Background
About 3 weeks ago I went to Ipoh for rock climbing, and that marked the first time I’ve ever climbed outdoors. It went amazing - made good friends, sent some cool routes, and had good food! I expect I’ll be making more climbing trips in the near future, so I figured I’ll start making a habit to do these trip reports for each one.
I went as part of a group, organized by Derek from Rockerfellas. Here’s the event page for this trip, though we ended up doing some things differently from the posted itinerary. There were ten of us, including our guide, Derek. Most of us were climbing outdoors for the first time, though there were a couple people who had prior experience.
Budget (SGD)
In total I spent about S$600 on the trip. Flights were $190 and the guide package was $365, with the remainder spent on food and souvenirs.
Trip length
This was a short 3D2N weekend trip. We departed early Friday morning and returned that Sunday evening. We managed to get in two full days of climbing, plus a few hours on the last day before our flight.
Day 1 – Gunung Lang
Our flight arrived in Ipoh in the early morning. After getting some breakfast we headed to the crag, where we climbed from 10am to 4pm. For the trip, Derek had booked a private driver who shuttled us from place to place in his van. Very convenient, and being a private hire (as opposed to a public bus) meant we were never rushed for time.
The first area was Gunung Lang Recreational Park. Limestone walls with cliff-hanging trees. The rock is quite sharp with lots of little pointy features jutting out, kind of like mini stalagmites. Surprisingly, the rock features felt solid; I never felt like a hold was going to break off. The routes here were about 25 meters long.
Despite being at the crag for about 6 hours, it didn’t feel too exhausting. A good amount of time was spent just chatting with and getting to know one another, since we’ve just met. The five to six hours of climbing time we had was just nice!
Dinner for day 1 was at a somewhat upscale Chinese restaurant. Food was good, but I’m generally not a foodie so I don’t have much of an opinion about it. To cap off the day we went for a massage. I wasn’t really a fan of the massage though, I’d probably skip it the next time I’m around.
Day 2 – Batu Kurau
On the second day we went to Batu Kurau. The walls here are also limestone, with very similar features to Gunung Lang. The holds here were considerably sharper however. The routes here were shorter as well, with the highest one we did being roughly 15 meters. There’s a 7a+ here, though I didn’t manage to send it. Maybe next time!
This trip was my first time climbing outdoors, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had some concerns about the difficulty of the climbs. My concerns were unfounded though, as the two locations Derek brought us to had a perfect grade range for the group of us.
For day 2 we continued the pattern of breakfast, climbing, lunch at the crag, continue climbing, dinner, then back to the hotel to rest.
Day 3 – Gunung Lang, and back to Singapore
For day 3 we went back to Gunung Lang for a short session in the morning to finish up any unclimbed routes. I quite enjoyed this unnamed route we did; it had a bouldery start into an easy finish.
After climbing we headed off to Concubine Lane for lunch. We walked around a bit doing touristy stuff to kill some time, before heading off to the airport.
Final thoughts
I almost backed out of this trip due to the COVID-19 situation, but as the trip date approached I felt that it wasn’t too bad yet so I decided to just go for it. Three weeks later, as I’m writing this post, the pandemic has been steadily worsening so I’m glad I took the opportunity to travel while the situation allowed for it.
If I had to choose one thing I enjoyed most about the trip, it wouldn’t be the climbing; it’s the friendships gained. It sounds cheesy, but I stand by that statement.
Prior to the trip I had mostly done bouldering. Now however… I’m much more interested in pursuing sport climbing alongside bouldering. Since getting back Ipoh I’ve completed my SNCS Level 2 certification, and will soon start to sport climb regularly as part of my gym sessions. I’m not yet sure what ratio of sport climbing vs bouldering I’ll settle on, but we’ll see!
I created a profile on thecrag.com as well! I’m looking forward to ticking more routes in the future.
Pictures!
