Tuesday's Climb (24/4/2007)

Climbers: Bing, King, Sean
Venue: Summit Climbing Gym
Featured friends: Benjamin

This is the place where we had our first ever indoor rock climbing experience. It all started about 5 years back, where Jeen Sern (a very close friend) introduced us to this sport. We got most of our rock climbing basics from here, mainly basic belaying, climbing and bouldering. But we were still in high-school back then, which means we didn't really have the convenience and cash to actually climb as frequently as we do now, so we eventually stopped climbing until recently.

The day started with us having some problems signing into the gym to climb because we either lost or forgot to bring our old 'certified belayer' cards. Bing forgot to bring his, and King's card probably evaporated after leaving it in his wallet after so many years. So as a formality, they had to test us to re-certify us as climbers again. That's when we met Benjamin, a very nice chap whom we got to know as we continued climbing. Benjamin is also a fellow climber, and is pretty advanced judging by some of the trails he set for us, and the advice he gave us regarding some of the 6B trails we attempted.

Benjamin

For this climbing session, we managed to complete some of the 5C to 6A+ top rope ranked trails. Then we kinda got over our heads and decided to try some 6B and 6B+ trails, which were really difficult, so we couldn't complete them. After doing some top rope trails, the bouldering section seemed to catch our attention as there were many people doing it. So we tagged along and did some bouldering, and somehow we ended up bouldering for the rest of the day!

(Clockwise from top left): 1. Sean about to make a jump during bouldering; 2. Bing finishing a bouldering route; 3. The bouldering area in Summit; 4. Bing attempting a 6B top rope route

During bouldering, we got to see some really... really insane maneuvers and feats done by some of the regular climbers that were there! That really showed us that we still have a long way to go. Oh, and we forgot to take some pictures of those climbers because we were too busy admiring their moves and learning from them. But we did manage to get some shots of them when they were resting though.

After the climb, we decided to head over to Tanjung Mamak Bistro in Subang Jaya ss14 to have some unique fried kuay teow, highly recommended by Bing for those who haven't tried it before. What makes this fried kuay teow so unique is that they serve it in two ways - "basah" (wet) and "biasa" (normal). If you're feeling adventurous, Bing recommends that you try the 'basah'. The portions are not spectacular, so you could always try the 'biasa' after. Both taste even better with the green pickled chilli. And what makes it even more special is that it's cooked by a Malay couple! And who said only the chinese knew how to cook good chinese food? It should be noted that you are supposed to place your order at the stall and not with the mamak waiters, as they only rent a small part of the premises to operate their stall. You can however, eat it anywhere.

Clockwise from top: outside view; fried Kuay teow basah, fried kuay teow biasa.


Map to the place.

Friday's Climb (20/4/2007)

At this point, we are still figuring out what we want to publish in our posts. But in a nutshell, we generally would highlight any significant events and happenings during our climbs, feature a particular trail(s) which we think is interesting, review the dinner places we go to after climbing, and talk about the people we bring and meet each week. Of course we would also share articles and news that we come across relating to the rock climbing scene, as well as techniques and maybe even gadgets. The sky's the limit here, therefore as VR develops, we encourage our readers to drop a comment or two into our posts, or even email us at verticalrising@gmail.com for requests or questions and we'll try our very best to fulfill them. As the site develops further, we would also increase our writers base so that they too can share their experiences. Till then, continue to support us by visiting us frequently!

Climbers: Bing, King, Sean
Venue: Camp5
Featured Climbers: Chris
Guests: Tua

Today's climb was particularly fun, because we met up with Chris! Chris is one crazy climber who loves to do crazy stunts like dyno'ing downwards, sms'ing while belaying, and speed climbing. He's a regular here at camp5 and is well known to most of the members and staff.

Chris

So the day's climb started with me, King and Chris going over to the bouldering wall and playing 'add-on'. The game is simple: The first person picks 2 hand holds and 2 foot holes and then traverses/climbs to 2 more holds. The next person then climbs the exact same route, and then simply adds 2 more for the next climber to follow on. If the climber falls while attempting a route, then he forfits his chance of adding 2 for that round. The winner would be the one that accomplishes a route that no one can.

