Climber Dirtbag Vans on Steroids: Meet the Mastermind Behind the Rigs of Alex Honnold, Emily Harrington, and More Pros

Arjan de Kock was a grape farmer and semi pro climber in South Africa when COVID hit and his family lost their entire business. After his family had to sell the farm, he decided to move to the U.S.. Previously, Arjan and his wife, pro climber Paige Claassen, had been splitting their time between Colorado and South Africa. But now, it was time for a change. Yet moving to the U.S. as a college dropout, he held real concerns about what his new life would look like.

Back home, Arjan grew up touring the continent with his family in a van similar to a Westfalia. While it wasn’t rigged for sleeping, they’d drive north into the African continent, pull out mattresses onto the dirt, and sleep in the savanna under the stars. By morning, elephants would wander by their camp, while crocodiles swam in the rivers nearby. Being outside with his family defined his childhood.

“You’re really in the wild, not in a campsite,” Arjan says of his family’s adventures. Thanks to the mild weather, rigging a van for living wasn’t really necessary in his homeland.

After relocating to the U.S., the suburban life quickly began to depress Arjan. Public lands seemed the remedy. “You can drive onto public lands, wake up, and you’re completely in the middle of nowhere with wide open spaces as far as the eye can see,” he says. “You get a million dollar view, absolutely free, that everyone can enjoy.”

But the secret weapon he needed to fully unlock this unencumbered life in the U.S.? A van. “You can park your home anywhere,” he says. “For the first time, I felt a sense of belonging in this new and foreign land.” The answer to his homesick woes seemed to be van life. So he sold his truck, bought a Sprinter van, and started building it out.

At the time, he was working as a commercial photographer, but the pay was inconsistent. Growing up woodworking with his dad, he enjoyed working with his hands. Building out vans seemed a more natural calling. “My ADHD brain was an absolute perfect fit for task switching and obsessing over every little detail,” he explains. “I poured all my obsessive energy and attention into this one pursuit, building eco-friendly, ultra lightweight family vans that you can play in all four seasons.”

From there, he began organically growing a van customization business. By word of mouth, the brand grew.

Vans by climbers, for climbers

What started as a passion project has turned into a total obsession that’s become Forged Vans, a business firmly embedded in the climbing community. Though he’s a longtime semi-pro climber, he’s also a Renaissance man who surfs, hang glides, mountain bikes, snowboards, makes South African jerky known as “biltong,” grows grapes, and takes beautiful photos.

Since building out his own family’s van, he’s done the same for many pro climbers, including Alex Honnold and Sanni McCandless, Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger, and climbing photographer Corey Rich and his wife, Marina. He employs pro climbers, including an Olympic comp climber from South Africa and several female climbers on Team USA who work for him part-time.

Hiring pro climbers works out well, explains Arjan, because pro-level climbers inherently “understand obsession” with attention to detail. The job also offers flexibility to work during their off season or between trips or competitions. A pro climber seasonal workforce understands the clientele well, too. Arjan estimates that 80 to 85 percent of his customers are climbers or skiers.

No two adventure vans alike

In 2024, Arjan custom-built six vans, mostly working alone. Since moving to the U.S. and finding his calling, he’s customized 40 vans. Even as he scales, he still loves collaborating one-on-one with each client to figure out which configuration will suit them best. “A lot of companies see this van life opportunity and just scale and print out vans, banging them out in a generic way,” he explains. “I think it’s fun to work with clients. Everyone’s unique.”

To make a van befitting Alex Honnold or Emily Harrington, Arjan has fine-tuned a number of features designed specifically for climbers, from training components to massive gear drawers. While he admits that customizing vans to specific sports and personalities is more time-consuming—not to mention less profitable—he says that it’s what makes the work fun and rewarding for him.

For clients who do sports that require them to entrust their life to their gear, Arjan feels a sense of responsibility to not only make the van lightweight, but also strong and safe. This holds especially true for clients with children, for whom he frames every component in the build with aircraft-grade aluminum.

Alex Honnold and Sanni McCandless’ solar-powered van

Chances are, you may be familiar with Arjan’s vehicular craftsmanship. If you’ve seen the National Geographic documentary The Devil’s Climb. Arjan endeavored to make the ultimate van for Alex through thoughtful features that reflect his values and climbing style.

To equip him for longer off-grid adventures, Arjan turned to the energy source that powers Alex’s own foundation: solar. He covered the van’s entire roof with 900 watts of solar panels.

