By Siti Sarah Sofea
Edited by Syafiqah Suhaimi
There's this rock climbing wall at a fire station we have always passed by whenever my family goes to the night market on every Friday and each time, I thought to myself, "AAAA, it would be great if I could try and climb that!". Climbing is an activity that is very close to my heart, something I used to enjoy with my siblings and family during my childhood.
Fate has it that someone told me that the division club of IIUM Adventure & Recreational Club (ARC), Lunar Climbers, was organising an indoor climbing activity at Putrajaya Challenge Park (PCP). With no previous experience in rock climbing, I signed myself up with a fee of RM35 to actually try rock climbing for the first time in my life.
While PCP’s original fee for students is as low as RM3, the food, drinks, transportation, equipment, belayers, guidance, and many other conveniences brought together were very much worth the fee issued by the club. I had an exciting time there from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"So you spend like, 6 hours climbing and climbing?"
Well, we definitely did not climb non-stop for 6 hours. Let me just explain what happened and what I learnt, okay?
In the morning, we gathered at the main stairs near the IIUM Main Auditorium before riding the IIUM bus (we love everything IIUM). Everyone was so nice and friendly to each other. The nervousness of trying new things didn't wreck me, thanks to them.
The sight of different shapes of rock walls when we arrived astonished me and I stood there, stunned and gaping. It was at this point that I learnt that there are different types of rock climbing with different levels of difficulty and expertise required. Amongst them are bouldering, top rope climbing, lead climbing and speed climbing.
1.1 Preparation
We were first divided into different teams with belayers to guide us. We started off with top rope climbing, which I consider to be the most secure and suitable for beginners. One is required to have a harness, climbing shoes, a bag of chalk (to be used when necessary), and a belayer. Climbers will be connected to a system consisting of a rope and pulley, allowing more control when climbing and lowering, as well as safety in case they slip or lose hold of the rocks. There are different routes with different colours and difficulty to be conquered in top rope climbing.
My legs wobbled at first, since I was afraid of height, which I regretted a bit, because there's nothing to be afraid of, as the belayers will always be there to support the climbers. Nevertheless, influenced by my enthusiastic team members, I started with an easy route and got greedy to try more challenging routes. It was both entertaining and heart-warming to see us encouraging each other to conquer those routes. Two of my team members even attempted the expert level of top rope climbing as the rest of us broke our necks looking up to watch them.
1.2 Me at the top of the world
1.3 With my supportive belayer
After lunch and Zuhur break, we continued a bit with top rope climbing before some of us moved on to bouldering.
As there are easy and difficult levels in top rope climbing, bouldering is definitely one of the difficult ones, since it wasn’t as easy as it appears to be. Unlike top rope climbing, there are no ropes or pulleys to keep us from falling down. Good news, though: there are large cushions provided in case we fall down or lose hold on the rocks. If you’re someone who gets nervous about heights, bouldering is a great option for rock climbing as the walls are lower than top rope climbing. The wall for beginners is quite easy to conquer, but the expert-level wall triggered the competitiveness in my teammate and me. We got wounded and fell down multiple times trying to get to the top of the expert bouldering wall. Up until we were told to stop our activities and gather around, we still didn't manage to get to the top of the wall. My competitive self wasn't satisfied and I was a little disappointed because I didn't reach the top but I console myself knowing that I wasn't ready for such a difficult challenge. Afterwards, we wrapped everything up near 5 p.m. and headed back to the campus.
1.4
1.5
“What about lead climbing and speed climbing?”
I didn't get to try those two types of rock climbing—more like I wasn’t ready to try. Lead climbing requires the climber to clip their rope to the anchors attached to the wall as they climb. Unlike top rope climbing, belayer’s ability to assist climbers is more limited. Lead climbing is more suitable for someone who's experienced in climbing due to its physical and technical difficulties.
1.6 World Record Speed Climbing
Speed climbing, on the other hand, is even more difficult to me, as there's nothing to support you to the top, and you have to climb to the top in the shortest time possible. The Lunar Climbers President shared that the world record for the fastest speed climber is 5 seconds, enough to suspect a Spider-man amongst the record-holders, no?
All in all, rock climbing is not as easy as some people think. It requires strength, a bit of thinking, courage and perseverance. But I barely have any of those, so do not worry and try rock climbing when you get the chance, you will not regret it!
When joining new sports or fields, you might get worried that some people get defensive towards and alienate the beginners. But I find that rock climbers are actually very welcoming and supportive. When I was nervous about top rope climbing for the first time, my belayer, the club members and fellow participants kept on cheering and assuring me. No matter who it was—friends, participants, or strangers—the climbers are so supportive of everyone.
1.7 A picture together with the Arc climbing participants
If by any chance, you are inspired to try rock climbing, do give @Lunar Climbers a follow on Instagram as they hold weekly climbing activities. Keep your eyes open and jump for the opportunity to try rock climbing and scale new heights in your life, like I did!
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