Some Things I Learned From 18 Months of Dirtbagging August 2022- March 2024

4 months into the trip outside Phoenix, AZ

It wasn't a mid-life crisis.  My identity was intact.  My emotions and self-confidence were both stable when I decided to sell my house and move into my truck. But life on the road did change me.  Here are some of the things I learned.  I'll start with the positive things I discovered on the road, then finish with the reasons I left the road and settled down again.  Starting at the beginning.

The last day in my classroom, May 2022

Life on the road was good for my health.  As soon as I stopped teaching full time, I started recovering from it in a certain sense.   A huge responsibility was lifted from my shoulders, and with no concern about the upcoming school year I felt younger and had a different vibe.  More sure of myself, healthier and relaxed.  I think the photos above show the difference.  I also had some annoying digestion issues before I quit teaching.  They started to fade as soon as the stress was gone.

Once I got used to life on the road I actually felt safer than I had at home. I don't know that I was actually safer, but that is how I felt. I think the feeling was based on a couple factors. Right out of the gates I started exploring.  Backpacking in the San Juans, backpacking in the Winds, and bouldering alone in the backcountry.

  That is objectively dangerous, and I had one close call where I missed the pads, but I never got hurt while on the road.  Knowing how bad it would be if I did get hurt, and the lack of distractions when I was by myself, put me into a low key free solo mindset.  It felt like I was aware of the dangers and could see how to avoid them.  Feeling calm, centered and focused whenever I was alone and far from help, paradoxically lead to a feeling of security.  

 

 I wasn't a true local anywhere while on the road, but when I didn't have a home, everywhere I traveled felt like home.  I also had less worries.  When living in a house there was always something that might go wrong.  Would the roof leak, would the furnace break, why isn't that part of the sprinkler system spraying right, why is that branch dying, will it fall on the house, what is the neighbor up to this time?  My 2019 Toyota Tacoma felt reliable in comparison to my previous houses, and if anything wasn't looking good I'd just drive away.  I could even avoid most unpleasant weather just by driving a few hours.

The weather on the road can be so good!

You know that amazing two weeks that usually hits in late September?  When the leaves turn, the highs are in the 60s, and you're upset to be stuck at work.  I wasn't stuck at work.  That perfect weather started for me high in the Wind River Range in early September, continued at the Rock Shop into October, extended through November in Unaweep and southern Utah, and all the way into December and January in Arizona.  Spring was a little more unpredictable, but I stayed in hotels when really bad weather came through.  I imagine a future when barely anyone stays in Wyoming in the winter, or summers in southern Arizona.  With just the occasional tank of gas I was able to avoid any temps below freezing or over 80 for my entire 18 month trip.  

My health insurance was better on the road.  I didn't really know how the system works until I tested it.  When I was a full time teacher in Colorado my health insurance deductible was $5000 dollars.  I had to pay that full amount when my daughter got appendicitis.  When I hit the road I had to sign up for Obamacare.  My premium was lower and my deductible was $600.  My next year on the road my low income qualified me for Medicaid. I didn't have a deductible.  There is a safety net if your income is low enough.  I could have qualified for food stamps too, but I didn't apply.   I never used my health insurance on the road.  Ironically, the only time I got sick happened because I had to  stand in line to apply for Medicaid.  They were giving out free Covid tests at the same location.  I came down with Covid two days later.

I saw more boulders in those 18 months than I'd seen in a decade living in a house.

A lack of boulders isn't the limiting factor for bouldering.  

There are so many amazing untouched boulders.

The limiting factors are logistics, time, and skill.  If you have the pads, the spotters, the time, and the ability you'll never run out of amazing boulders to try.  But it's difficult to have all those things in the remote areas where the best boulders live.

Arizona had a lot of places I never knew about until I went nomadic.

Like Pima Canyon, it's a little bit of Hueco Tanks right in Phoenix.

