Saturday, August 19, 2006

Superb~

Warning : lame drawing included...
Announcement : This is not tutorials for rock climbing.. it's just my 1st time experience..

so i start off my day waking at 8 something...so after brushing n stuff.. i went out to meet my fren, Winston at the cyberia roundabout... then later another fren, yong came then we walked to school.. Y?we going to join MMU outdoor club's [there's a longer name for it.. i forgot.. as well as the shortform .. ]weekly activity to batu caves for rock climbing.. well me n winston is not a member.. but.. i think is ok we join .. as they nv say anything.. [maybe they thought we were member]

so after.. like.. 45 minutes waiting.. Cha Uon [pronounce Cha-Uon] came.. driving his iswara.. fetching a person, Umat ..then me winston yong n another malay guy , najib go into the car n off we go ... on the way .. stopped by for petrol .. 3 dollar for each person .. to be fair ler.. right?so we reached there after having breakfast near the place... bout.. 11 sumthin ..just to state something.. talking bout batu caves.. alot ppl thought it's the temple.. ok ..our climbing spot is no where near the temple ...

some intro by them to me.. the place we heading to have a lot of section .. it's like 1 big rock have 4 sites... the 1 we going is the basic 1...wit like 30 routes on a piece of wall ...n some otehr tat i stated at the bottom of this post...

few term to use :
lead/open : to create a route for others to climb ...

as we reach there.. there's a pak cik ..at the pondok... wit a warm smile.. n saying good morning to us.. i suppose he is like jaga for the place.. as the place is a public place.. u can go any time.. if u have the equipments n stuff ler.. so we put all thsoe equipments in the pondok .. n then they [Najib, Cha Uon, Umat] started to open some easy route for us to climb...so we all tested it all ...

as time goes by .. we get to climb more n more route they open .. then there's more n more ppl came.. all they know 1.. i suppose they've been climbing for long time.. then i saw 1 bunch of singaporean there climbing..2 girls 3 guy .. they came earlier... talked to 1 of them .. so i know .. n there's a i think is couple.. 1 guy 1 girl .. came to climb also .... wow~ pro..

then i forgot bout wat time.. we feel some water droplet.. OMG it's going to rain ... but well .. ntg happen... then later on .. few hours later.. it's really rainning.. so we have to stop climbing n go to the pondok for shade... then we take the stairs to inside the caves... there's some freaking high lvl route .. bout 6a onwards.. just to c .. tat's where u can climb while it;s raining ler.. i actually saw the couple trying one of the route.. freaking high ..

wehn teh rain stopped.. we continue climbing.... then bout 6 sumthin .. we gone back home..

Knowledge gained...
Equipments...
-shoe
it's very veyr tight.. u cant walk wit it.. it hurts.. but if u climb wit it it's just nice.. for example.. i wearing number 9 shoe.. but for the climbing shoe.. it's maybe 7 n half or 8 onli ..

-harness
u definately need this.. if not u cant even get started.. hope every1 knows.. wear it like a pants wit onli straps..

-rope, big hook[i named it myself], runer, bag of cholk
these are all equipments tat needed in order to climb..




ok .. so starts off wit a person leading.. 1 person start climbing wit a big hook .. n the rope tie thightly to the harness.. as the person start climbing.. the other at the bottom will slowly release some rope for him .... tat particular job they call it as 'belay'...which is the person at the bottom supporting u o climb... then there's bolt on the walls.. which is used for hooking the runer.. notice tat the harness, there's a flat 1 n a curve 1.. flat 1 is for u to hook it onto the bolt on the walls.. so for every bolt.. u put a runer.. tehn u clip the rope on .. this is to ensure if u falls.. u will stay on the runer.. sumthin like check point.. then wehn u reach the top .. it;s the top of the route.. there's some chain n special ring there.. so u attach the rope onto tat .. as for how.. hard to explain .. nv try before.. but they explained to me once.. then after tat u can just sit n relax as the person at the bottom slowly release the rope for u to go down .. well .. u have to kick the wall .. it's not totally relax.. just some brief explaination .. i doubt any1 will read all ..

What they taught me
- a wet rope will take bout 5-6 days to dry it.. Y ? because u cant dry it under he sun ...
- the cliping proscess during the leading or open process is extremely important.. u cant clip it the otherway round.. [hard to explain how.. my drawing sux]
- mistake for begineer : using ur hand to pull urself up instead of legs..
- how to open a route... though i nv try before..
- the difficulties of a route ranging from 5A onwards.. 5B 5C then 6A n so on .... for this not quite sure.. i just asked bit bout it...
- do not rush .. make sure u stepped firmly.. n balanced urself .. all position comfortable then u go ..
- there's very flexible ways to climb a route.. unlike wall climbing...[both have pros n cons]

-- some details is just hardly express in words n lame drawing --

Conclusion
i was really very happy n exited for the 1st time experience on rock climbing.. despite tat i've done it N-th times at TC.. i get to know form some commetties of the club tat there'll be a rock climbing course at somewhere around i forgot... liek 6 days.. n u will be awarded certificates after attending the course... consider it..

# posted by limys @ 10:05 PM