Berhala & kironngu again

Oh yes it all seems to be happening with us.
The trip to Berhala was pretty damn good, too many climbs to tackle in a weekend though.

If you want to try real rock climbing then let us know, better still ask anyone who has been out with us to Kironngu or Berhala and sign up for our next outing.....

Climb On! Singapore

In our relentless pursuit of excellence and success we have dispatched the Red Gecko climbing team from Sabah to wreak a special kind of havoc in the oh-so-straight world of Singapore. Country boys they may be and the big city might be a handfull but these guys are Sabahan and if theres one thing that you can say about Sabahans, they are adaptable!

What - evvveeeerrrr

You find yourself in a hole and you gotta start looking for a way out. Get used to it down there and its all over.
Never mind negativity, the chalk bag is half-full and dont ever forget it. Put another way; regardless of gravity's density on any given day, sometimes you are going to climb like a monkey and sometimes like a bag of onions. If its an onion bag day; dont sweat it, go home and take it easy. Come back tomorrow and it will probably be a monkey day.
Blog-catharsis this is.

Ok so moving on to a much more grounded subject, outdoor rock-climbing to be precise, the trip we have organised to Kironggu rock in Inanam for the 31st of October is now full, glad to see that people want to get out there and try the real stuff!
We do still have space on our trip to Berhala Island on the 6th and 7th of November, its going to be a doozy! big, scary and very lots of fun!
Sign up and lets get over there......

Its a strange thing how us humans are rarely, if ever, satisfied. At most its a passing sensation, a post-coital glow, the scoring of a goal or winning point, momentary and fleeting. Like a frangrance it is evaporating from the moment you put it on until only the memory of it remains.
How often do we wish for something, work for it, make sacrifices and compromises to get the thing of our desire only to experience a sinking sensation of anticlimax once we are holding it?
Is this what drives us to never stop, to move from one target to the next, a never-ending pursuit of the unobtainable, satisfaction?
So it is with the climbing centre in Kota Kinabalu. A major triumph for our team, the result of much hard work, sleepless nights, risky investment and zealous passion. A project that took a year to get operational after it was completed and one which we had no idea if it would be a success or monumental flop.
Our first month saw around 900 climbing sessions happen, around 30 people a night came down, climbed and hung out. Many of them have been coming down regularly.

Why is it then that we are left feeling unfulfilled?

Its like eating toast in bed, it feels great and sometimes you deserve it yet, there are crumbs in the bed afterwards and its hard to enjoy the sensation of satisfaction.

Its because us humans have a nirvana-type view of our desired outcome, there are no crumbs on our imaginary toast.

I have a feeling that heaven will be like that, there will be queues, bad food and tons of paperwork. Oh sure it will be a nice place, fluffy clouds or whatever but there will still be grafitti in the toilets and noisy neighbours..............

Back to the Climbing Centre (remember, its a blog about climbing). Though the operations are running swimmingly and numbers are great and we are finally starting to get strong again ourselves, it is too small, there are not enough routes, we need a shop and the Wireless is malfunctioning. All little things that suck out any indulgence into self-satisfaction at the overall success and undermine any bosom-swelling shows of pride one might be tempted to display.

Just thought I would share that with you.........

New gear!

We have now started to stock climbing kit at SICC. Shoes by La Sportiva, Evolve and Rock Pillars. Black Diamond and Ocun harnesses as well as a selection of carabiners, belay devices and chalk bags. For now they are cheap so get them while you can!

COME ON!!!!!!

The Sabah indoor climbing centre has been open for nearly three weeks now, three weeks of chalk dust, registrations, route setting, bad coffee, aching arms and the odd spinning hold (thanks Sebastian).
Many thanks to all of you who have supported us and told your friends about us. Many thanks to all of you that keep on coming down to enjoy the climbing and the wonderful wit and banter that we provide for free.
Many thanks also to all those who came down, learned to belay and got good very bloody fast.
It is extremely gratifying to see so many people in KK come down and try rock climbing, hear the screams of fear and reassure parents that their child will probably go home and try to climb every piece of furniture in the place.....

WEBSITE

www.sicc.com.my

Opening Time!

Like waking from a coma, the drowsy realisation that there is activity around you and something is happening that you should be a part of.
You need to be a part of this....
Sabah Indoor Climbing Centre at Likas is opening this week. We have the date set for the 'official' opening and signing ceremony on Wednesday which means that on Saturday we are open for business. That is Saturday the 28th of August.
Climbing is free for the first weekend and for the first month the first sessions will be free for everyone who turns up and joins (membership is RM10). We will run training sessions and belaying assessments for the first month for free at set times and there will be a stream of incentives flying around.
Our objective is simply to get people climbing, introduce the sport / lifestyle to the people of Sabah and let them join the global community of rock climbers.
Please help us by putting the word out, we have virtually no marketing budget because we are charging so little to use the centre, we need you to be a part of this new thing.
This saturday we will have a barbeque at the centre, please come along, bring your friends and take a look at the centre, have a go at climbing. what have you got to lose?

Climbing magazine

The intrepid Daniel Holz came to Berhala and published this article in the Climber magazine website;

http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/readerblogs/daniel_holz/daniel_holz_-_reader_blog_6/

Guess what....

Correct! absolutely nothing has changed.

The wall is slowly being vandalised, stuff getting stolen, no security whatsoever to protect it and do you think anyone cares?

Had the money to create this project come from private funds, or if anyone at the Sports Board were accountable for its success this situation would not be happening. Someone would care.

We will keep pushing to get the centre open, its a crushing disappointment to see it being left and a real lesson for us about who we work with and what terms we negotiate at the beginning.

There is another climbing centre currently in the pipeline and while it is not yet finalised it could still be open before Likas!

Moving swiftly on....

Building climbing walls is not all that we do here in Sabah and we are often asked about that. What does a rope access company do?

Traditionally rope access company's are heavily involved in construction, deconstruction and maintenance or inspection. Big buildings, dirty overalls oggling passing women.

Not Ropeskills though, its far too hot to be out in the sun in the city when there are so many interesting jobs to be found.

For example; at the moment we are building Borneo's best canopy walk on the island of Gaya at the brand new 5-star Bunga Raya Resort.

An ambitious project to build a canopy walk that doesn't require much exertion from guests, so no ladders to climb or big steps. It also needs to be big and stable enough for couples to stroll along at sunset or sunrise to enjoy the forest and beach view without struggling to hold on the whole way.

Sabah only has a couple of canopy walks that have a deck more than a foot or so wide, one at Borneo Rainforest Lodge and the other at Maliau Basin. Curiously both constructed by the legendary Philipinno, Emiliano.

Once this stage is completed we will be adding to the facilities by building six ziplines into the surrounding forest for the more adventurous guests, we will keep you posted....

NEWS!

Just kidding....
There little else to say except that we are still waiting for the sports board to decide when the centre will open, in practical terms they have let the moment pass for us to capitalise on the facility being new and exciting.
To those of you who have been enquiring, I apologise for the delay, it really is out of our hands. Truth is that we cant wait much longer ourselves, it may be that we reach the limit of our resources to wait and step out of the management role.
In the meantime we are looking into some alternative possibilities, KK is ready for a climbing centre....watch this space.

More Delays

It is with a heavy heart that I report yet another delay in the opening of the climbing centre.
Maybe it will never open, after five months of waiting I am starting to doubt that it will be worth the effort. The reflection on us is hard to avoid yet we have been ready and waiting for ages.

Without launching into a rant about working with governments I shall simply let the silence say what it needs to......