Marmot Mountain Festival

Had a good night out at the Mamot Mountain Festival. Met up with some old friends, free flow of Stella Artois, terrific presentation of the Cho Oyu by SWET.

Come next year, the girls will attempt to summitt Everest. Check out the SWET website for more details:

http://www.womenoneverest.com

Sport Climbing welcomed into the Olympic Movement

The IOC Executive Board has granted provisional recognition status to the IFSC on December 10.

Notably the IFSC focus on youth was cited as a factor in the EB decision. The recognition gives the IFSC an official association to the IOC, not to mention membership in the ARISF.

The IFSC was created January 27th 2007, when 48 member federations voted unanimously to create the new International Federation, which was a continuation of the International Council for Competition Climbing – in existence since 1997. Exactly three months later the IFSC was granted membership of the GAISF, The General Association of International Sports Federations. IFSC is member of the International World Games Association and Sport Climbing premiered in The World Games in 2005 and will again feature in The World Games 2009. Looks like we might soon see the inclusion of Sports Climbing in the SEA Games and Asian Games.


SEA Games Calendar
2009 – Laos
2011 – Jakarta, Indonesia
2013 – Singapore

Asian Games Calendar
2010 - Guangzhou, China

8a Airpad

Inflatable crashpad by 8a and HGB.Inflatable crashpad by 8a and swedish company BHG. Takes 3 minutes to be inflated using a pump.

Marmot Mountain Festival

Venue: Ice Cold Beer (SMU)
Date:15 Dec 07, 3pm - late

Come join the Singapore Women's Everest Team (SWET) at the Marmot Mountain Festival on the Sat, 15th of December.

The Women's Team will also be sharing their Cho Oyu (6th highest mountain in the world) experience at the event, complete with never-before-released footage.

Ticket on Sale at Campers' Corner @ SGD$30. Ticket sales will contribute towards making the Everest climb next year possible

Kelvin goes to Milan

My abseil buddy Kelvin is finally on his way to Milan to pusue his Masters in Product Design. Guess that we will have lesser abseiling sessions without him.

All the best pal, see you next year.

Asian Youth Championship Reflections

We made history by becoming the first nation in the world to organise the boulder discipline in the youth championship. The boulder discipline was included after the Federation were unable to secure a suitable wall for the Lead discipline. What followed was a series of uncertainty and challenges (how to squeeze 6 categories into 2 days, insufficient logistics and manpower, hunting for a new Chief Routesetter. A big thanks to the following people who has turned a chaotic youth championship into one of the greatest learning experience in the history of competition climbing

Kim Dong Hyun - AYC Chief Routesetter
The only routesetter in the AYC, Kim need to set about 30 boulder problems for the competitors, Despite several limitations (restricted competition area, insufficient time routesetting time, not enough landing mattress, etc), Kim was able to split the competitors which the boulders he set.

Sammy Yick - AYC Jury President
Sammy role as a Jury President (for the very first time) here was a challenging one. He needs to ensure the the competition commences despite the limitations while not compromising to the competitors' safety.

Joanne Soo & Seet Thiam Huat
Both have been helping with a lot of coordination prior to the AYC. Joanne drafted the provisional programme in Guangzhou, was the chauffeur for Kim and Sammy throughout the competition. if not for Thiam Huat, the results would probably not be out so fast and the team managers and coaches might have to wait another hour for a comp that is ending past midnight.

Looking back, we would not have gain so much valuable experience had we withdrawn from the championship. Next year's event will be in Japan, competition discipline are likely to e Lead and Boulder. Gambate = )

Asian Youth Championship

The Asian Youth Chanmpionship will now be a Boulder and Speed discipline instead of Lead and Speed. Qualification Round will be on 23 Nov, Semi and FInals will be 24 Nov. Venue will be at Climbadventure. The Speed discipline will be held on 25 Nov at Suntect City Convention Hall 6 inconjuction with NSSCC FInals

http://www.smf.org.sg/events_asian.htm

Shopping in Hong Kong

Speak of Hong Kong and the reputation of a concrete jungle with towering sky scrapers will come to mind. While that is true. much of the territory remains undeveloped as the terrain is mostly hilly to mountainous with steep slopes. Coupled with a subtropical and temperate climate, the marketing for outdoor gears and winter clothings are much bigger than the SIngapore market.

