ADV and climbing/mountaineering combo
 

Hello All, I'm new here but a long time ADV'er. It's taken me a long time to pull my finger out and get online so I've a lot to catch up on...

Recently I've been thinking it would be good to two-birds one-stone-it with climbing trips and riding. Has anyone any experience of this? Maybe the Transfagarasan highway and then climbing in the Carpathian Mountains as a first trip, possibly in early September 2024. I would be keen to meet people with similar interests an experience. Please don't hesitate to drop me a line, I'm in Devon. George

I'm assuming you mean climbing as in technical mountaineering and/or rock climbing, not in the sense of trekking or scrambling. If I'm wrong about that, just ignore the following.

I've put bits of effort into combining motorbike bike riding with other mountain sports and have never made it work for anything beyond simple day hiking/trekking. That's because the amount of gear required is so great, and there's little overlap with the sorts of stuff needed for riding. Think: ropes, rack, shoes/boots, poles, snow and ice anchors, axe(s), harness, rescue kit, avalanche kit, backpack, technical clothing, storm gear, bivy stuff, lightweight food and cooking, traction devices....

I'd try loading up your bike to see if you can make it work. I couldn't--either climbing or motorbike touring was enough by itself. Just don't cheat yourself by leaving anything out on your trial run.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Haven't done anything serious, but I imagine if you overlay the Italian TET with some Via Ferrata opportunities in the Dolomites, you would get an excellent holiday!

Oof, my via ferrata gear on it's own fills up a backpack

Thanks Mark,
Yes for the reasons you mention I think I wouldn’t try any ice climbing or cold weather mountaineering with the bike.
I have done it before with sports gear in Spain. Was just wondering really if it would be too mentally frying to do trad on the bike somewhere more adventurous with more risk variables say E.g Morocco.. I suppose there’s only one way of truly finding out! ????

Definitely try it and report back here; I'm always--or at least often--happy to learn I was wrong.

Would be cool in more liberal countries to be able to take a proper enduro bike to the crag as part of the challenge / fun factor.
There are places in the UK that I've climbed only dreaming of being able to ride a bike directly to them - without getting hung drawn and quartered.
Currently located in Wales / Morocco - give me a shout.

Thanks Jack,
Didn't make it to Romania in time- now too cold! But might be in Spain in February.

Spain... claimed to be the second most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland—though I imagine Andorra is really second. Can be terribly cold at altitude in the winter. I have a cave house at 1,000m which can be well below freezing, but many of the puertos (passes) are 1,500 to 2,000m, and the country has more than 120 passes over 2,000m.

I remember one trip in January when we were crossing Spain to follow the Dakar in Morocco, six of us had electrically-heated jackets, the poor guy that didn't contacted his wife asking she buy one and ship it to a hotel in Spain for the return trip.
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If you have the travel time spare, I would encourage you to look at the Anti Atlas mountains in Morocco, very popular amongst the British climbing community as a winter destination. The Climb Tafraout website has lots of information.

Tafraoute remains my favourite place in Morocco to commune with nature. The videos below were all shot in the winter months when the sky is often an amazing deep blue.







Although I've climbed Jebel Toubkal, I'm not into mountaineering, more gentle scrambles. So I generally ride with hiking boots as I am always getting off the bike to explore places. I have a rucksack inside the panniers, enough suitable clothing I can combine in layers, and often carry one or two trekking poles zip-tied to the frame of the bike.

I can second that - it can be a sunny 20ºC in Santander in February and then an hour inland at only 500m or so of elevation it'll be -10ºC.

I broke a mirror on an old Kawasaki when I stopped in the wee hours after a tough run through the Pyrenees because I couldn't move my legs and just went over with the bike, lol

Edit to add: West of Teruel has fantastic bouldering opportunities, but that's at ~800m altitude too.

Very beautiful places. Are there any issues with diseases like hepatitis there?

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