A mini-series of photo essays shot for Moja Gear documenting the lifestyles of rock climbers who live in their van full-time, affectionately nicknamed dirtbags.

I’m living in a van because…

I can escape the cold Canadian winter and I love traveling.

It also allows [my child, my girlfriend, and I] to live closer to nature. We can go climbing by walking 2 minutes. We can go to all the places throughout California; we can enjoy the beach, living on the coast. It’s super easy with a camper van. And since we are climbers, the most important thing for us is living in this van.

We can climb every day and enjoy life with less material. We can live simply. No TV … Just food and rocks. That’s all we need: food, rocks, and water.

We prefer to have a van that has all the features of a house and with a baby, it’s good to have a shower at least every three days. In the morning it’s nice to have our own toilets because sometimes we’re living in the streets … living in a campground can get expensive. Sometimes it gets super cold in the winter, so it’s good to have a heater and in the morning I can just have my coffee and the baby plays on the ground without freezing.

And you know, I can have sex with my girlfriend without getting frozen—this is something really important.

It’s good to spend money and make your setup efficient. If you look in this truck, there are no finishings. It’s just wood; it’s efficient. It’s not pretty. I could paint and make it super pretty, but I prefer to get more time at the crag than finishing my truck.

On (Not) Being so Brave…

“Non-climbers tend to think rock climbing takes this enormous amount of courage; probably because most non-climbers seem to think that rock climbing entails “soloing like that guy on 60 minutes”. Well … I’m not that brave. I get scared. I get hyperventilating, Elvis leg-shaking, might-have-just-peed-my-pants scared. And 9 out of 10 times there is a moment where I picture myself being carried away from the crag on a stretcher. I’m not that brave. I think a lot of us are scared. I don’t think we climb because we are so courageous; I think we climb because there’s just something indescribable about topping out in spite of all the fear.” – Sara Roudebush