I spent the entire Saturday walking along the streets of Mongkok looking for climbing gears. Here are a list of climbing shops situated in Mongkok within walking distance from each other.

Hong Kong Mountaineering Training Centre (HKMTC) - 1K Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok, Kowloon

Chamonix Alpine Equipment - 6A Nelson Street,G/F&1/F,Mongkok,Kowloon

Chamonix Alpine Equipment/ Hong Kong Mountaineering Training Centre stocks a wide variety of equipment. A must visit if you are looking for climbing shoes as it stock Five Ten & La Sportiva. Go to Chamonix Alpine Equipment if you are look for climbing shoes as the staff at HKMTC will need to go updairs to located the shoes sizes which could be a hassle especially when you are catching a plane.

Direction

You can find Chamonix Alpine Equipment easily when you head from Exit E (Bank Centre) of Mongkok MTR Station towards Fa Yuen St - it's on the corner of the ladies market located at the 2nd junction. Walking all the way to extreme ned after turning right at the 3rd junction will briing you to Hong Kong Mountaineering Training Centre.

The Overlander - 12-23, 12/F, Hollywood Plaza, 610 Nathan Rd, Mongkok.

Unlike the other shops, The Overlander is located in a office building. It has plenty of winter and hiking clothing. You can also find a wide collecton Gregory Classic Series and Montbell/Snow Peak titanium cookware.

Direction

Turn right from Exit E of Mongkok MTR Station and along the main street. Turn right at the 2nd junction to Nathan Road.

Mammut Pro Shop - 906, 9/F Hollywood Plaza 610 Nathan Road Mongkok

I found Mammut Pro Shop by chance when I saw a lady holding a Mammut Warehouse Sale signboard. It's in the same building as The Overlander.

RC Outfitters - 5/F&6/F, Oriental House, 24-26 Argyle Street, Mongkok

I didn't go to RC Outfitters as they have shifted from the old place. The are also well-known for their reasonable amount of climbing equipment.

Direction

Left alley of Mongkok MTR Exit D3

2nd AIG

The speed category was fully dominated by China by winning 2 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze. The women could have made it all-china poium finish if not for the 2 medals per NOC rule.


The lead catgory saw the usual dominance of the Japanese and Koreans. Both finals saw 1 Japanese and 1 Korean topping the route. The Women's final was split by a countback to the semis while the Men's final is decided bt the time taken to top the route.


The Games also saw a huge gathering among Asian judges. No competitions to date has activiated 15 officials from Asia. We are looking foward to the 3rd Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam even though the staus of Sports Cimbing is still in limbo.

Back from Asian Indoor Games

Just came back from Macau after the Asian Indoor Games. Someone was suppose to post a blog on his trip to KL during my absence but it's still not up after a week.....

Joanne and Tham Huat left for the Asian Cup in Changsha early yesterday, The weather is belived to be as cold as 7 degrees. They will head Asian Championship in Guangzhou before staying in Hongkong for a night.

Went to Mongkok yesterday wth Francis Low (aka small Francis) before he goes back to KL. Made my way to Central after Mongkok to meet up wth Rita. Met for a short 1 hour but the tram ride was worth all the wait.

Need to follow up on the NSSCC and Asian Youth Championship.

Speed Format B

Like Format A, this new format consist of a qualification and final round. The only exception is that the rounds are carried out in heats. Competitots will also be climbing 1 route per heat instead of the usual 2 in Format A .

Qualification Round
The number of competitors in the qualification round will be distributed evenly between the heats. Each heat shall consist a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 competitors.

All winners of heats in th equalification round shall qualify for the final round. The ramining places for the final round will be filled by competitors with the shortest timing.

Final Round
4 competitors will be competing with each other with the fastest 2 competitors qualifying for the next stage.

