We had heard rumours of new sport routes being set up at Nanyang Wall by Team GreenTrekkerz the previous weekend. We got there around 930 after Zee couldnt wake up after a long night out the previous night. Akandos had to wait for him. A thousand apologies to Akandos.

We did a warm up route on Nanyang Right which was the 1st pitch of “Outing”. (6a+, 23m, 9bolts), and were joined by Team GreenTrekkerz sometime close to 11am. They packed static ropes and drills and a bunch of equipment that looked scary. We hope to get them to name the [...]

It was my first trip to Tambun so was not sure what to expect. I had heard that the routes there are no child’s play so I was quite intimidated even before we arrived at the site. Jan was kind and led me to a 5c on lead as warm up. After topping another route, I got the chance to tackle the Needle. As I struggled to find my way up, I find myself molesting the rocks with my arms and legs. Definitely nothing graceful or clean about my ascent, good thing nobody had a camera [...]

The day was slightly drizzly. From Kuala Lumpur we came in 4 cars, starting early in the morning. Some leaving at 7am to beat the traffic northwards for the long weekend break. We made it to Ipoh in 2 hours, straight into the heart of town to satisfy our hunger with a nice Dim Sum breakfast. Ipoh is famous for this and we found the popular Dim Sum places packed with people at 945am. This is late for Ipoh standards, but the place was still jam packed with families and shouting waitresses. They were quite “triad-like” in their treatment of [...]

This is an excerpt taken from Joanne and Matt Stamplis blog at http://joannestamplis.wordpress.com

Our 2nd day of hiking was shorter (probably less than 3km) but we still had 2300 feet to gain to reach the Gurkha Hut, our basecamp. And we were pretty worn out from the previous day’s hike. Joanne was really struggling with her load: our guide offered to shoulder some of the load. We were happy to oblige and the day ended up being considerably easier than the 1st day’s effort, though I could feel the air getting a bit thinner. And so we arrived at the Gurkha [...]

This is an excerpt taken from Joanne and Matt Stamplis blog at http://joannestamplis.wordpress.com

Alright! Now that the jetlag has worn off it’s about time we started posting about our travels in Malaysia. We ended up not climbing nearly as much as we originally hoped because ….well, we’ll get to that later. First, it’s time to go to Mount Kinabalu! Read on to hear about absurd weather and even more absurd bureaucracy! I’m going to try to not be too bitter and nasty in some of the rants below but no promises.

We started our trip with one of the longest plane trips [...]

This is an excerpt taken from Joanne and Matt Stamplis blog at http://joannestamplis.wordpress.com

After killing some time on Singapore (more on this later!) we took a trip to the tropical paradise of Tioman Island. We wanted to scope out the climbing on the island and take a stab at the imposing Dragon Horns. From the mainland we caught a ferry to the village of Genting. But we had to get to Mukut, on the south tip of the island, so we had to hire a boat (a bit costly – haggle!) to get there.

Mukut village, nestled between the ocean and the [...]

This is an excerpt taken from Joanne and Matt Stamplis blog at http://joannestamplis.wordpress.com

OK, I can’t resist: One last post from our stay in Malaysia! The day before our flight back home we decided to go “check out” this climbing area near Kuala Lumpur, called Bukit Takun. It has some of the only trad routes near the city and we were looking to climb something (after our failures on Kinabalu and Tioman!). So we met up with a local climber (Zee) who had been there once before and got a ride with him to go see.

Bukit Takun! A pretty impressive looking [...]

Ipoh is  located some 2.5 hours drive north of Kuala Lumpur via the convenient North South Highway (PLUS). Traffic signs leading to Ipoh are very well displayed even from parts of Kuala Lumpur. Just make sure you follow the bright green signs (which in Malaysia indicates a tollway/highway/motorway) and not the blue signs (these can lead you into long winding country roads with lots of potholes, trucks and will take you significantly longer that 2.5 hours).

Ipoh is a very picturesque town surrounded by limestone hills and was previously founded to support the growing tin mining industries run by the british. [...]

We didnt have a camera to take any pictures. The sad story is that someones camera phone got snatched while walking in Bangsar and so we cant show you pictures for this climb. However, we can illustrate  somewhat the route of the climb as per below, and describe each pitch for your reference. If there is anyone out there who has pictures and more information of the various pitches, please comment this.

The 4 pitches were done on Jan’s 70 meter rope.

1st Pitch: 6C (5 Bolts) 15m – Jan

Very technical pitch which involves a lot of commitment to precariousresting positions [...]

Ascent up 3 pitch Redemption Song and Damai Wall, Batu Caves done on Sunday 9th November 2008 by Zee and Akandos. First attempt done previous week by Akandos and Josephine but only up to 2nd pitch due to injury.

The ascent was an easy one with the descriptions as per below:

1st Pitch: 5C+ (11 Bolts) 28m – Zee

Easy climb with lots of jugs and low gradient
Some loose earth and trees in the way but not too much of a problem
Anchor is on a ledge with a shallow cave about a metre wide.
The anchor was double bolted chain [...]