I found a lot of great places with these little old school topos found in some local gyms and outdoor shops.  Thanks for making them Marty!

I could keep posting photos of boulders all day.  There are lifetimes of boulders to develop at multiple areas in the southwest. 

In addition to boulders, amazing wildlife encounters were a regular occurrence on the road.

I doubt it's a real phenomenon, but it started to feel like the animals weren't scared of me anymore.  At least sometimes they weren't.  I'm not sure why.

I gained new political and economic perspectives.  You can't see a thing clearly until you get some distance from it.  There is no escape from our political and economic system, but you can get a little space from it and look at it a little more clearly when you have the time, the ability to travel, and no need to participate in making money for an extended period of time.  I read books from many different points of view. I saw public lands that were cared for, and public lands that have been abused for decades.  I saw places where people were happy and thriving, and places in north Texas without public lands where people didn't learn a thing from the Dust Bowl.  I'm not going to organize or explain the ideas in this post, but just as we preserved wilderness so people could see the natural world as it could be, I think it's important to preserve the ability for people to take extended time-outs in order to see life as it could be.  And we need to keep our public lands to spend our time in.  Places like Oak Flat and Bears Ears are definitely worth fighting for.

I learned about relationships.  Friendships can be fragile things.  It's usually easy to reconnect when you're in town, but people don't get in touch that often when you're gone.  As easy as it is to make friends through climbing, sometimes you realize that climbing was the only reason you were ever friends in the first place.  The friends who kept in touch while I was traveling and the friends who didn't taught me about the relative strength of the relationships.  I was able to date on the road, but not to build anything lasting.  I don't like dating long distance. I don't like hurting anyone. And I always felt hurt as well when it was time to move on.  I could see that the situation would repeat every time I uprooted myself.  The stronger the attachment, the worse it would be. I didn't like that, and that simple realization was a major factor in deciding to settle down again.

I learned the cost of life on the road.

The other major factor was economic.  Life on the road feels worth it to me if it can keep you from needing a job.  But it doesn't feel like it would work well while having a regular job. Life on the road was inexpensive compared to living in a house, but food, gas, car insurance, the occasional hotel or climbing gym membership was costing me about $50 a day when I averaged it all out.  My guidebook income wasn't $50 a day and my savings weren't going to get me all the way to my pensions.  I needed more income.  So I applied to be a Climber Steward for the Access Fund at Indian Creek twice.  Was interviewed both times, but never got the job.  I applied for a writing grant, but didn't get it.  I thought about, and started working on various guidebook and publishing ideas, but economic realities and my passions weren't aligned.  So it was time to find an exit from the highway.  I'll explain how that happened in my next post. But let's conclude this one.

I'm very happy that I lived on the road while I did! The rest of my life will be better because I chose to live on the road for an extended trip.  I'll continue to explore the places I found during my trip, and have the lessons I learned on the trip guiding my life.  

  

There really is so much to explore

even at a single major climbing area such as Cochise Stronghold.

Entire worlds can be found in the big mountain ranges and deserts of the west.

You can keep exploring until you reach the end.

If you can only find a way...

The Trouble with KAYA

 John Oungst, KAYA's Director of Partnerships for corporation Project 9a, didn't catch me at the best time.  Back in February of 2023 I was living out of my truck near Tucson, Arizona.  I was writing guidebooks on the road, having just finished my Rock Shop Wyoming bouldering guide four months before. 

I was working hard on my biggest book to date, Unaweep Bouldering Vol. 2.  

This was my life at the time because the Unaweep Vol.1 had done well enough to raise my expectations.  It was, and still is, my most successful guidebook.  It had a great opening run on Amazon, was stocked in the local Grand Junction gym and climbing stores including REI.  It did well enough to give me hope that maybe I could write enough books to survive on a combination of guidebook writing and my savings, living on the road until my teaching pensions kicked in.  Enough hope to try and find out.

