The Cleanest Line

Kamchatka Surf Trip – Follow our Live Updates

by Foster Huntington



On August 30th, surf ambassadors Keith Malloy and Trevor Gordon, along with Chris Burkard, Cyrus Sutton, Dane Gudauskas and myself set out on an exploratory surf trip to the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. For two weeks we'll be camping out, looking for waves and doing some fly fishing.

[Above: Preparing To Surf In Russia. Video by Arctic Surf]

After the second World War, the Russian Government limited all travel, including Russian citizens, to this remote area, making the Peninsula one of the most remote and undeveloped places in the world. Since opening up in 1990, limited development has affected the area, but swell forecasting cannot dictate a trip to Kamchatka – like most surf trips these days – because of the difficult travel plans required to visit.

Hunting Waves and Wind – Kohl, Slezak & Fletch Check in from Chile

Patagonia ambassadors Kohl Christnesen, Jason Slezak and Fletcher Chouinard are down in Chile right now hoping to score south swell and good wind for kiteboarding. Kohl just called in with a surf report:

Listen to Kohl Christensen Chile Phone Report
(mp3 - right-click to download)



We're hoping to hear back from the boys as the swell fills in. If you're a regular reader, you'll remember what happened the last time Kohl lured Fletch down to Chile.

Update: Already received a new photo of Kohl getting ready to go kite. Follow @fcdsurfboards on Twitter and Instagram for more pics as they come in.

[Photos by Rodrigo Farias Moreno (@fariasmoreno)]

Of Ideals and Actions

by Kelly Cordes

Perhaps an overly dramatic title. After all, it’s just climbing, and it’s supposed to be fun. That’s the cliché, anyway. Though often a disingenuous one.

Then again, part of what we love about climbing is the escape from the daily b.s. of today’s world, the immersion into a place where we can move freely in wild places and act however we wish.

Yes, act however we wish.

Since the 1974 first ascent of Cerro Torre, by Italy’s Ragni di Lecco team, only three new routes have been established to its summit without using the Compressor Route’s bolt ladders to get there.

I thought it would make for a cool story. (Cool side-note: Patagonia field testers and ambassadors were involved in all three of those ascents.) So I developed the idea and storyline, got audio and interviews from Rolando Garibotti, Colin Haley, and Hayden Kennedy, narrated the intro and transitions myself, recorded some field sounds, and selected and arranged the photos. We had audio and video gurus polish things up. The result, below, is a narrated slide show that rolls-through in video format.

Wwoofing and Waves in New South Wales

by Patch Wilson

Spending a few months in Oz this year, I was looking for a way to not blow my budget. I didn’t want to spend every waking moment living out the back of my van, constantly scrimping and saving. I wanted to surf as much as possible on one of the best coastlines for waves in the world.

Wwoofing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) seemed like a good way to get around this problem, the idea being that you work a few hours a day in return for your food and accommodation. It just so happens there are some great spots for doing this all over Australia, especially in New South Wales. You can pretty much pick an area with good waves on the coast and then get in touch with your Wwoofing host, line it up and off you go.

[Above: Cylindrical left. All photos: Patch Wilson]

Latok Northwest Face

by Josh Wharton

The incredible northern aspect of Latok I (~7200 meters) needs no introduction as one of the world’s greatest unclimbed mountain escarpments. Since the historic first attempt by an American team in 1978 (still holders of the current highpoint), the peak has seen more then 30 unsuccessful expeditions. Although it has been climbed once from the south, via a serac-threatened snow route in 1979, an ascent from the Choktoi Glacier remains one of the greatest challenges in the Karakoram.

I first became infatuated with Latok in 1998, at a small slideshow by the accomplished American alpinist Jeff Lowe, a participant in the 1978 expedition. I felt the mountain was the best combination of aesthetics and difficulty that I’d ever seen, and dreamed of one day being capable of climbing it in alpine style. By 2007 I felt I had gained the requisite skills and experience, and made my first expedition to Latok. Completely shut down by poor weather, I returned again in 2008 and 2009. On each trip, my partners and I were thwarted by weather, conditions, or both.

[Photo: Latok I and II, showing the infamous North Ridge outlined by the sun-shade line dropping from Latok I’s west summit. The lines show possible routes of ascent. The lower 500 meters is blocked from view by a smaller peak in the foreground (outlined in black for clarity). From the final bivouac (marked by a small white triangle), we will traverse easy snow slopes along the South Face to the summit, before reversing our path of ascent.]

A Pacific Epiphany – An Excerpt from “Crossings”

by Michael Kew

From “Jewel of Palm and Rain,” Chapter 26

It was California's autumn equinox, with its earthy browns and yellows, its wind and its chill, on the cusp of solitude, that had sent me away. A shirtless late-afternoon bike ride across the farm, down the leafy corridor of Rincon Creek and out to the beach afforded goose bumps from a wan sun, with glassy, head-high waves wrapping around the famed point of Rincoñada del Mar.

