Looking up at the wall from the bottom, it is hard to discern a path amid the jumbled up vertical landscape of plastic holds. But there is a definite route that has been a month-long taunt and tease. Hold by hold, grip by grip the climber makes her way up the wall. At the crux, the hardest part of the route, she musters up everything inside her just before her vision focuses on the single hold, and throws her body up with a sudden burst of strength to grab the edge and finish the climb.
That sudden rush of accomplishment is exactly why Jang Ji-yeon finds rock climbing so attractive.
“Unlike yoga or going to the gym, climbing has a tangible goal so you get a clear sense of accomplishment,” said the 29-year-old who has been climbing for a month.
“When I first started the route that we are doing today I always fell at a certain point. But now I can complete it and that feeling I got when I completed it for the first time was really quite exhilarating,” the school teacher said.
Jang is part of a growing crowd flocking to nearby climbing walls for various reasons including stress relief, health and just plain old fun.
“The general public usually finds climbing interesting out of simple curiosity. Some want to experience something they have never experienced before or maybe overcome their fear of heights,” said Seo Hyung-chan, a team manager at K2 Climbing & Fitness in Seoul.
A girl climbs up a route on the Dyno Wall at the North Face Outdoor Cultural Center in Seoul. (Chung Hee-cho/The Korea Herald)
Another expert noted the official status the recreation is receiving as a sport.
“One of the biggest reasons for its growing popularity is that it has been included as an official sport of the National Sports Festival,” said Korean Alpine Federation deputy head Park Bong-ha.
According to research by the University of Wisconsin, indoor rock climbing is a perfectly viable alternative form of exercise. The journal published in 2007 found that climbing meets all of the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for physical activity. The study also found that indoor rock climbing also complies with the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendations for energy expenditure.
Mothers have also found that climbing has helped their children in less conventional ways.
“I feel that my son has become more disciplined because when you look at climbing, it is more of a fight with yourself where you need to focus on every move,” said 38-year-old mother Yun Mi-young, whose son joined a climbing program at the Dyno Wall in northern Seoul.
One thing that mothers unanimously note is that children just naturally like to climb.
“The best part is that she really enjoys it,” said Shim Bo-ram, whose 8-year-old daughter has been climbing for six months.
Another mother, Chang Hee-kyoung, said her son has a different attitude towards the sport.
“He really has a lot of fun climbing. Other sports he has mentioned several times that he would like to quit because it’s tiring but he has yet to say the same for climbing,” said Chang.
Chang said her 9-year-old son is always excited to come out to the local climbing wall and receive lessons for the day.
Gear Climbing is an easy sport to jump into.
Those taken aback by the jumble of metal, rope and chalk dust will be pleasantly surprised to find that behind the seemingly complicated faade, beginner climbing requires little gear.
Bouldering, a form of climbing without a rope, requires nothing but a pair of climbing shoes and some chalk as climbers rarely go higher than 4-5 meters off the ground and have a cushy mattress to fall on. Beginning boulderers rarely need lessons of any sort to tackle the wall head on.
Sport climbing can require as little as a harness and belay device for top-rope climbing, in addition to the given equipment or a rope for lead climbing. Lead climbing is an activity in which the climbers attempt to reach the top of a route or cliff by securing the rope to the wall, whereas top-roping already has a rope in place. Sport climbing also requires brief safety lessons from experts, but the added gear for sport climbing helps to add a dose of adrenaline when climbing towering heights.
Climbing gyms Seoul has some great places to put the shiny new toys to good use.
The Dyno Wall at the North Face Outdoor Cultural Center features a sprawling sport climbing wall that also totes an overhanging section of the wall. The gym also features a bouldering cave and a weight room where some of the world’s best climbers including Kim Ja-in and Min Hyun-bin train when they are not competing all over the world.
K2 also offers all the holds you can grab at its K2 Climbing & Fitness Center offering separate floors for both sport climbing and bouldering. Like the Dyno Wall, K2 also offers an experience most similar to the glitz and glamour people associate with climbing.
Both centers offer enough vertical space to give climbers room to move and an appreciation of heights.
Competitions
Possibly the best part about picking up climbing is the growing number of competitions catered to beginners, amateurs and professionals alike. However, to call it a competition would be a misnomer ― rather, it is a climbing party filled with loud music, fun people and prizes.
After North Face hosted Korea’s first competition in 2002, other corporations have picked up on the growing trend and began offering competitions of their own.
Adidas has been the latest to jump on the bandwagon with its 2012 Adidas Rockstars climbing competition being held on Saturday and Sunday at the Seoul Grand Park. The two-day bouldering-centric event will feature musical performances by DJ Akiyuki Tanno, DJ BK and hip-hop group Super Kidd. To accompany the music there will be a climbing wall for spectators to try their hands, and feet, at scaling heights, and test their balance by slacklining ― the art of balancing on a nylon band similar to tightrope walking.
North Face will be holding another competition this coming fall after holding their last one on May 26.
Korea will also host the International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup on Oct. 19 in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province. The best climbers from all over the world including Korea’s own Kim and Min will be competing.
Internationally, Korea boasts some of the best climbers in both the IFSC’s men’s and women’s categories. Most notable is the 23-year-old Kim who is currently the second-best lead climber in the world and 12th in bouldering.
By Robert Lee (robert@heraldm.com)
