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Our planned climbing trip on Railey was rained out. Unfortunately, it was the same day the Phuket crash happened. The rain that day was torrential. We made our way to Koh Phi Phi by ferry and like the rest of the Krabi Province, limestone cliffs and karsts were prominent. On the second day on the island, we found a climbing shop and enquired about climbing with them. It was 1000 baht for half a day of top roping on Tonsai Tower. They said to come back at noon. Nicey and Mel Rose weren’t feeling to well that day. Something to do with drinking Blue Lagoons the previous night! Nicole and I grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the climbing shop. Although Phi Phi’s town is very small, the narrow streets seemed like a labyrinth. We found a tour company who said they were heading towards the Spidermonkey Climbing[1] shop. Yeah sure that must be it. Little did we know it was a completely different climbing company. No matter, Spidermonkey had the exact same deal: 1000 baht for half a days climbing on Ton Sai Tower. The owner Naomi and our guide Boy were friendly and accommodating. While gearing up we met another Naomi who was from Perth. She was new to climbing. We all walked towards the tower and had to scramble 50m up a gully from a large tree at the waters edge. The walk in was very hot. Luckily, once at the start of the cliff it was in the shade. Boy took us to an area called Tonsia Right where the grades begin from 5 up to 6b with several multi-pitch routes thrown in. Boy offered me the first climb: Jug City, 5+. A 14m sport route with lots of big holds, hence the name. I lead this with out any dramas but enjoying the magnificent views over the bay and town of Phi Phi. I setup the top rope for the others to follow. Nicole did really well and cleaned it despite her 6 weeks of non-climbing. No nervous laughter or even a giggle was offered. However the same can not be said of riding elephants Naomi was next and this was her first ever climb. The start was a little shaky but this was just beginner nerves: learning to trust holds and more importantly your belayer: will he catch me if I fall? Naomi did regain her confidence and proceeded to make her way to the top! Meanwhile, Nicey and Mel Rose had spotted us on the cliffs from the beach far below. They decided to scramble up the gully to meet us at the base. We moved onto the next climb: Stir Fried Water, 5+. This was a 22m route with a small overhang pass as its crux. Boy lead this and as he did pointed out a crucial hold on the crux that would otherwise not be so obvious or seen from the stance below. We all cleaned this climbed too. Even more spectacular views were experienced despite only a 8m gain in height from the previous climb. The guide book[2] converts the 5 climbs to a 19 Ewbank grade. Hmm, definitely wrong. The grade 5 climbs we did were more like Ewbank 14′s. Urban Crag recommends Spidermonkey climbing for your climbing needs on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. The guides are very knowledgeable, experienced and friendly. Their shop front also has some good Black Diamond gear on sale, cheaper than Bangkok. I ended up buying a couple of souvenir shirts though. References: 1. Spidermonkey Climbing website. Continue reading SpiderMonkey climbing on Koh Phi Phi This time he’s climbing for his life. Today’s climbing centers on Red Rambo the Hippy, a former member of Oracle’s Web ADI (an elite Software Development unit) who coded in Java and is a PhD student at UQ. Rambo has difficulty adjusting to hippy uni life and wanders the campus as a drifter. Our story begins as he is seeking out his friend the Grasshopper, apparently the only other Release Engineer from his unit to make it out of Oracle alive. Rambo runs afoul of Gangbang Wall, a grade 23 climb on the ultimate Urban Crag called Kangaroo Point cliffs. Gangbang Wall drives Rambo out of the crag while reminding him the climbers of Kangaroo Point don’t appreciate people of his kind: hippies. Ramba seeks another route to climb, but tonight a school group had setup on just about everything at the cliff. Ramba resorts to watching others from his crew climb, where he is beaten by Gilligan, the crew’s sadistic lead climber who happens to still be at Oracle. Gilligan climbs GangBang Wall to the top. Some of the crew are sympathetic to Rambo, but are also ignorant or meek. During the beatings, Ramba has flashbacks to his time as a Prisoner of Oracle (PoO). Talk of the Application Product Lifecycle, as the bouldering Giggler heckles him, brings to Rambo’s mind horrible torture when he was a PoO and causes Rambo to have a psychotic episode. He violently disables the Chock who then also ran afoul on Pterodactyl. Fleeing Gangbang’s belay station, Rambo quickly ties into XXXX’s top rope setup. Only moments before had the Teacher fell from the crux of XXXX in a failed dyno but dogs his way to the top. Rambo then confronts the Teacher, a belay device pushed at him. He threatens chaos should he be trashed talked again: "In the school yard you’re the law, out here it’s me. I could have cleaned all those climbs. I could have lead it. Don’t push it or I’ll give you a solo you won’t believe. Let it go. Let it go." Rambo then climbs suddenly. The Teacher is clearly shaken, but refuses to let go and belays him. Word gets around at the base of cliff, and the incident gets the attention of Rambo’s former Release Engineer, the Grasshopper, who warns that trying to out climb Rambo is suicidal; his robotics training and experience make him far better than anyone else. The Grasshopper suggests letting Rambo go; they can probably pick him up working at a car wash and nobody else will get hurt. The Teacher dismisses that advice and continues to belay Rambo. The Bruiser and Nicey evacuate the cliffs to seek a safe haven away from the pissing contests. The Grasshooper talks to The Teacher