Indoor rock climbing at Putrajaya Challenge Park

It never occur to me to ever in my life to attempt rock climbing not until some unknown yet friendly sales guy from Adidas injected the idea of indoor rock climbing to me sometime early this year. I remembered him asking if I am an outdoor junkie and whether I have tried rock climbing before. I said Yes, I am somewhat an outdoor junkie however I have never done rock climbing ever and upon hearing that, he quickly recommended Mad Monkeyz indoor rock climbing gym. I took note of this gym and forgotten all about it until someone in our outdoor gang started asking about this rock climbing gym at Putrajaya. Long story short, a group of 10 of us went for rock climbing some weekends ago and it was really fun!

Getting to this Putrajaya Challenge Park or locally translated on the signboard as Taman Cabaran is pretty easy. Follow the signboard for Precint 5 and don't be surprised if you have to go through the Muslim cemetery and see many cars parked around the area. Keep going ahead from that cemetery and the many cars you see are from people attending the burial ceremony and no, they are not visiting the Challenge Park like you are.Haha. You will see the Taman Cabaran signboard and the welcome banner a couple of minutes drive up ahead.

[caption id="attachment_1143" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Welcome climbers to Putrajaya Challenge Park"][/caption]

After getting changed (there's changing room with showers and loo) and paying up the fees (entrance fee: RM 6 + we shared shoes, harness and belayer service, so each person pay a total of  RM11), we were directed to the beginner's wall. To tell you the truth, the wall is pretty intimidating and out of no where, I feel scared and anxiety take the better of me. The wall is high and it looks tough to climb. I struggled with the harness for a good 5 minutes and up I went making my first attempt at indoor rock climbing. Man, it was tough! I was clueless at most time on where I should put my hands and feet. I kept hearing people from below shouting up to me, to push with  my legs, don't use my hands to pull myself up. But what the heck right, I was loosing grip and your immediate response is to hold on tight on the rocks with your bare hands. Despite being roped on a harness, it feels a whole lot safer to grip those rocks with your own hands rather than letting go of yourself to the hands of the belayer( the guy holding the rope down from your harness). During this first attempt, I made only inches away from the top and on the second run, this time with shoes on, and after endless shouts of "where to hold on" later to my belayer, I made it to the top. For no reason at all, you begin to perspire like crazy because unknowingly, it takes a whole lot of energy to pull yourself up when you do rock climbing.

[caption id="attachment_1147" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Beginner's boulder is easy? So NOT!"][/caption]

Next up, I tried going for the beginner's boulder - the one with the thick mattress on the ground. I found myself stuck on I think the 45 degrees slant on the wall and I hesitated on whether to jump down from 2 meters below or keep trying to go up or climb down a little bit and then jump. After much struggle, I chose the latter and it can get very intimidating and nerve wrecking to jump that high (although it may probably be less than 2 meter high). After much photo snaps later and only 2 climbs on the beginner's wall and 2 climbs on the beginner's boulder, I called it a quit.

Rock climbing takes a lot of energy out of you and yes you gotta be fit to enjoy this game. One thing I really like about it though is the amount of calories you get to burn in a short period of time and let say if I continue working on this rock climbing activity for sometime, I'm sure to have a very fit body. I would highly suggest rock climbing for anyone game enough for adventure and most importantly want to have a full body workout quickly in a short period of time. Most people say, rock climbing can get pretty addictive because you will want to do it again and again after your first climb. Personally, I would like to think, yeah, I'll do it again next time but I'm not too sure if I'll get addicted to it. Other than that, if you are given a chance to try out on indoor rock climbing gym or better the real deal on a real, outdoor rock face, do give it a go and don't be afraid to annoy your belayer or instructor on where to put your hands and feet during your climb.

[caption id="attachment_1145" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The indoor rock climbing gym at Putrajaya"][/caption]

*pictures courtesy of Azrul