John reaching out seemed like another opportunity to continue to do what I loved, and make some money while living the dream.  Our Zoom meeting made it all sound great!  I could continue to sell my print guidebooks, put my data up on KAYA for an up front payment, and continue to get a percentage of user fees in exchange for moderating user submissions each month.  A little money would go to the Western Colorado Climbers' Coalition, and everyone would be happy.

But then I received the CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT.  Their lawyers had made it absolutely sure that Project 9a a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Boulder, CO held all the cards.  If any portion of the data I provided to Project 9a wasn't acceptable to them, they could terminate the agreement without paying me anything and keep the Reference Data including route names, gps coordinates, grade, and any other factual information describing the routes.  The agreement also asked me to waive my right to class action and right to trial by jury, and to state that I shall not take any action that would obligate or bind Project 9a in any manner, and on top of that a Confidentiality agreement which would forbid me from divulging the terms of my agreement with anyone.

I brought up my first concern with John.  He said of course they wouldn't steal my work.  Basically asking me to trust his word, while everything in the legal paperwork still gave them the legal right to do whatever they wanted.  I never signed the agreement, so I am allowed to share the terms I was offered.  This is what they proposed.

I was told that user data was analyzed to see how much time users spent accessing an area and their subscription fees would be divided accordingly.  KAYA would keep 60% of the revenue and I could choose the from the following revenue options:

Option 1: 40% revenue share, no cash upfront, for providing complete data on 2250 problems and moderating content monthly.  

Option 2: 30% revenue share, $500 cash upfront for providing data on 2250 problems and moderating content monthly.  

... continuing in this pattern until Option 5 which offered $2250 cash and 0% revenue share.

I was being asked to provide the name, grade, GPS coordinates, approach paths, available history, written descriptions, maps, and photographs with lines and subarea descriptions for 2250 problems for either a bet on what 40% of the future success of the KAYA Unaweep guide would be, or a $1 per problem payment with no future payments.  Just for context, some of the problems at Unaweep are isolated and a 40 minute hike, one way.  Sometimes a single problem took me multiple trips to find and photograph.  A drive from Grand Junction to Unaweep cost me $10.00 in gas every trip.   I generally needed to work 8 hours to get photos of 25 problems taken in the morning and draw lines and write descriptions for those problems during the afternoon.  I calculated that KAYA was offering me less than $2 an hour for my work, buying the right to keep most of it if I ever decided I didn't want to work with them anymore.  

So I said I wasn't interested in as friendly a way as I could, not wanting to burn any bridges.  John wrote back saying that "The inclusion of Unaweep and all other guides that are in flight right now will contribute to KAYA maintaining the best and highest fidelity data set for outdoor bouldering areas (and eventually sport climbing).... To be transparent with you, Unaweep is part of our Colorado expansion plan and we will likely push forward and seek other climbers/contractors to help collect the data for Unaweep... As mentioned at the start, we always seek to work with a guidebook author first, but if a guidebook author is not interested, we move on to other avenues and individuals to work with to collect the data,"  Basically showing that they will reach out to the guidebook author, but if the author doesn't like their terms KAYA will pay someone else to copy the guidebook onto their platform.  Because the only way the data can be available at a $1.00 per problem is to have someone take it from an already written guidebook.  

They aren't offering the guidebook author what it actually costs to collect the data in the first place.  They only offer the guidebook author the amount it would cost them to pay someone else to copy/rewrite the guidebook onto their platform.  Being the original guidebook author requires reaching out to first ascentionists, days of hiking, mapping and photographing all the lines, figuring out the best access, setting up meetings with land managers, and figuring out where to draw the problem lines based on written descriptions, personal climbing attempts, or Youtube videos.  Selling the books doesn't pay enough to actually make it worth it for the money alone, but by the time my Bouldering in the Wind River Range went out of print I'd collected about $8.00 per boulder problem documented.  Guidebook authors write books for a variety of reasons, profit isn't the largest reason.  Any job that pays minimum wage is almost guaranteed to provide more profit per hour than guidebook writing will.  But writing print guidebooks by yourself pays at least eight times better than doing it for KAYA, and that's even when you refuse to have ads in your guidebooks, like I do. 

