namaskaara saar: Let’s CLIMB!

Saturday the 15^th Sep’12 was the day and it was 10AM when I reported in XLR8 indoor stadium. It was the Corporate Indoor Olympics 2012. There were total 12 games in the championship. I had registered for the Wall Climbing tournament.

The climbing fraternity is pretty limited in Bangalore and most of them would be known to each other. I was very eager and anxious to meet the fellow climbers from other companies. I was the first one to report at the reporting time, which left me a bit disappointed to start with. Then the organizers announced the start of registration and people gradually started reporting.

The climbing wall installed in that stadium was setup by one Mr.KeerthiPias from Outback India, who is a good friend of mine and a veteran climbing coach. Another surprise was that the climbing wall instructors also happened to be my climbing friends from climbing wall at Sri.Kanteerava stadium where I practice climbing during weekends. It was a good to meet them and I started practicing some Bouldering moves along with them till the event start. The organizers had instructed that the climbing participants could not practice on the competition walls.

The wall setup there for the competition had three climbing routes, each of about 30ft high. First one was a straight-up with repeating holds pattern making it an easy one. The second one was made a little tricky with non-repetitive holds pattern. Both these walls were perpendicular to the ground. The third one was continuously inclined subtending an angle of about 75^o to the ground, making it an overhanging wall. The holds pattern was again non-repetitive in this one too. The Bouldering wall was to the right of these bigger walls with few interesting overhangs.

View of the third (inclined green) wall and Bouldering section

The competition finally started at around 12.30PM. By then a total of 9 male climbers and 3 female climbers had registered. The organizers elaborated the rules. All the climbers had to climb all three walls on a top-rope. All were made to climb the first and the second walls. I was chosen to climb first just because I had reported first. Incidentally I was the only climber who was climbing with a pair of climbing shoes and a chalk bag.

I climbed the first wall in about 26 seconds. It was an easy climb and I took it easy too. And to my surprise all the other climbers climbed this wall. Few of them struggled a bit, but climbed. Some of them were climbing for the first time in their lives. It was overwhelming to see them still topping the wall! They were rejoicing the victory and amused by their own performance.

Myself after topping the first wall. The red wall adjacent to it is the second wall.

The third one is to the right of the second one.

When all were done with the first wall, I climbed the 2^nd one too in about 19 secs. Again to my surprise, everyone climbed this one too, and some after having the experience of the first one climbed this one much faster than me. The crux of the tournament is- on the third wall, if two climbers top it, then the winner would be declared considering the fastest of the timing from first two climbs. I started to become anxious at this point of time. My only chance was to top the third wall and hoping nobody else tops it. I know it’s like being selfish, but let’s face it, it’s a competition. Later I got confirmed that there would be super-finals with a tougher route on the 3^rd wall to declare the winner.

For the third wall, the climbing order was changed. The slowest climber was made to climb first and the fastest the last. I was fourth in the row. This was a tricky wall due to the inclination. There were holds of different colors. The route was set by the instructors. We had to use only “Yellow” and “Green” colored holds to reach the top. Even touching of any other colored holds would be considered to be a “Disqualification”.

Some amount of practice is required to climb an inclined wall, unlike the other straight ones. Every move upwards would also make the climber move horizontally, with his back facing down. The toe to heel posture on the foot hold, elbow lock, abdomen position, plan for the next move, everything matters. The first 3 climbers could make it only till 1/3^rd of the height. The crowd and the other climbers by then had got the criticality of this wall. Though I was confident about the climb, I had to mostly focus not to touch the invalid holds. The route was indeed not as simple as I had thought; given the irregular practice I had in the recent times. However, my long-distance running still kept me in a competitive shape. I topped it in about two to three minute’s time. I was the first climber till then to have topped the third wall. Topping the wall is holding a specified top-most hold of the wall in both hands before letting it go & swing down. I was obviously in lead till then. There were few more climbers after me.

In other climbing competitions, actually the climbers who are yet to climb would not be watching their earlier contestants climb. This would actually help them to connect the moves and make it easier for them. However, in this competition this was not followed so strictly. So, I was also anxious if anyone else after me could also top it watching me climb. It was also blessing-in-disguise for me in a way, because I get to climb once more in the super-finals! Incidentally none could top it, except the last-but-one climber who went up till the top-hold and fell without holding it.

That made me the winner having topped all three walls. And thus makingGE, the winner of Wall climbing tournament in Corporate Indoor Olympics, 2012.