2017 South East Asia Climbing

The objective two PhD students was to climb challenging multi-pitch routes and visit some of the least known crags in Southeast Asia, as well as identifying other potential objectives in the area for future expeditions. The pair travelled from mid-December 2017 to mid-January 2018, and the expedition was to start and end in Singapore.

The first climbing stage was in Railay and Tonsai in Thailand which offered very good quality bolted sport climbing routes on limestone. The climbs in Railay included the classic multi-pitch routes “The King and I” (6a, 6b,7b+, 6a) and “Humanality” (6a+, 6b, 6b+, 6b), and the sport routes “Missing Snow” (6b+ - Tyrolean Wall), “Groove Tube” (6a - Fire Wall), and “Muay Thai” (6b+ - Muay Thai Wall). The next stop was Koh Tao, an island of the Chumphon Archipelago on the western shore of the Gulf of Thailand, where the rock is mostly granite. The team visited the Mek’s Mountain crag, where the climbing highlights were “The Bitch in me” (6c) and “I got a feeling” (6a+).

The Crazy Horse Buttress is a golden, orange and black-streaked limestone. crag which rises out of the tropical jungle in the Mae On Valley near Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It is comprised by over a dozen separate 100m cliffs. The key climbs accomplished in this area included the multipitch route “Into the Sun” (6a,6a+), and the “Flushed” (6b+). The pair could not climb some of the objectives, such as the “Blood, Love and Steel” (6c), due to the presence of massive giant honey bees’ nests.

The team then travelled to Cat ba, an island within the greater Ha Long Bay region, in the northeast of Vietnam. Here the conditions were much cooler than those in the previous locations. The Butterfly valley, one of the least known crags in Southeast Asia, turned out to be one of the best quality climbing areas visited by the team. The site offered a wide variety of well maintained, well-bolted sports climbs on limestone, and the highlights were “Very tot” (6c) and “Where the wild things aren’t” (6a+). The pair visited Siem Reap in Cambodia for their final 2 days, before their final journey to Singapore.