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bkboyd
Sep 6, 2006, 10:56 PM
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Registered: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 75
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I spent a week at Railay/Krabi in July. I’ve seen a few older posts asking about the weather, so I’m posting my experience along with some data from weather.com. Prior to going, I heard conflicting things about summer weather – from absolutely unclimbable, to best time of year to visit, rain only in the morning, and so on. From the limited vantage point of my week, and from comments from friends who were there before me, I’ld summarize the weather with two points: 1. There is a good reason they call summer the rainy season. From the weather chart shown below, there is ten times as much rain in July or August as in January. And, July looks pretty dry when you compare it to May or September. 2. Your mileage may vary. Shortly before I arrived, there were five non-climbing days in a row due to heavy rains. In contrast, I was able to get out every day. Some times the grey skies would turn to downpours, other times it was just continually grey. We got occasional bursts of brilliant blue sky as well. Month High Low Avg Rainfall Jan 88°F 73°F 81°F 1.40 in. Feb 90°F 74°F 82°F 1.20 in. Mar 91°F 75°F 83°F 1.50 in. Apr 91°F 77°F 84°F 6.40 in. May 88°F 77°F 83°F 13.70 in. Jun 87°F 78°F 83°F 8.40 in. Jul 87°F 77°F 82°F 10.40 in. Aug 86°F 78°F 83°F 10.30 in. Sep 85°F 76°F 81°F 16.50 in. Oct 86°F 76°F 81°F 12.00 in. Nov 86°F 75°F 81°F 8.20 in. Dec 87°F 74°F 81°F 2.00 in. So, is it worth visiting during rainy season or not? It depends. Temps of 85-90 and 80 percent humidity are not conducive to climbing your best. While there are places that you can climb at in the rain, you’ll be fighting the 10 climbing schools and everyone else for a bit of dry terrain. We got baked if the sun came out, and hammered by humidity when it was cloudy. Overall, I got fewer routes in each day than normal, and was climbing easier stuff than usual. But, every route that I climbed had great moves in spectacular settings. I probably wouldn’t visit Railay from the States or Europe in the summer, unless I could stay for long enough to get several good days in. I was traveling in Asia beforehand, so it wasn’t too expensive or time consuming to get to Railay. Some other comments that may be useful: Longtail boats are affected by the weather. West Railay is on the windward side, so boats will only go out of East Railay if conditions are bad (no boats on west beach during half of my trip). It was problematic getting to Ao Nang or Tonsai some days. Even though the boats are partially covered, your bags can get drenched pretty badly if the weather is poor. Notebook computers, digital cameras, ipods, etc, all do poorly when soaked in salt water. It’s worth stuffing some heavy duty garbage bags into your luggage, and slip them over the bags before getting on the boat. The so-called supermarkets had lots of empty shelves. Despite that, they had impressive selections of potato chips and kit kat bars. So, helpful to stock up before you head over. The last time I was at Railay, one had to go to Ao Nang to find an ATM. There are now several machines in Railay. The roti man doesn’t work in the rainy season. If you know what roti is, despair. If you don’t know, then you literally won’t know what you’re missing. The most useful piece of gear that I brought was a 2” paintbrush. It cleaned the sand between my toes before putting on my climbing shoes, cleaned the bottom of my shoes before I left the ground, and dusted off the initial holds that were inevitably coated in beach sand. Everyone wanted to borrow my paintbrush! There were a lot of people floating around looking for partners. Many people travel with only shoes and a harness. So, if you’ve brought a rope and draws, you are well on the way to being popular. I had no success finding a partner in advance here on rc.com, but connected with a good partner at simonfoley.com. Even on popular routes, there is often suspect pro. Threads are common – pieces of old climbing ropes that pass through holes in the limestone. Groove Tube and other high traffic routes had threads where large sections of the sheath were gone; clipping directly on to core strands isn’t confidence inspiring. I clipped some really rusty bolt hangers as well. Finally, when routes have been rebolted, the old bolts are often left intact, and are side-by-side with the new bolts. So, it’s helpful to be able to tell the old, dangerous glue-ins from the newer, safe, glue-ins. I led a route where I couldn’t tell which was which, so I started alternating between the two bolt styles, assuming that I was right 50% of the time. Red glue is a good sign, and a photo of different bolt styles can be found here: http://www.thailandclimbingguide.com/rebolting.html
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mandrake
Sep 6, 2006, 11:57 PM
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Registered: Jan 7, 2004
Posts: 188
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Hey, thanks for that post! Great detail. To add my experience: I was there in August 2003 and in June 2000, both rainy season months, and had a great time both trips. Both times I was there for about three weeks and had no more than 2 or 3 complete washout days in each trip. I agree that the super-high humidity doesn't do wonders for one's onsight ability. OTOH, reportedly the crowds and bungalow prices are significantly down in the summer compared with the dry season. There were enough people to easily find partners, both times, though. For my work, a winter trip's not really feasible. So, for those like me, considering either a summer trip or not going at all, I would definitely go. Just take a couple books and be ready to wait out the occasional rainy day. Gotta get back there soon...
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