Breakfast is in a hostel is kinda nice..You have all the stuff one would eat at home.Bread jam etc..So everyones still sleepy from a 6am wake up, we eat toast bread and peanut butter. Free flow coffee too..And whoever finishes first is always gracious and offers to wash up for the others who are done too.
Then off we went for our first days climb at Damai wall, Batu caves. First a short walk to catch a taxi.
The taxi drivers in KL are 2 extremes.Some are really nice, and some plain out to get your money. They dont use meters, and just anyhow quote.Unfortunately for the most part we met more of the latter. Its a 20 minute drive down to the caves. Nice driver : $12 ringgit. Un-nice driver : $20.
Finally, Damai wall in all its glory. Its pretty beautiful, just one big chunk of limestone hill. And all to ourselves when we arrived. Ah God's creations. Here we are about to climb on one of them.Amazing really..
Look at that rock face just itching to be climbed..
Now the rope doesnt just magically go up. Someone has to put it there, by a process known as leading. You carry a whole bunch of karabiners and clip them in as you go up. Scary thing is, refer to the lousy diagram below, that for every few metres you climb above the last place you clipped, if you fall before the next one, youll fall double the distance. And the rock is pretty sharp. But occupational hazard i guess.
So usually the one who leads has to have some experience, and climb considerably well.Its not easy, the karabiner things are heavy, you hang on one hand while trying to clip with the other. My cousin, Brent and me set up the routes for the others. Once you lead to the top, you can anchor the rope and others wont have to lead like you did. Like so
And more climbing..
Shelter from the rain, yet still being able to climb "outdoors".Haha..Great view from the mouth too..I just sat and stared out for a bit.
Climbing in the cave was fantastic..the routes were more challenging. But inside was quite dangerous because of loose rocks. My cousin accidentally grabbed one, and this BIG chunk of stone came tumbling down, miraculously missing every single person there (about 10 people) and landing right next to the feet of one of the belayers. Thank God.