Volleyball is another wall at Batu Caves. There's a pretty good description on how to get there on rockclimbing.com, alternatively, you can check out the map drawn by Wira Consult. I've also drawn my own map (below), so take your pick...

Volleyball got it's name because there used to be an old volleyball court at the base of the crag, but that has long since disappeared.  Also known as "The Dump", Volleyball became a rubbish dumping ground for some rather unethical companies.

There used to be an old guy staying in the area.  He did a great job of cleaning up the place, however, I think he might have been fighting a losing battle against the rubbish dumpers.  I haven't been back there for a while, so I don't really know the state of the wall at this point.

All I can remember is that the wall is fairly flat and smooth, although some of the routes are quite powerful.  The wall is often in the morning sun so climbing in the late afternoon is generally preferable.  There are 14 routes at this crag, all mostly fairly short, but bring along your 60m rope and it should be adequate even the longest routes.

Back when I was working this area, I collected all the information I could find on the crag from the internet, including the two topos below.  Unfortunately, I cannot locate the original site where these come from but I thought they were extremely useful.  Kudos to the person who did them.  There are three routes missing from these topos, but you can find them at rockclimbing.com or read about them from the route descriptions that accompanied the photographs.

These are the route descriptions from left to right:

Tsiguidou mon minou, 7a
Gerald Krug and Romanian Friend, Feb 00

There is also a route on the left of the routes marked on the photos (A tribute to Rakyat), which after a bit of a dirty start, develops into a fine and strenuous outing at about 6c. Bolted by Akmal, January 1999.

1. Bat Attack, 6a
S Brown, G Hustinx, Nov 98

2. Scorpion, 6b+
S Brown, G Hustinx, Sep 98

Missing Link, 6c+/7a (starts up Tiger and finishes up Scorpion)
S Brown, D Estey, 27 Feb 00

3. Tiger, 6b
S Brown, G Hustinx, Oct 98

4. Ants in'ya pants, 6a
S Brown, M Santo, 98

5. Tree total, 5
S Brown, C Wilson, Sep 98

6. Barracuda, 5/6a
S Brown, J Chin, Nov 98

7. La Nina, 6b+
S Brown

8. El Nino, 6b/6b+
S Brown, G Hustinx, Mar 98

10. Sundance, 6c
S Brown, C Wilson, Jun 99

A route further to the right called Why you so like that has been bolted by Akmal and Yen (not yet climbed clean as at July 1999).

When we first started working on this area, we were pretty much into the swing of climbing.  We were still 6A climbers pushing on the barriers of 6B, but we were a lot more focussed on the climbing now.  As a result, there was also a lot less posing for the cameras, which is also why I have a scanty three photos in my collection for Volley ball.

This is a photo of Thin Man working the 6B route called "Tiger".  The stalagtite you see in front of him was the same one I crashed into when I took a whipper while projecting this route.  The knee injury was my first serious injury from rock climbing and it put me out of commission for a month!

That's me on the same route.  I think this was after the first fall - which I came out of unscathed.  It was the second fall that sent me home packing.  I also cracked the casing of my one week old mobile phone because I forgot to take it out of my pocket - duh!  The left knee was throbbing so bad, I couldn't press the clutch in my car so I had to swop cars with my brother for a week.

This is Joe, a guy who was travelling through the area.  He stopped by the Summit climbing gym looking for people to climb outdoors so we told him he was welcomed to climb with us.  He put away "Tiger" like an entree, exhibiting all the finesse and grace of a superior climber.  It's such a shame we never got to see him climb anything else.

From the picture above, you'll notice that this was probably one of Volleyball's cleaner days.  The route called "A Tribute to Rakyat" is hidden behind those bushes in the back ground.

Abseiling down a wet rope was rather unpleasant.  As I've never had to jumar up anything before, I'll have to defer to Le Grunt's professional opinion on what it's like to jumar up a wet rope after a long day of climbing and being half drowned out by rain.

Below Le Grunt readying the rope for his jumar ascent.  Trust the techie gear-head to be the only one to know about these things...

All strapped in and ready to go...

The starting is always a little uncoordinated especially when you're jumaring on a dynamic rope.  Just ask Holdbreaker and he'll tell you all about his experiences.  Although I've often wondered how anyone can succeed in jumaring down a rope when his intended direction is up.

Starting to make some progress...

Although it certainly looks like hard work.

Starting to make some progress...