[This? Photo: Michael Kew]

The air was clear, the sky vast and blue. In the distance were the shadowy hills and gullies of the islands Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz; even Anacapa looked warmly near and familiar. In time, rain would fall there and here, and the beach sand would darken—the tourists were gone—but today, under the auspices of gulls, autumn had arrived. This was Rincon in late October, a polyglot pointbreak returned to itself, to the locals and the afternoon low tides, the clean swells and sunburned eyes, squinting into the glare of a setting sun.

Notes from Squamish

by Kelly Cordes

I am loath to admit it, but Colin Haley was right. He’s been singing the praises of the Pacific Northwest in summertime, proclaiming it better than my beloved ‘Rado. At last, I humbly concede (although they pay for it the rest of the year, with continual grayness and rain). I’m wrapping up a trip to Squamish, and it’s been a touch of paradise. I feel it’s changed me and my cynical, critical, judgmental nature. Here, a few notes:


[Inspiration for my shift toward unabridged positivity. Namaste. Photo: Kelly Cordes]

• Day one, my SLF (special lady friend) and I go cragging in the afternoon, and I lead a thin slab in the full sun. It’s still like a million degrees cooler than back home, even in mid-summer. Sonnie Trotter happens to be trail running past, and as he looks up he probably thinks, who’s the idiot climbing that route in the sun? Silly tourist… followed by, wait! I know that mullet! Next thing we know, Sonnie comes up to say hello and chat. Says he wasn’t thinking that at all. T’was a pattern of friendliness that’s repeated itself in myriad forms during our stay. People here are so nice.

Stand Up Paddling the Rivers of Australia with Zeb Walsh and Adam Colton

Today we're featuring two rivers in Australia and two takes on stand up paddleboarding. First we'll hear about Zeb Walsh's (Patagonia Australia) one-day training run down the icy waters of the Snowy River. Then, Adam Colton (Long Treks on Skate Decks) takes us on a 30-day trip down the Murray.

A Man In Snowy River 

by Patagonia Australia & Zeb Walsh

He was hard and tough and wiry — just the sort that won’t say die
There was courage in his quick impatient tread; 

And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye, 

And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

Originating from the high mountain peak of Kosciuszko, and draining down through the Eastern Slopes, The Snowy River winds 352 KM before reaching the Bass Strait.

In far East Gippsland, an athletic physique approaches the shores, lead by an ambitious spirit and determination. His kind eyes intercept the flowing waters. This land is a part of Zeb’s birthright and what better way to connect with the river than to follow its flow. Setting out on a stand-up, paddling from Orbost, 20km downstream but into a nasty head wind, all the way to Marlo.

Underway - An Excerpt from "The Voyage of the Cormorant" by Christian Beamish

by Christian Beamish

Patagonia Books is proud to announce our latest release: Christian Beamish’s first book The Voyage of the Cormorant, which tells of his journey down the Pacific coast of Baja in an 18-foot open boat he built himself. The book includes maps and is illustrated by Ken Perkins. Below is an excerpt:

From Chapter 3 – Underway

A full moon rose over the arroyos, the desert held a pinkish glow, and stars shone down like a compliment in a million points of light all across the water. I sailed along, swaddled against the cold in a parka and outer shell, drifting in my thoughts deep into the night. Eventually, the wind fell away, and the ocean settled into a broad, glassy sheet. I smelled the clean desert scrub on the suddenly warmer air. The lines and sails and my outer jacket seemed to crackle in the dryness.

I knew that this was all the warning I would get.

Lashing the tiller in place with a bungee, I scrambled forward and dropped the main sail. Not one minute later, I saw and heard the wind line across the water behind, roaring down and tearing at the surface like a swarm of locust: the dreaded Norte. People call it the devil wind because of the fires it breathes to life and, I suppose, for the madness too. It is a terrible, mindless thing.

Nature, Culture and Pleasure in Corsica

by Jasmin Caton

Corsica is a mountainous French island in the Mediterranean, and according the The Lonely Planet Guide, "it's hard to find a better combination of nature, culture and pleasure". With a description like that, it's pretty hard not to want to make a trip there! But as I was planning my annual spring Euro climbing vacation, I found it hard to get a sense of the quality and quantity of the climbing in Corsica, and after visiting many of the ultra-classic French climbing zones like Ceuse, the Gorges du Verdon, Presles and the Gorges du Tarn, all of which I could easily revisit, I wondered if Corsica was going to stand up to my high standards of French stone.

[I shouldn't have worried... Photo: Jasmin Catin]