Sky hooks and tufas – Vang Vieng, Laos
November 6, 2009I have left my mark on South East Asia. A short walk over the river from Vang Vieng, Laos, through paddy fields and across rickety wooden bridges that shudder under people’s weight, is Pha Daeng mountain. Near to a set of aesthetic, stalactite strewn caves is a cliff face that bears the fruits of three days labour. Together with another member of the Hot Rock team, Danny, I bolted my first new routes on this cliff face. We have established an entire wall of new climbs, with five routes in total leading up orange conglomerate rock to some interesting tufa features (tufas are bumpy limestone features that form when the carbonate in rock dissolves in water and drips down the rock, reforming rather like staligtites, but on the face of the cliff) that make for challenging climbing before bigger holds appear nearer to the top.
Danny places the first few bolts on the hardest route on the wall
It was the first time I have bolted. It is both an exhilarating and frightening process. Imagine hanging from a rope, 10 to 20 metres above the ground, suspended only by a metal hook desperately placed behind a tiny flake of rock and a sling, flung around the top of a tufa. Using this set up Danny bolted the first line, a long 25 metre route down a corner between the flat overhanging face of the wall and a large tufa that descends the entire right hand side of the wall and projects more than 3 metres outwards. It is fun but funky climbing.
Then it was my turn. I climbed up to where Danny had placed his anchor points at the top of his climb and set up my rope to abseil down. A few metres down, with Danny pulling hard on the bottom the rope, I swung five metres to the left to where a large hanging tufa met the wall. Frantically I grabbed for holds, trying to stick to the rock before I swung away again. Eventually I managed to throw a sky hook – basically a small piece of metal that hooks into features in the rock – into a pocket.
Me, straddling the tufa attached to the wall by a sky hook
Stupidly, in my inexperience, I had forgotten to actually attach the sky hook to my harness and so was instead left hanging in mid-air, clinging to the sky hook with my right arm, unwilling to let go now I had got an attachment to the rock. With a great deal of pulling and unattractive grunting, I managed to drag myself close enough to clip in with my harness, ready for the fun to begin.
Drills are not light pieces of equipment, especially when they have to be powerful enough to drill several inches into hard limestone. Add to that several stainless steel bolts, hangers, brushes, a hammer and a spanner and that is a fair weight to haul up on a rope while all the time expecting the sky hook to blow from the rock at any moment.
Let me talk you through bolting. First the hole has to be drilled. Keeping enough pressure on the drill for the hammer mechanism to work and ensuring it stays straight while dangling from a swaying rope is not easy. When the hole is deep enough, it needs to be cleaned. We use a length of tubing which fits inside the hole, allowing us to blow out the dust inside. If this is not done, the lifespan of the bolt is dramatically reduced as it increases its vulnerability to corrosion.
Danny Mickers bolting on Hangover wall
Then the metal bolt itself, with hanger and nut attached, must be hammered into the hole in the rock until the hanger is flush with the wall. We were using expansion bolts, so the nut is then tightened, which pulls the bolt forward in the hole, causing a soft metal sheath around it to slide back over a wider part of the bolt and so jam securely in the hole. The bolt is then ready to be clipped.
I repeated this process eight times down the wall, each time having to swing in and attach myself due to the overhang. When it was complete, we had a new climb. All that was left was to climb it.
The first ascent was a struggle for me, but the route started up the right hand side of a small tufa to some beautiful pockets before the crux. The key to the hardest section of the climb was to pinch an awkward tufa while using an under cling until pockets between two tufas could be reached. From here, it was a case of getting my feet high, pinching the top of the tufa and pushing up for the huge holds at the top. It was probably a 6b+ or 6C.
Over the next three days, Danny and I bolted another three routes – all hard and overhanging. My favourite was a 6b route that followed a shallow groove up the rock to some sharp conglomerate rock and a large tufa above that was full of holds. An interesting move near the top forces the climber to swing round, or barn door as it is known, from the groove into a large jug like hold to get the second last clip before pulling up on the tufa on the left to the top. This route, however, also left me with some injuries – while bolting, I had to clean off a large dead vine that hung down the groove. Unfortunately this appeared to be home to some flying ants and other biting insects that took umbrage at their home being destroyed. By the evening my hands and arms were swollen with bites.
Bolting my first climb
We have opted to call the place Hangover Wall. “It’s funny ‘cos it is over-hanging, ja?” It is actually named in honour of a movie we have been watching rather than the state we were in when we bolted it. However, being sited so close to the party capital of Laos, Vang Vieng, it is perhaps appropriate. Definitely worth a visit after several free shots of Lao Lao…
Danny climbing on Hangover Wall
Sadly we have now moved to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to sort out some visas before we head to the next climbing destination and then into Cambodia. We had hoped to leave today, but the truck is undergoing some major surgery and so will be stuck here for another day. Fortunately there is apparently plenty more routes to bolt at the new area we are going to, so in the meantime I will nurse the cuts, bites and grazes to ready myself for the next bolting adventure.