Although it's rather slow going.

That's about as far as we followed him because the whole process probably took longer than it took all three of us to climb the first pitch.  Needless to say, Le Grunt made it up and my rope was freed to climb another day.

The following is an amusing little trip report I wrote way back in 2003 when The Rockrats were still into rock climbing.  I remember taking some photos -especially the ones of Le Grunt jumaring.  They are around somewhere, but I'll have to dig them up. 

Saturday saw the Rockrats returning to their roots at Damai with new-to-outdoor climber Loong Yip in tow. 

Another midnight ramble and a less than coherent recount of the Rockrats' Sunday in the land of the Batu...

Return to Nyamuk

The Rockrats were bright eyed and bushy tailed – eager to nail a triple of brand new routes in Nyamuk at a wall called Anopheles.  Feeling over-confident after some redpoints on Parang Butas (6B) and Hampir Tewas (6C) at Comic, the Rockrats felt ready to onsight these easy routes - Lariam (5A), Fansidar (5C) and Merdeka Crash (6A).

The hard lesson relearned for the day: always, always respect the rock.  Suffice to say the Rockrats all lived up to their names…

Lelek Le Grunt made his signature moans on the start of Fansidar (5C – my ass, where got 5C with overhanging start, two finger pocket, lousy footholds and a deadpoint move?)

Holdbreaker broke off another hold just by touching it. 

Moo Moo showed us all how to "static" a deadpoint move with her bull strength and breezed up where no Rockrat had succeeded before.

Combat Girl, Thin Man and Le Grunt then scooted off to the "mini wall" – Training Day.  Led by Thin Man to the first anchor, followed closely by Combat Girl and Le Grunt, Combat Girl then took the lead up the second pitch.  "It's only a 5C," she thought, "No sweat."

Upon starting, she had the distinct feeling something was off.  Didn't Jeremy say that the second pitch was a 5C but only because of the crux?  The rest of it was supposed to be a scramble.  She thought to herself, "Wow, for a 5C scramble, this is rather vertical with lots of small holds…"  After clipping the third bolt of the second pitch, she called down, "Um, guys, get ready to tight the rope 'cause I might fall."

Something was definitely wrong with this 5C – very wrong.  Firstly, there was a relatively blank overhang facing her.  Secondly, the only hold she could find was a sloper.  Never mind, just take a deep breath and climb – at least it she could stick it.  Surely that next hold above was a nice jug.  C'mon, step up and say, "Thank you, God" for the ju- shoot!  What kind of jug is this???  *Beep* *Beep*!  It's a freaking crimp! 

"TIGHT!"

Okay – hang dog and reassess.  Brain slowly processes the thought…  *Ding* the light bulb goes on as the truth slowly dawns…  "Beep!  What kind of 5C has a freakin' sloper to a crimp on an overhang??!  In my 5C days, I didn't even know of the bleepin' existence of slopers and crimps!"

Le Grunt yells up, "Where the heck did you get the grades for these routes anyway?"

"Um… Jeremy?"  Combat Girl's eyes narrows, "That Jeremy, he tricks us!  Made us thinks this was a 5C!"

Thin Man on belay at the first pitch looks up, cocks his head to the side in deep thought.  Eyes slowly focus and brows furrow.  Wait a minute… that looks suspiciously like another bolt on the left.  Eyes dart back up towards the path Combat Girl had taken and then back to the path on the left – 12 o'clock, then 10 o'clock.

"Er… You might wanna take a look to your left…  You can see some bolts there on a route that looks distinctly like a scramble – a 5C scramble to be exact," volunteers the Thin Man.

Looking from the blank overhang to the friendly scramble, Combat Girl starts to curse.  She peers down, then back at the wall in front of her.  Darn – don't really want to go back down.  Maybe, yes, maybe it's still climbable…  Maybe we should give it a try… 

"Can't you hear all the chickens clucking down here?  We wanna do the 5C scramble!"  protested the Thin Man and Le Grunt in unison.

After bailing and starting off again on the "real" 5C path, Combat Girl heaves a big sigh of relief.  "This is the true 5C – wherever I put my hand and expect a hold (a jug to be precise), I will find one."

Combat Girl makes it to the second anchor, secures herself and sets up belay.  She yells down to the guys on the first pitch.  Silence.  "Mike!"  Silence.  "Derek!"  Silence.  "MIIIKEE!!! DEERREEEEKK!!!!"  Still more silence.