Skip forward to a couple weeks ago.  Matthew De Santis contacted me to tell me he had recently partnered with KAYA and Zach Alexander to produce a digital guide for the Rock Shop. 

(Matt is a climber who I freely shared my unfinished Rock Shop guidebook with in 2020.  Zach is a climber I shared my unfinished guide with so that he could write a new print guide, but he left Lander without completing the project.)  

 Matthew said  the last thing he wanted was for me to feel ripped off for my hard work.  I got on my phone and a quick search brought me to the KAYA Rock Shop guidebook.  My daughter Sierra signed up for a trial subscription, so I could check it out the full version without sending KAYA money.  I found user submitted videos that stand start my favorite F.A. "Nexus" presented as legitimate ascents.  I found mapped lines, with descriptions, but lacking photos.  And I found a few things I liked about the guide. It was nice of them to copy all the F.A. information from my book so the climbers that found, cleaned or at least established the lines get the credit they deserve. They have a few new problems. They also mentioned my efforts and my physical book in the area introduction.  Honestly, their incomplete digital guide will probably help me sell more physical books.  But I still feel ripped off.  John Oungst said that KAYA always reaches out to the guidebook author first, but they didn't reach out to me this time.  They say a percentage of the profits go to the Central Wyoming Climbers Alliance, but they never contacted the Alliance to see if they approve of making the Rock Shop available on KAYA.  I confirmed this with CWCA leadership.

The Rock Shop is an area I helped to develop.  I kept track of what got done up there as it happened.  I waited 5 years to finish my guidebook due to the concerns of a local climber, and then camped there for two months in the Fall of 2022 to finish the guide.  I finished the guide because Zach Alexander had moved away, and no one thought he would be back to finish his guide.  If Chris Marley or Justin Iskra or Steve Bechtel wanted to write the next guidebook I would have happily handed the project to them, but they didn't seem interested. I wanted the lines and history to be remembered, I wanted to share the place with motivated boulderers, and I hoped to make a little money for a project that made sense for me to finish. 

Matthew De Santis doesn't want me to feel ripped off, Zach Alexander hasn't explained himself despite my reaching out twice.  But this experience has not left me feeling respected or appreciated.  I feel ripped off because my work was stolen. No one contacted me until the KAYA guidebook to the Rock Shop was already available, despite most of the information on the app coming from my efforts.  Getting my information through Zach is still taking my information.  And it's obvious to me that my new published guide was used in its creation. 

So where do we go from here? I imagine problematic scenarios and questions arise. Whose responsibility  is it to address area sanitation and access issues when information and promotion of an area is available from multiple sources?  Can Matt really get the area info taken down if problems arise, or did he sign the agreement banning him from binding Project 9a in any manner? Is he legally unable to disclose anything about what his agreement says?  

KAYA hopes to one day be "The guidebook for North American bouldering and sport climbing"  I understand the motivation to be a part of it.  Everyone likes quick, easy access to climbing information, but this venture capital-funded branch of Project 9a is unsustainable.  It only exists by profiting unfairly off of the work of others, and just because that can be done legally that doesn't make it right.  They aren't behaving well.  They sometimes don't seek permission from authors, and they don't accept "no" as an answer when they do.  They've got lawyers, and money (7.98 million in venture capital according to PitchBook), and they feel entitled to use any method necessary to grow their business.

