The Negros Athletic Association concluded the Dumaguete Bouldering Nationals held on the weekend of May 23 at Robinsons Place.
Bouldering is rock climbing stripped down to its raw essentials.
Leaving behind ropes and harnesses, and just using climbing shoes and a bag of chalk over safety mats, the challenge is to climb short but tricky bouldering “problems” (a route, or sequence of moves) using balance, technique, strength, and your brain.
One doesn’t need experience or lots of expensive kit to have a go; making it really easy to get into if you’ve never tried it before.
Every “problem” has its own solution, and to successfully climb it, one needs to work it out.
Depending on one’s body shape and personal strengths, the solution could be different to the next person’s.
If one is tall, he might be able to reach the next hold more easily on spaced-out problems; but find himself cramped when the route takes him into the nooks and crannies of the wall. It all evens out in the end.
The key to the problem could be about how one positions his body as he climbs, or in what order he put his foot or hand on which part of the wall. Or there might be a sneaky “toe hook” or one of countless other climbing techniques that suddenly takes the problem from impossible to crushed.
One might need to refine his technique before he can actually do it — or simply need to train some more and to get stronger!
The climbs are high enough to be exciting, but not so high that they’re hugely- intimidating.
Using safety mats means that the risks of falling off can be managed, and leaving the ropes behind means that one is free to concentrate on the climbing, and not on the equipment.
It’s just you, the wall, and friends and spectators on the ground egging you on. (Phil Prins)
