitting on a beach all summer, eating heavy Italian food Read More

  • Oct 27, 2011, by » No comments yet

    California Part I – Staying Flexible

    I am a planner. My family and friends think that I am this “free spirit” but in reality I like my life to be as organized as possible. I usually know pretty far in advance when I will have several weeks or months to go on a climbing trip, and I get plans going as early as possible. What I’ve learned is that plans change, and that that’s OK. I spent the first half of 2011 in London; my wife and I surviving on her modest income because I was not yet allowed to work full time in the UK. We found a place to live and made friends, we got married and enjoyed some excellent summer weather, Chrissy ran the London Marathon. I was Read More

  • Oct 13, 2011, by » 6 Comments »

    Wild Country Helium Friends Review

    I think the first SLCD I ever held was a Friend. I can’t be sure about that, but what I do remember vividly is being taught how to place cams and equalize anchors with the original Wild Country Forged Friends. At the time I didn’t even know what a Camalot was, and Mastercams hadn’t been invented yet. Aliens were still being produced, but I had never heard of those either. Fast forward to the summer of 2010. I had just made the decision to leave Thailand for good, opting for a move to England with my wife. Afraid that years might go by before I had the chance to road trip in the US again, I planned to spend a Read More

  • Oct 10, 2011, by » 6 Comments »

    The Crack of Doom, Part II

    Click here for Part I:  http://cruxn.com/2011/09/18/the-crack-of-doom-part-i/ I had chosen our last day at City of Rocks to attempt what would be my hardest traditional send. I woke up feeling psyched but trying to stay calm and not play the thing up in my mind. I wanted to take the approach that this route was well within my limits and all that I had to do was execute. “Crack of Doom” is a sustained 5.10+ finger and hand crack with a small changing corners roof at about half height. It is 80 feet tall and has perfect jamming from tips to fists.  The crack, however, is guarded by a 20 foot sequence of technical and somewhat powerful .11c face climbing that Read More

  • Sep 28, 2011, by » 6 Comments »

    Link cam review, by a skeptic

    Omega Pacific Link Cams. The cam that goes anywhere. The “oh shit piece.” I haven’t really had the chance to climb with Link Cams over the years. After all, they do cost and weigh twice as much as a Black Diamond Camalot, and even though each cam has a huge range, it’s still just one cam that you are carrying. I mean, it’s not like it splits into two cams. You can’t protect 30 feet of climbing with just one of them. This is a hard sell to a climber on a budget. In addition to the perceived downfalls that I have listed above, Link Cams are known to break. I’m not talking about worn out trigger wires… I mean they explode. Read More

  • Sep 18, 2011, by » 2 Comments »

    The Crack of Doom, Part I

    It’s not often that you open up a blog and read about something that went terribly wrong. We bloggers like to think that we are writers but really we just like talking about climbing and our own accomplishments. Nothing wrong with that… but I figure if I’m going to spray about all of my awesome sending this fall then I’d better be honest and write about one of my most embarrassing, awkward and downright scary climbing days ever. You know, for the sake of karma… In a last minute change of plans, I was only going to be in the US for twelve days during the month of July. I had been scouring the climbing forums for beta and partners Read More

  • Jun 24, 2011, by » 1 Comment »

    Gear that is no longer

    I have this red Metolius Powercam that I can’t climb without. It’s the older generation with the annoyingly small thumb loop and the nylon sling with black stripes. It was made before Metolius started putting those stupid colored dots on the cam lobes and it’s slightly wider than the newer models.  My green C4 is lighter and my orange Alien is much narrower, but I still choose the good old red Powercam every time. I can’t even remember all of the times I’ve fallen on it and I never worry.  I think it’s the only piece I have that I actually enjoy falling on. Spend enough time climbing in a pair of shoes, or just have a really good weekend Read More

  • Jun 11, 2011, by » 3 Comments »

    I think we should be as unprepared as possible…

    These were the words that came out of Sophie’s mouth just before we jumped into her VW and drove down to the car park below Frontales. It was 10:30 on my last night in El Chorro. Eight days earlier I had flown down to the south of Spain from London for a sport climbing holiday. I was supposed to be in the English countryside with my fiance but she ended up having to work, leaving me with nothing to do for over a week. So I decided to go down to El Chorro because I heard that it would be easy to find partners and that I would not need a car. Good decision! After the usual bout with planes, trains Read More

  • Apr 22, 2011, by » 3 Comments »

    The cutting edge

    I started writing this morning with the intention of praising all the major sport climbing achievements of the past 6 weeks. Then I felt the need to comment on of all of the groundbreaking ascents of the last year. But rather than succumb to the pressure and just spend all day reading about climbing history, I am stating here and now: there are just too many amazing feats to name in one blog post. From the huge link-ups and new speed records in the Valley to the hard free routes that went up in the Patagonia; from maybe the world’s hardest technical ice climb being established in British Columbia to the amazing solo speed ascents of the Matterhorn and the Read More

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