The Final Stage will see the last 4 competitors competing with each other with 1 competitor going home empty-handed.

A little history...

While everyone in this little red dot is happily climbing on artificial climbing walls and indoor boulder gyms, here's a little story on how climbing on plastic started.

Climbing was nothing more than a summer sport where climbers could do nothing in winter

History was made in 1964 at Leeds University when Don Robinson, a Physical Education lecturer and founder of DR Climbing Walls removed a few bricks from a corridor wall and cemented rocks in their place. This "crazy" idea gave British climbers a chance to keep climbing through winter

By today's standards, the world`s first indoor climbing wall wasn`t much but it paved way for today`s modern walls. .What started as a training facility for climbers has now become a climbing discipline in its own right.

Back to abseil again

It's been quite some time since we last abseiled at the Bridge. The reguar group of abseil junkies has been reduced to Sharon, Kelvin and myself with the addition of Errol and Stan Jr.

Stan Jr's got some poor colour coordination with his attire that day. It's the usual ritual of abseiling past a knot, changeover from prussiking to abseiling for Kelvin and myself. Stan Jr and Errol are treated with abseiling with different devices. We wrapped up the session by doing our final descend down the plaform on top of the canal.

The next abseil session is in 2 weeks time and we gonna set a line in the middle of the canal. Let's see who has the honour galling into the water =)

Climb On! SIngapore 2007 Results

Finally gotten the full results for Climb On! Stan Jr manages to chalk up 26,540 points to finish 5th in the Men's U18 category Over at the Open category, TingTing was 8th in the Women's (19,510 points) while Errol was 51st in the Men's (18,055 points). Was told that the problems for both Sat and Sun are the same. Will be interesting to see how the U18 climbers fare if we combine the results of the Open and U18 together.

http://http://www.climb-asia.com/image/events/climbon07/ALL%20results.pdf

National School Sport Climbing Championship 2007

The National School Sport Climbing Championship will be held at Suntec Singapore, Convention Hall 3 from 23rd - 25th Nov 07, in conjunction with Sport And Fitness Expo 07. This was event was orignally to be scheduled in August. Categories to be confirmed. Registration open on 2nd Oct 07.

Climb On! Singapore 2007... you have 2 more days to pay

This year's Climb ON! Singapore (8 - 9 Sep will be a two days event. The festival will kick-off with the U12, U18 categories and Speed this Saturday while the Open categories and Dyno will be on Sunday.

Venue will be at Tampines Field (behind Tampines MRT) Weather has been rather whacky this couple of weeks so don't be too suprised if it rains on these 2 days.

Addtional charge of $4 will be imposed for payment made after 5 September (Excluding Speed and Dyno).

September - The Month of Climbing Competitions... IFSC Climbing World Championship

The World Championship is a biennial happening and is obviously regarded as the chief sport climbing event.

For several days top class climbers compete to be recognized as the best climber in the world.The championship comprises of Difficulty, Boulder and Speed. The first overall champion will also be crowned.

The championship which was originally scheduled to take place in Marbella, in Southern Spain, has now been moved north to Avilés. A whole of 350 climbers from 53 countries participated in the last World Championship (Munich "05) and the IFSC hopes to reach 400 participating climbers in Avilés in September.

http://www.cwch07.com/

September - The Month of Climbing Competitions... Acro Rock Master

September is packed with two of the biggest climbing competitions.

Arco (Garda – Trentino, Italy) will once again take centrestage as host to the XXI Rock Master on 8 and 9 September.

Format
The top 10 men and women climbers (based on continuously updated Worldranking) will spend two entire days competing on the the highest wall in Europe. The competitors are require to climb on-sight on Saturday and after work redpoint on Sunday. The points (ie height) are added together to create the Final Results.

The Duel
The top 4 men and women climbers from of the Final Results will compete in a head-to-head duel on two identical parallel routes. The winners of the first round (1st vs 3rd, 2nd vs 4th) will compete in the final for the Trophy.

http://www.rockmaster.com

Coming up next... IFSC Climbing World Championship 2007