Building in some sort of training features has become commonplace for climbers living in their vans. For Alex’s van, Arjan installed a fingerboard on the inside of the doorway. That way, when the weather shuts down a day of climbing, he can still train. Tommy Caldwell, Honnold’s adventure partner in The Devil’s Climb, jokes that this is the only way they were able to keep their fingers in shape to climb the Devil’s Thumb. The project involved a supported biking trip from Colorado to Alaska to reach their climbing objective, so the ability to train in the van after a day of cycling was key. That built-in energy source also came in handy during the Devils Thumb project. 

Aside from ruggedness, nimbleness, and built-in training, Arjan focuses on smart gear storage for climbers. In Alex’s van, he added a five-by-five-foot gear drawer that pulls out. “There’s actually a platform on top of it so you can stash a stroller or crashpads,” Arjan explains. He says it’s an especially nice feature for big wall climbers with giant racks.

Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger’s toddler-proof van

Climbers, alpinists, skiers, and total all-arounders, Emily and Adrian needed a vehicle that could tow all the gear. So Arjan built a drop-down ski rack that extends out of the wall. He also added a gear cubby drawer accessed via the back of the van that doubles as a play area for their toddler Aaro.

With most of his clients who have kids, Arjan integrates a crib or kid bed beneath the main bed that can be removed later once the kids get older. He puts the heating unit toward the rear of the van for warm sleeps on the go. When Aaro gets bigger, he will have his own room with an interior access, pop-top tent. This frees up the garage space, allowing the van to adapt to their needs over time.

As coffee-obsessed adventurers, Emily and Adrian also wanted a permanent espresso machine installed in their van’s kitchen. Arjan calls this one of the most “fun flexes” he’s added.

Corey Rich’s adventure party van

Two priorities topped the list for climbing photographer Corey Rich when it came to his van. The first? “I’m short, so I want to sleep sideways,” Corey told Arjan. He asked for a small bed to help him maximize the rest of his space.

The second priority came at the request of Rich’s partner Marina. “His wife is Brazilian,” Arjan explains, “so they were like, ‘We want a place to party.’” Arjan outfitted their Sprinter 144 to hold as many people as possible. He designed a rooftop pop-up tent, so Corey can bail and get some shut-eye while Marina and her girl friends keep the party going. He also built out a tailgate bar for her with a mini bar in the back. This space doubles as a camera prep/charging station for Corey.

Essentially, Corey’s van acts as a chameleon, adapting between party mode, ski-racing family van, and photo powerhouse/edit studio. With some inspiration from Tommy Caldwell, his van also moonlights as a mobile hotel room before red eye flights.

Dirtbag to deluxe

“Climbers used to be real dirtbags—they’re like the original dirtbag van life,” Arjan says. But for some dirtbags, things have changed. The culture endures, with willfully unemployed dedicated climbers still calling beat-up minivans or the backs of sedans home. But many former dirtbags have outgrown the ascetic lifestyle and become pros or taken jobs in the climbing industry. Arjan explains that these climbers are in the market for vans with intelligent design and an obsessive attention to detail that helps them maximize their way of life.

For many, the priority is weight savings. This translates to fuel savings, cost savings over time, and a smaller impact on the environment. “I did a quick comparison and there’s a 2,000-pound difference between what I build and what someone else built,” Arjan says of one generic van contrasted with his own. “I’m kind of obsessed with design and saving weight and making them durable.”

As anyone who’s priced out a custom Sprinter van knows, a to-spec van isn’t exactly cheap. But for those who spend months at a time living on the road, the investment is worth it. Arjan’s custom builds range in cost from $80,000 to $200,000 (that’s including the vehicle cost). The conversion itself comes in between $30,000 to $110,000. “The lower-end models are made with the same dedication to hand-made perfection, but are a more ‘analog experience,’” he explains. For the $30k conversion, think more streamlined, less imaginative features.

For climbers with kids—like Arjan, who has two little ones with his wife Paige—the ultimate deluxe feature facilitates peace and quiet after a day of sending. On his own family’s van, he added a unique feature that climber parents will find downright dreamy: a separate, ultra-dark sleeping area for kiddos.

A climbing photoshoot trip with Paige inspired this design innovation. When their daughter was four or five months old, they were co-sleeping with her in the van during the photoshoot. To their horror, she woke them up every hour on the hour “for nine days straight,” as Arjan recollects.

“I got home and built out a crib that’s essentially blackout,” he says. “You put her in there, close the doors, and you have the space back to yourself.” That’s a dream for adventurous parents who don’t want to have to tiptoe around after bedtime.

At the end of the day, however, one feature eclipses them all—even blackout cribs, tailgate bars, and built-in training. It’s the easy access to those public lands where you can play outside with your kids, dig in the dirt, or climb finger cracks with your friends, enjoying that million dollar view. “Making memories is what it’s all about,” Arjan says.

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