Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Everest next?

Rock Wall Climbing

Imagine scaling a sheer vertical wall about 20 feet (6+ meters) high, to get to the roof of a two storey building, using nothing but your fingers and toes and some irregularly spaced, smooth "rocks" projecting out just a couple of inches. That's one of the things my granddaughters like to do and have become good at. They wear a safety harness and you will see the rope attached to their harness in the videos, but the rope isn't used to help in the climbing. It's used only in case of a fall and for rappelling down.

Last Sunday they did this to celebrate the ninth birthday of one of them and I went along to watch, take pictures and eat the pizza. Here are three video clips of three of the girls climbing the rock wall.





4 comments:

Pak Zawi said...

louis,
Though I don't climb, I was instrumental in the development of rock climbing routes on natural limestone walls in Gua Musang Kelantan. About 60 routes are now available and the beauty of the place is the cool sheltered section C and D which can be climbed in any weather.
Hope you grand daughters will travel all over the world to enjoy this beautiful sport.
See more here http://longadventure.com/climbing/gua_musang.html

louis said...

Wow, Zawi! 60 rock climbing routes, with natural beauty attached. I sure hope my granddaughters get to enjoy them.

They are growing up in an environment that promotes an open mind and a strong interest in other places and other cultures. I hope I am going to be accompanying them on at least some of their explorations of Malaysia, even though I shall be on the ground level watching as they climb those natural limestone walls.

Thanks for that link.

By the way, have you noticed what I did with your sunset in Labuan photo :)?

Fauziah Ismail said...

Hi Louis
Good to know that children still enjoy outdoor sports rather than being glued to the computers and television sets.

louis said...

I don't know if the pendulum is finally swinging back from the days of just passively watching tv or monitors, but I have been very encouraged to see that my grandchildren and their peers are participating in a very wide range of activities, physical, intellectual, cultural and community service.

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