#9 Climbathon Long Dong April 2019

2019 was the perfect model year I would like to have, years after Covid, in terms of how to schedule and integrate the climbing calendar into life. When annual leave is the scarce resource, I turned to my business skills, using the excel spreadsheet, I plotted the public holidays and mapped in the weather intel, I built the annual holiday plan for the year that would maximise the climbing time.

The first break involved taking five days off for a nine-day climbing holiday in Taipei.

Not our first time to the place and this fact actually made the holiday even more enjoyable. A lot of the times when you visit a place for the first time, the inevitable excitement, building up and getting through the to do list, the getting lost in the city, the unfamiliar... all these consume a lot of time and energy. When the sole purpose of our eat.climb.hug climbing holidays is to eat good food, climb hard, and indulge in every moment we have with each other, we do not necessary want to invest those time and energies in holiday novelties.

The eat chapter

Nothing can beat the abundance of street food on offer in Taiwan. Though this time round, when the weather was quite unforgiving at Long Dong, we also became a fan shabu shabu, not just to my favourite 橘色刷刷鍋, but to the local authentic ones around our hotel. Nothing can beat "Sha-Sha-ing" in the steamy hot pot with the family, over a nice cold beer, after climbing hard with the strong chilly wind by the coast.

The climb chapter

With the accumulated experience from climbathons #1 to #8, by then I knew how to approach a climbing holidays to get the most out of it. When it comes to climbing in a foreign crag (even though you've been there before, it would still need time for climatisation), it is important to plan what is it that you want to get out of it, and be realistic with it.

With a week, and climb days were only on when weather is permitting, I knew there is no point to climb too hard. So instead, I eyed up some classic routes from youtube and started studying the routes days ahead of the climbs. Technically this is not an on-sight but it allows you to maximise your performance and chances to send projects close to your limit. And I did send the classic 5.11b 大鼓 on my second attempt on the first warm up day. What a surprise! So this tactic worked.

The rest of the climbs were really fun, we also bumped into many of Shang's friends and were just enjoying that signature Long Dong climbing vibe. It was so good to see Shang climbing with the same gang he started climbing with decades ago, and for me to finally witnessed the very different climbing vibe he had been professing since we first met. Full of positivities and joy. Loved it.

One regrets was the excitement on these interesting sports routes has overshadowed the intention to try trad! UP brought his legendary DMM collection from his old days and we (Shang) carried it to the crag everyday... and carried back to the hotel every night. Though at least this effort was not wasted as we managed to make the following video. I find this video so funny, so quintessentially Shang, and I replay it often just to get some giggles going.

The hug chapter

The first climbathon of the year is usually around the birthdays and anniversary week. There really are no better ways to celebrate other than climbing with family. What was better, was that both UP and I send the 5.11c Oh No! on the same day. What a great birthday present!

Not something planned, UP tried it and I attempted it on top rope as my first try. I came down and I said UP, I think I am going to lead it. He asked, confident? I said, yes. UP smiled and said, okay, go ahead! After a long 15 minutes (thank you Mum for taking the video), I sent. When I got down I turned to UP and said, I think you should do it too. He said, okay, he went up, he sent it. There we discovered, we are ready to be project partners! This was the prelude of what was to come in Climbathon #10 in Kalymnos, where we enjoyed spotting and sending projects together, and for each other, giving us the joy of projecting that's beyond the actual climbs on the wall. More about that at the next post.

Whenever I get onto my project, Shang is always the silent partner and silent support. If someone were to measure his vocal output, he gives the least. But if someone were to measure the accuracy of his vocal output, I think it is 100%. He is always so spot on knowing when I need to focus where he would remind me before I get into the focus zone. He knows when I am fighting at the crux where he would say 忍住. He knows when I passed the crux and would give a cheer. But mostly important, he is always able to judge, if the rest of the route is going to give me troubles or it is just a matter of finishing. He would either say "加油，好有機會爬晒呀“ or "喔, 有人爬晒嚕“. I look forward to hearing his very happy cheeky voice saying any of the above before I actually got to the anchor as it always lit up my inside every time.

Finally, Mum. I think it is not too assuming to say that she is just like another other mothers who love their own children, she is always my number 1 fan. She is always there to witness all my achievements and she is always the first person I would like to share my accomplishments with. Although Covid is keeping us physically apart, but I also know our love, our bond, has moved beyond that. She is able to still "witness" the wonders that have entered my life since the start of this journey and I know she will always play a strong role in all my future endeavours.

Thank you to these three, they are always there to support my passion, my dream, my climbs.