Sport climbing reaches new heights

Curiosity could be said to be the mother of sport climbing. An inherent urge to take that plunge in a lake or to scale those small hillocks has filled our pages of childhood. Sport climbing quenches this thirst for the urban folk who have a bleak chance of having natural rocks in their backyard. We use an artificial surface to get our adrenalin glands pumping.

Sport climbing is the junior sport on the block. It’s had a strong but selective following, who have managed to make the sport limp through to the finish line. Sport climbing started in India with the setting up of a climbing wall at IMF (Indian Mountaineering Federation), Delhi with a grant from that doyen of adventure, JRD Tata. This opened the floodgates for the sport, which resulted in nearly 150 walls across the country.

Sport climbing comes in three versions: lead, speed and bouldering, which test the height, speed and difficulty of the climb, respectively. Lead climbing and speed climbing need harnesses, ropes, descenders, etc. These two categories also involve walls of at least 12 to 15 feet. It’s a no-brainer that to set this wall up you probably have to sell some family silver. This has led to a paradigm in which only the Government and IMF have the resources to proliferate the sport. The sport needs the entry of private players for it to become an inferno.

Bouldering is an unexplored wilderness! It inculcates the techniques and the nuances of climbing and takes them to a higher level. What makes it more attractive is that it does not require any harness or protection. There is is an 8-10 feet high wall, where you chisel your skills before you confront the bigger challenges.

Equilibrium Climbing Station, located in Bangalore’s Central Business District, has taken the plunge into this section of sport by setting up the first bouldering gym in India. Sport climbing may still be in its infancy, but there’s no doubting the potential it has of capturing the imagination of adventure sports enthusiasts.