Straight to the top

Picture yourself 12m off the ground strapped into a harness with only two blue ropes and a belayer to stop you from plunging to the ground below. Sound scary? Many in Taiwan think so.

"Even now I don't think [indoor climbing] is popular because many parents — and even teachers — think it's dangerous," says Nancy Pan (潘蘭心), a climbing instructor and teacher at the Institute of Developing Effective Adventure (IDEA) in Beitou.

Duck Chung (鍾明均), manager of the adventure company Ecopower and operator of the Y17 climbing wall on Renai Road, agrees: "When children grow up with their parents and their grandparents telling them not to climb, it's difficult to break that kind of thinking."

But a trip to an indoor climbing gym is usually enough to allay their fears. "Usually I want parents or teachers to try first. The danger is in their minds and after they try they will let their kids climb," Pan said.

Indoor climbing has come a long way since 1964 when university lecturer Don Robinson stuck slabs of rock onto corridor walls for his physical education students to practice on. The simplicity of this structure — and those that followed — left little room for challenging or interesting climbing routes because of the steepness of the walls and limited handholds.

Today, however, many climbing walls are built with a reinforced fiberglass compound that has the look and feel of rock, complete with indentations and protrusions. Bolted onto the surface are a variety of grips, often of various colors and sizes that denote routes that climbers can take.

With around a dozen facilities in Taiwan, indoor climbing is becoming popular because it is more controlled than outdoor climbing, making it ideal for beginners. It can also be done all year round.

The color of the handhold tells the climber how challenging a particular route is: green and yellow represent beginner-level routes; blue, red and black are respectively for more advanced climbers. Chung says the different color schemes come from the Yosemite Decimal System (UDS). When following a route, climbers should only use grips of the designated color as handholds, though it is common to allow climbers to use any grip, protrusion or crack as footholds.

"There are no black grips on these walls because the level is too difficult," he says. But even without the expert-level routes, the red and blue are spaced far enough apart to make the journey to the 12m pinnacle enough of a challenge.

The cheapest kind of climbing is called "bordering" because a harness and rope are not required. This style of climbing familiarizes neophyte climbers with the wall and grips by having them move horizontally across the wall's surface. Though learners are less than a meter off the ground, bordering gives them a level of confidence necessary for vertical climbs.

Basic courses at both facilities last six hours and the primary focus is to teach students how to belay. Simply put, belaying is the ability to control the rope so that if a climber slips and falls, they don't plunge very far. Belay is also used to refer to the place where the belayer stands. After completing the course, students take a test to determine whether they can belay and if they pass they receive a certificate.

"If you don't climb well, it's still safe. If you don't belay well, it's dangerous." Pan said, summing up the importance of belaying. "Climbing takes time to train yourself but belay takes attitude because it is about respecting your life and other's life."