I can't see a good end to this.  John Oungst, Austin Lee, Marc Bourguignon and Dave Gurman have created a parasitic business model.  It reduces the incentive to write new guidebooks, and it won't make the money venture capitalists hope for unless it can create a type of monopoly of climbing information.  If it does that, subscription rates will rise and the sport will be reliant on an unethical corporation.  If it can't do that, it will probably get sold to a sketchier business eventually, and your data will too.  The KAYA guides could easily disappear like the old online Dr.Topo and BoulderTopo.com guides did.  But I still have those guides, because I printed them.  That's not an option for KAYA guides. Subscription services can just disappear at any point. Where will the routes and history be found then?

There are troubles with KAYA.  They haven't behaved ethically or reasonably, and I don't think it's in the best interest of climbing or climbers to support them.  Think about what they do, and then think a little harder about how they do it, and what ends it will lead to.  Then avoid using KAYA.

I'm interested in reading your KAYA stories in the comments, and to talk more on this topic if you're interested, be it private conversation or for a podcast.  Please get in touch. 

Sad Fact: KAYA and Pocket Outdoor Media (which rebranded to Outside Inc. in 2021) both got a lot of their funding from Zone 5 Ventures.  Zone 5 Ventures helped Pocket Outdoor Media acquire Rock and Ice and Climbing magazines so they could be discontinued in print and turned into the current digital only (ad filled clickbait site) Climbing.com, and the same entity provided seed funding for KAYA.

Sad Fact: Outside Inc. also bought GAIA.gps.  Post-acquisition, subscription fees increased, and the app created default social profiles leading to a privacy backlash. New technical problems appeared too.   

Useful Vocabulary: "Enshittification" is the gradual decline in the quality of a product or service, particularly online platforms, as they shift from prioritizing user experience to maximizing profits.  Online platforms have a strong tendency to get worse over time.

A Tale of Two Expeditions, and my packing list.

 It's hard to convey what makes these adventures worth the time and effort.  To visit these places requires a Wind River Reservation fishing permit, a long windy drive up a potholed road, and a full day's effort with or without pack horses to get in, and another full day of hiking to get out.  Jesse made the trip from Seattle.  I drove up from Grand Junction, and we both did it twice.  We did it because it is worth it.  The exploratory aspect, the romance of heading into the mountains for days to see what you will find, the slightly hallucinatory effect that this much wilderness, nature, scale and solitude can have on you. The fun bouldering feels like an incredible bonus.  If you're interested in seeing my packing list for an expedition like this, I put it at the end of this post.

Cathedral Lake, Wyoming 2021

The trip was Jesse Brown's idea.  He wanted to do a horse packing bouldering trip into the Winds.  It wasn't a completely original idea.  Todd Skinner and crew bouldered around Mt. Hooker from a horse pack supported camp when they weren't busy climbing the big wall, and I'd paid a deposit for horse packing back in 2010 for a trip to the Cirque of the Boulders before the other developers backed out.  But this was the first horse packing trip with bouldering as its main pursuit, that actually happened, that I was aware of.

Jesse Brown psyched to hike in without a big pack!

Cathedral Lake was just below some incredible looking boulder fields on Google Earth, horse packers go there regularly, and it has established camping areas with a bear box.  The more the merrier with alpine bouldering, and having more people helps distribute the cost of the horses and wranglers.  

  

Regular Organic Pads fit on the horses well.

Jesse and I invited friends.  Josephine made the trip to see the Winds.  Andy made the trip to climb, but also to get photos.  Nick wanted first ascents.  I was excited to see new boulders and hopefully put up something cool.

Collin came in excited for all of it.

We hiked in, it started to rain.  We searched for blocks in the rain.  Boulders were plentiful, but not the quality we hoped for.  It was cold too.  We hung out by the fire when it wasn't actively raining, and sat in our tents when it was.

The next day started wet, but things dried out in the afternoon.  Nick went exploring early and found blocks to develop by himself at the base of Cathedral.  The rest of the crew got started on a nice set of blocks in a saddle just north of Cathedral that we called the "Badger Boulders." We actually saw a badger in them when we arrived.  We put up 7 problems, and I made this topo for them.

This was my favorite.

