First indoor climbing session in Singapore, some new friends and an unexpected gift

Last week, en route to Dairy Farm Quarry, Junior told me about a friend of his who I might be able to hook up with for some more climbing. He told me that his name was Andy and that he was a very strong climber (great stuff, a chance for me to watch and learn).

I sent Andy a text explaining who I was and asking if he fancied meeting up for some climbing. Andy replied that he would be climbing Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, and that I would be welcome to join him. We agreed to meet at Climb Asia climbing wall at 8pm on Monday evening. I sat down, opened up Google maps and my MRT map, and started to work out how to get there.

Monday night came and I set off on the MRT at around 7pm. By 7:40 I was walking up Tennensohn Road toward the climbing wall.

Climb Asia is situated within the Civil Service Club. It’s at one end of a big room that’s used for other sporting activities. My first impressions were; 1. It was really hot (no aircon), 2. It was really small – Smaller than any climbing wall I have ever been to. The reception area had a sign saying ‘No footwear’, so I took my shoes off and walked in to register.

Once I had completed my registration, I sat down to watch some of the other climbers there. Everybody was top roping but for the most part, from what I could tell, they were all climbing pretty hard. I called Andy to tell him that I had arrived, he told me that he was just leaving the office (Singaporeans work really hard) and would be there asap. I settled down to watch other people climbing, until a friendly face took pity on me and asked if I would like a belay. That friendly face was Alvin, climbing with his girlfriend Jocelyn. It turns out they met while studying in London. I happily accepted the offer, and chalked up for my first route.

I kicked off with an easy 5+ on a slab. Alvin told me that it would be too easy for me, but I wanted a warm up. As soon as I had lowered off, Alvin Suggested I climb the 6b next to it, so I did. The moves were OK but I noticed that I was struggling to identify the foot holds as covered in chalk, they all looked white from the top, and that many of the holds were really polished (something I hadn’t really experienced at an indoor wall before).

We moved along the wall taking it turns to climb. Both Alvin and Jocelyn had nice technique. I asked them how long they had been climbing. They had both been climbing for less than a year – gulp! I had been climbing for 2 and half years and my footwork was nowhere near as good.

After climbing a few routes with Alvin and Jocelyn, Andy turned up and I found out what Junior had meant by ‘strong climber’. This guy was a machine! I watched while someone else belayed him. He was doing laps up the hardest routes on the wall, down climbing some of the easier ones then going again without touching the floor! He told me he was “trying to get pumped” – Wow!

I climbed a few more routes and decided that the routes were quite different to the ones I had climbed indoors in the UK. There seemed to be a ‘feel’ to the routes, they were often very balancy with huge rock-overs. Nothing was overly reachy though, which was nice for me (being short). I left with the feeling that I would have to really raise my game to climb with my new friends!

After we had a done a couple of hours on the main wall, Andy suggested we go into the bouldering room. There I met a friend of his called Melvin, who it turns out writes for Men’s Health magazine. Andy and Melvin had actually recently finished writing a book together; The second edition of ‘Climb Singapore’, a beautifully illustrated guide to the local climbing scene. I was delighted when Andy presented me with a copy to take with me. I’ll have to remember to take it back with a pen and ask them both to sign it. An awesome memento of the trip.

I’m looking forward to meeting the guys again soon. I’m hoping to try a different wall later in the week, called The Climber’s Laboratory, hopefully with one of the lads called Harris, I met last Saturday at Dairy Farm.