Time to start planning your winter climbing trip

Time for my annual "advertisement".

Right about now you should be planning for your winter climbing trip. If you're looking for someplace warm, uncrowded, English-speaking (well, Island-British anyway), has excellent and unique climbing, and you can get to it in a day, then Cayman Brac should be on your list.
Where's Cayman Brac?

There are flights everyday from the U.S. If you live in the East, you can be on the island about 2pm and climb the same day. The entire island is a cliff (Brac means cliff) and there's climbing on just about every aspect, which means shady climbing no matter when you get outta bed.
An aerial view of Cayman Brac, the Northeast Point in the foreground.

There are 91 sport routes on the island with most of them being in the "sweet" range of 5.10 to 5.12. There are several open projects in the 5.13 range.
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At the Point are long pitches right over the sea.

Routes over the sea are 100'to 140' feet long and require rappel access. Pocketed limestone predominates, and several of the inland areas are rich in stalactites, tufas and flowstone.
Jeff hits the tufa before stemming out to the stalactite and climbing it on the outside!

Rest days are for diving, snorkeling or caving.
The Nani Cave is one of many non-technical caves you can visit.
Two minutes from Dixon's Wall, Sylvia's Reef is a great way to loosen up with a swim, or just pass-out, after a hard day of climbing.

For more photos and info, please see climbcaymanbrac.com or mountainproject.com/v/cayma…

I remember when you posted this last year... you very nearly had me. But right now it's boiling hot and humid out, and somehow the Brac is not at all enticing!

Looking forward to it though, one of these years.

All winter trips planned involve these

^
My thoughts exactly :)

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Looks awesome. What sort of budget do you recommend for a trip there?

Kevin DB wrote:Looks awesome. What sort of budget do you recommend for a trip there?

That's hard to say without knowing more. The big variables are airfare (depends on many factors), the number of times your go out to eat, and alcohol (which is highly taxed so bring some with you).

Late to the party, but I'm wondering what the traffic is for the island as a climbing destination... Anybody have any insight?

mmuir0509 wrote:Late to the party, but I'm wondering what the traffic is for the island as a climbing destination... Anybody have any insight?

Traffic? You mean how many climbers?

The range is 0 - 8 most winter days. The most I've ever seen was 18 climbers at one time, and that only lasted 3 days.

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John, do you live there?

mmuir0509 wrote:John, do you live there?

No, Ft. Collins.

Do you actually live in Lusk? Are you a cowboy?

Yup, time to start planning for winter climbing by booking a cabin in Ouray, trying to figure out what ice and snow climbs to do, and whether I can fit in a trip to Red Rocks :)

John Byrnes wrote: No, Ft. Collins. Do you actually live in Lusk? Are you a cowboy?

I'm only in Lusk maybe one day a week. I work at the prison in Newcastle so I spend all my time either there or in the Black Hills.

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