Later on, Sean and his friend Tua (which is his actual surname) came along and joined us. Tua isn't exactly a newbie as he has been for OBS (out bounds school), where he learned the basics of belaying and repelling. While King and Sean went through the basics with him, Chris and I went to the castle wall near the trad wall to do some top ropes. After that, it wasn't long before Tua started doing 5c trails!

Tua and his 5c accomplishment

Of course the highlight of the day was not a trail, but an incident that happened at the bouldering section. A marshal was taking a couple and their little daughter for a tour of the climbing gym when they came to the bouldering section. So as the marshal demonstrated how bouldering was done in general, he then showed them how to properly jump of a boulder rock onto the boulder mat. The rest of the story is best illustrated with the self drawn comic below:

Of course we waited till they left before we laughed. But our laughs were more like subtle giggles rather than loud bursts of haha's - contrary to what is depicted in the comic.

We finished climbing at 11pm and headed to DJ for some tai chao. Unfortunately we were so exhausted and hungry that we forgot to take pictures for the food review. Oh well, there's always next time!

More to come: next week we feature a climb at The Summit's rock climbing gym.

Friday's Climb (13/04/07)

Climbers: Bing, King
Venue: Camp5
Guests: Sean and Hui Loo

We usually climb only once a week, but this week is exceptional because it is our mid-semester break from university. Joining us this time is Sean (King's cousin) and Hui Loo (one of our close friends since highschool)!

Sean and Hui Loo

This isn't Sean's first time here in camp5, he has taken up the 10-day pass, and this is probably his fourth time climbing here. He's still new to rock climbing, but he's definitely picking it up rather quickly. In fact, Sean even 'one-shotted' a 6a+ trail!

As for Hui Loo, this is probably her second time climbing, and also her second time here in camp5. It seems that she has improved as she managed to climb some rather challenging routes with just a little guidance!

Today's climb was rather interesting, as we decided to take lots of photos for our blog in order to finish making our layout and backgrounds. Of course it was embarrassing to have people staring at us as we looked like a bunch of amateurs enthusiastically taking pictures of our 'first' rock climbing experience. But we decided to do it anyway, putting our pride aside for the greater good of Vertical Rising!

(Clockwise from top left) Hui Loo pretending to climb; Bing's Evolv climbing shoes; Camp5 cafeteria, King belaying someone.

Tuesday's climb (10/4/07)

Climb: 3pm-8:30pm (Camp5)

Climbers: Bing, King
Featured climber: Kim
Guests: none

(This is an edit to the original post)

We forgot to mention our featured climber this week! Of course its no other than Kim herself! Kim is only Form1 but she's not one you'd want to challenge... in anything. She's one of the first few climbers we met when we first went to camp5 to climb. Kim is a fantastic climber, and is already representing camp5 in various rock climbing tournaments. She can be a little cheeky at times, sneaking up on you while u belay, but she's really fun to be with. Always claded in smiles, you'd never know whether she's coming up with a mischievous plan or just being friendly.

New trails: Right sentinel wall, Lime (6a)

(Clockwise from top left) 1. Few jug holds, mostly crimp and pocket holds; 2. Many profiles and features available, slight smearing required;
3. Top view; 4. Bottom view

For unto us a blog is born

It was our usual weekly climb when the two of us were taking a break. It was then King Shung suggested we create a blog about rock climbing, where we'd share about our rock climbing experiences, the friends we encounter, the techniques we come across, etc. So after dinner, I packed my laptop, and headed over to King's house where we spent the whole night trying to come up with a suitable name for the blog. Needless to say, we required the whole night considering we came up with names like "reaching climax" and "reaching for the sky". Finally, we settled for "gaining altitude", but unfortunately, the domain name was taken by some idiot who hasn't updated his blog since 2005. Thus, the alternative was chosen - Vertical Rising.