Climbing Wall

We were invited to attend a very special birthday party 2 weeks ago. The party was held in the YMCA Indoor Climbing Wall training facility, which we have never entered there before.

The YMCA Indoor Climbing Wall is the modern training facility for climbers of all abilities – form beginners right through to the best in the world! Even for the small kids who have never been exposed to this sport before can take part in it. How great !

There are 2 indoor climbing walls offering 8 and 15 climbing routes of varying degrees of difficulty respectively. The wall offers the highest quality and most sophisticated artificial climbing wall in HK. Over 266 square meters of exciting panelled climbing surface is available.

All of the Climbing Wall staffs are experienced climbers and are available to advise on all your climbing queries. The Wall is a great place to learn the basic skills of climbing and rope work or develop new techniques in an exciting but controlled environment.

There was 3 qualified instructors to assist in this beginner program. First, the young participants need to do some warm-up exercises.


Then there is a short practice session for the beginners to get use of the boulders by coordinating their hands and legs properly. The moved horizontally instead of vertically in the practice.

After that, the instructors put on the safety ropes on the children before they started to climb up the wall.





One of the instructors explained the basic techniques about climbing wall to those kids. I'm not sure how much information they could absorb by just listening to him.


So, he got to demonstrate how to climb up this 7 m high wall by himself lah.

That little girl, Karen, is the birthday girl. She seems a familiar climber. Therefore, she is the best person to go in the first line. She called a quit when she reached that most challenging part of the wall.

It's Vincent's turn. Last check on the rope before he was set to go.

As soon as the instructor gave him the signal, he started to climb up the wall in a confindent manner.

They are just like spiderman.

While Vincent was trying hard to climb, the bigger boy has almost reached the top, but the little girl quited.

He reached the most difficult part of the wall...

He was trying hard to get over it...

Could see that he was trying real hard...

and it seems very difficult to him...

He stuck there for some time, didn't know what to do next...

The instructor didn't just let him down. Instead, he asked him to step on the boulders on his left, and moved up.

Since he wasn't told to get down, he could only continue to climb up...

It was very moving to see him getting over that barrier with all his strength and effort. I started to cheer for him, some people followed too. I just felt so proud of him at this moment.

YES, son, just a few more steps, and you will be there.

Just one more step...

YES YES, you have made it. I'm really very proud of you.

He must be very scared up there. He looked down at the instructor, waited for his instruction to get down.

ok, he was told to get down now.

He was stepping down slowly. At first, very anxious to let go his hand of the boulders. By right, he should have trusted the rope and the instructor who supported him on the ground.

Although the instructor asked him to let go of his hands, so that he could help him down faster, he was still too anxious to let go.

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Finally, he got his hands and legs off the boulders.

Before he landed, the instructor taught him the proper way to get down.

This was his 2nd climbing attempt. But he knew how to call a quit this time.

He just let go his hands and legs, said he was scared and wanted to get down. The instructor didn't push him any further. So he didn't make it to the top this time.

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The 1st attempt was a success because he didn't know how to quit, so he just got to move forward.

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The 2nd attempt was not completed because he knew he has the option to quit at anytime.

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Perhaps this is one of the reasons why some people can achieve the highest goal while some can't? Once we know it's ok to quit, the magic gone.

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Anyway, this is a very good exposure and experience for Vincent. I appreciate it.