Then we hiked up valley, finding even better boulders and views!

We couldn't stop exploring, but I did take time to put up one line in this valley.  A V2 called "The Outlier."

Josephine was feeling wiped out by the hiking and altitude.  So she waited for us down valley while we explored.  We found her asleep on a rock when we returned.  I guess she wasn't that scared of the bears.

The next day was rainy.  So Nick, Andy, and Collin hiked out early.  They'd planned on 3 days of bouldering, but because of the weather only got one good afternoon.  

The next day was dry and Jesse, Josephine and I went back to the coolest block we saw up valley.  I put up this line, the highlight of my trip, and Jesse put up an exciting V3 up the left arete called "The Mountains are Calling"

The horses allowed us to pack in incredible food, which was nice, but expensive.  We paid $500-600 per person after tip.  Is it worth it?  It depends on how much you need to suffer to get $600 I guess.  My big pad wouldn't fit on the horses, so I still needed to carry a lot of weight myself.

Jesse went out for a hike on his own at the end of our Cathedral Lake trip.  That's when he discovered an amazing zone that became the focus of our next summer trip.

The Hemingways 2022 

Another horse pack supported trip organized by Jesse.  This time to a valley south of Cathedral Lake.  He invited his friend Greg, who brought his family for a bit of fishing and bouldering.

I decided to carry all my own gear and food in myself.  I wanted to see what I could do, and avoid the high  cost of horses.  My pack was heavy, but when I saw the valley and the boulders, the burden was worth it.

One key to making the expedition work, was my ultralight tent. I set up the tent, and then Jesse and I hiked our pads into the boulder field.

We hung the pads for the night.  No one else was in the entire valley, and they were safe from critters.

The next morning we hiked in, just carrying our day packs.

At first we were disappointed by the unexpectedly high amount of snow.  Many of the featured overhangs Jesse photographed on his hike the year before were buried.  We made the best of our situation, climbing some lines that might only be possible over snow landings.

The next day was a rest day.  I bathed in water warmed by the sun running over rock slabs.  Amazing!

The next climbing day I put up my favorite line of the trip.  It starts where it does because it's where I could reach the horizontal crack.  Traversing right, just to then traverse back left seemed silly, so I didn't.

Jesse put up a classic!

And I added one more interesting line.

Greg was surprised how good the boulders were.  He ditched his fishing to spend an afternoon developing this nice block with his daughter.  They did four good lines up this block V2-V4.

Jesse climbing "Dirty Sally" V2

I was surprised at how well my expedition bouldering system worked for a five day trip.  I've used it many times since.  Everything I needed, nothing I didn't.

In a plastic bear canister I put five days of food.  For me that's ten packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast, ten Starbucks Via instant coffee packets.  One package of hard cheese, one bag of crackers, 16 oz of beef jerky, peanut M&Ms, 8 cliff bars, and 5 freeze dried back packing dinners.

Two Nalgene water bottles, iodine tablets for water treatment.  

Day pack with climbing shoes, chalk, athletic tape, brushes

Puffy coat, hoody, one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, 2 t-shirts, 4 pairs of socks and underwear.  Camp Suds to do laundry and for bathing in a stream, toothbrush and paste, wag bags

Headlamp, Compass, Map, Rain Coat, Pocket Knife, Pen, Small Journal, Phone, Extra Battery and charging cord, Insect Repellent, head net, hat, sunscreen, backpacking stove, and one fuel canister, lighter, emergency matches.

Hiking Poles (required for the tent)

Gossamer Gear Tent called The One.

Inflatable sleeping pad

Ultralight plastic ground cloth

Down Sleeping Bag

Approach shoes

A couple cams and slings for hanging your pad.

Stuff everything into an Organic Backfourty Big Pad, and start hiking.

That's all you need for a five day bouldering expedition into the Winds.  

Thanks go out to Jesse and everyone who came along for making these trips happen!