for the final time, advising him to give up his mania of belaying Rambo. Just let him down. The Teacher staunchly refuses. Rambo spots the crux. After destroying the start of the climb, he manages to get a few more metres up. Gilligan and The Teacher curse Rambo. Meanwhile, the Giggler was making a bold attempt on Gangbang Wall. And the Chock another attempt on Pterodactyl, this time with the right footwear. Rambo was effectively surrounded. The Grasshopper appears and tells him that his mini-climb with XXXX is over; there’s no hope of cleaning it, saying "It’s Over Christoper. It’s Over." Rambo responds with, "Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don’t turn it off! It wasn’t my climb. You asked me, I didn’t ask you!" He breaks down sobbing and tells a story about his friend Mikey Wise who was replaced by a shoe shining boy. With no purpose left, Rambo gives in and descends from the cliff. Once again Gilligan, the Grasshopper and Red, who will henceforth be known as Rambo the Hippy. Try to picture the following: Harry Potter glasses on Rambo; Paisley Park style head band; Red Rambo hairdo and you have got yourself Rambo the Hippy. Gilligan was first up and cruised easily to the crux. However, his dodgy finger and foot placements allowed the crux to be unconquered. Gilligan’s second attempt was much The Grasshopper climb was pitiful. The first bolt presented a big challenge and decided to traverse around it. At the crux, with the help of Gilligan’s belaying the Grasshopper well up the wall to the last crucial move. No amount of hauling could get the Grasshopper past this. Still pumped he descend off the climb and then raced up By Ignorance in bare feet. Rambo the hippy pounced his way up to the crux. Like the rest of us he had the same difficulties. Knees Up Mother Brown Bigfoot started early with a 30 minute epic on By Ignorance: he managed to get both feet off the ledge without the aid of the wedgie manoeuvre, but that’s as far as he got. Next up, the Giggler failed to find anything funny about scary, dark ledges. She inspected all of the available footholds, but didn’t find any of them to her liking. Finally, Bigfoot tackled the climb a second time, but found that the strength in his forearms was spent. He decided to try the "chicken route" up the right hand side of the ledge and made good progress, but saw that Gilligan & Rambo had started packing up their TR gear so he decided to come down. There was one last bit of excitement as Bigfoot had climbed far off route and thus did a big Tarzan swing when he let go of the cliff. The rope stretched to the point that his feet touched back down on the ledge, where he was happy to have a more conventional descent from that point on.
And here we were with Rambo, the Teacher and I at the bottom of the cliffs, with our ropes setup on Brisbane Bitter (24) and Anonymous (14). I noticed the Teacher had started his stretching exercise regime. Both Rambo and I heckled the Teacher. Then a very civil debate between Rambo and the Teacher took place. I stayed out of it and as I have always done, warmed up on an easier climb (Anonymous) – as the research paper suggested to do instead of exercising. After my climb the guys were still debating: The Teacher supporting the myth Rambo employing his encyclopedia knowledge (his brain is probably a wiki) defending the research article. Rambo finally had his last words to say and took up Anonymous with great ease. Upon his return to earth, the debate continued. Somehow it had moved on to metabolism and how Teacher shits X times a day and his urine is clear in colour!! Way too much info dude. Now I can’t write on with the rest of the blog! 1: Web link to the Choice article about Stretching.
Continue reading To Stretch or Not To Stretch
Nicey was back on Anonymous. Her nemesis was the start of the arete, where she needed to gain enough height by popping her left foot up to enable her to bridge up towards the ledge. She did this without hesitation. Confidence in pulling off this move helped her reach the ledge for the first time. A quick traverse right and then came some awkward positions trying to reach the next ledge. Footholds became scarce and the holds not thank god enough. Nicey did well to improve from last weeks effort, as opposed to my climbing tonight. Chip My Pride Away My return to Chippa’s saw me peel off the crux every time. Fingers and wrist were very sore. Somewhere on the flat wall I am missing a crucial hold. A half move is all I require to reach the next hold in the important sequence. Meanwhile, Bigfoot was climbing Anonymous. Red had similar issues on the crux too. His best performance was at the bouldery start where he cleaned it with ease. We both had a small fall on the first bolt region trying to extend ourselves for the reachy hold. Meanwhile, Bigfoot was still climbing Anonymous. Gilligan was next. My money was on Bigfoot to reach the top based on his past successes with Anonymous and that none of us could climb Chippas. The bouldery start saw Gilligan try a slightly different sequence with his hands to mantle the ledge. He breezed it past the first couple of bolts to stand on the ledge before the face. Here Gilligan moved onto the crux and this time used a foot hold far out to the right which enabled him to easily reach the next hold. Here on in, it was all an easy sequence. Gilligan had reached the top and cleanly too. He screamed out aloud with jubilation. Meanwhile, Bigfoot was still climbing Anonymous. The Return of the Bigfoot After six months in self exile, Master Bigfoot stomped back into the climbing world to reclaim his first ever successful ascent, Anonymous. Although packing more muscle, 100+ kilos of it |
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Where were we, thats right, Gilligan, the Grasshopper and Rambo the Hippy were confronting their nemesis Chip A Hold Away.
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