"BEEP!  Those jokers better not be kidding around or I'm gonna throw them off this multipitch when I get my hands on them."

"SHEN!" came a voice from below.

"WHAT!?"

Silence.

And then: "SHEN!" repeated the voice.

"WHHHAAATT???"

Silence.

"SSHHHEEENNN!!!"

"WHHHAAAATTTTTT????? Beep beep beep!!!!!"

Silence.

Shoot!  Just pull up the rope.  If they aren't tied in and ready to climb by now, then I'll just enjoy the view from here by myself.

Meanwhile, back on the first pitch, the Thin Man sees the rope going up slowly and prays fervently that Combat Girl is on belay and starts to climb.

Rain sets in and three drowned Rockrats concluded the four pitch epic by bailing off the second pitch.  Views are picturesque from the second pitch and I can only imagine what it would have been like from the anchor of the fourth pitch…  The rain was beautiful and didn't hit us until the wind blew it in.  Unfortunately, we were too busy trying to get off the wall that we forgot to take any pictures, but watch this space…

Our adventure didn't end here – after rappelling off the first anchor, a very wet, heavy and resisting rope refused to be pulled down.  Lelek Le Grunt had to jumar up to free the rope and got a rather good workout in the meantime.

The Rockrats lived to climb another day, but we'll be BACK!

This is a picture of one of the 6A routes at Damai:

Once upon a time, I looked up at this route thinking to myself, "I'll never be able to climb that!"

Well, "never" is a strong word.  I'm glad to say that I was wrong. 

I often like to reflect back on my perceptions of rock climbing from the early days up until the day I red-pointed my first 7A because it reminds me that my desire can break through the limitations of my mind.  On days when I'm faced with obstacles that seem insurmountable, I bring these memories to the surface and reaffirm that nothing is impossible, it only appears to be so at that point in time.  If I give it enough time and enough of my energy, it, too, will become another memory where the unmanageable became achievable.

This picture depicts one of my defining moments in rock climbing.  It was still early days in my climbing experience and we were rock climbing at Damai.  The rain had washed us out and we were sheltered under one of the huts checking out S's gear.  I remembered being in awe of her rack as she took us through all the miscellaneous bits and pieces of her gear.

I still remember the thoughts I had in my head at the time.  I call it one of my defining moments in rock climbing because this was when I first decided I was going to own my own rack and by hook or by crook I was going to be a real climber.

We braved our first trip to Nyamuk somewhere towards the end of 2002.  Back then, Damai was a newbie climber's playground and everywhere else was considered too daunting to even attempt.  After some encouragement from one of our new found climber friends, A, we found ourselves deviating from our usual trip to Damai.

The trek in was dense with foliage and the swarm of mozzies that trailed after us was a silent broadcast of the meaning behind the name.  Nyamuk wall, at that time, was divided into three sections - the left-hand-side (which I'm afraid the name eludes me at this point), Dengue wall, and Fumakila (also referred to as the right-hand-side).  We were planning to climb at Fumakila that day, but we took a short detour to Dengue wall where we saw some of the more experienced climbers resting at the base.

My inexperienced eyes took one look at Dengue wall and wondered how on earth anyone could possibly climb something so smooth.  It is interesting to recall my thoughts at the time because the sport was so new to me and the word "impossible" often crept into my vocabulary.  It would be about another year and a half before I made my first attempt on Dengue wall.

Here are the photos from that first visit to Nyamuk:

Somewhere near Rawang is a place called Bukit Takun.  It's another place to get some natural rock climbing done in the Klang Valley other than heading for the usual places around Batu Caves.  The only unfortunate problem is that Bukit Takun is sometimes used by the military as their training ground, so the area is not always accessible to climbers.

Offering both limestone and granite, this is probably the one of the few climbing areas in Malaysia where you can get the spice of variety.  There are a few traditional routes intermingled with sport routes and a couple of multipitches as well.  Considering that the area is not often frequented by climbers, a visitor to the area would do well to check the bolts and anchors as I don't think they are maintained at all.

Bukit Takun being one of my earliest climbing experiences, I'm afraid I can't vouch for the accuracy of the information provided on this post.  Most of what I've cited are snippets of information I've garnered through talking with other climbers.  The first and only time I ever climbed at Bukit Takun was somewhere towards the end of 2002 where I was still considered fresh blood in rock climbing.

Here are some photos from that particular trip: