George Mallory was asked once, "Why do you want to climb the Everest..?", and his answer was, "Because it's there..."
15 years ago, I started Rock Climbing... And after realizing that I appreciate the adventure and height than the grade, I started to learn more about climbing height and not difficulty... As I read more and more about rock climbing, I was bumped into an article, "Big Wall, the ultimate adventure for Rock Climbing"... It really triggered my interest. And the closest to start with is doing multipitches climbing. Soon, I started reading more and more about multipitches climbing and I dreamed about being the first among Malaysian Big Wall Climber. I began to read more and more about Big Wall Climbing and I emailed Scotty Nelson, the first ascend of the ONE AND ONLY Big Wall Route in Malaysia, The Waking Dream which was located at Tioman Island, Johor. We discussed about the route and I told him how much I wanted to climb that route...
Somehow in 2001 or 2002, A Malaysian team consist of 5 climbers which I know successfully seconded the Waking Dream. My dream of becoming the first shattered... But I was happy for them and I was glad that Malaysian did it... But I still wanted to climb the The Waking Dream so much...
2 years later, fate has destined me to bumped into my climbing mentor. Mr Anthony Bubb from Clolorado US due to his business trip to Singapore and he came all the way to Batu Caves to climb. And he told me he could climb the The Waking Dream with me... Tony is a known climber in Colorado Climbing community and Scotty Nelson have heard about him. They began discussing about The Waking Dreams and Tony was confident in completing it in 3 days with me. A year later, Tony asked me if I wanna do the Waking Dream in his next business trip to Singapore... I told him I was extremely interested, but I have limited experience on a big wall. So he asked me to look up for a book called Big Wall, written by John Middendorf... John Middendorf was the inventor of Portaledge, the founder of A5 Climbing Equipment, The first person ever ascended an A5 graded Big Wall, The only team ever ascended Trango Tower. I was so excited and started to preparing myself for the ultimate challenge... I went around MPH and POPULAR looking for the book, but I couldn't really find anything similar... So, I tried my luck looking for John and emailed him. To my suprise, he replied.... With the a scratch of the book as an attachment... I was so happy that I couldn't sleep that night... I didn't ever expect such a big name would respond to a small dream by a small person.
When date approaches, I realized that my Dream Shattered for the second time due to the Examination weeks that was scheduled on the day Tony visiting KL. The day came and we went out for some simple climb in Nanyang... On the day he left, He gave me a book Big Wall written by John Middendorf. At the back of the book, Tony wrote.. "Don't let the Waking Dream remain unawaken... Tony Bubb". Tears ran down from my eyes... I was touched and at the same time, also sad... For not being able climb The Waking Dream with the person I wanted to climb most with... Anyway, that was the last time I see Tony in person.
Several years down the road, I did tonnes of multipitches climbing with my closest climbing partner then, KF Lee which is actually my close friend's elder brother. And we did alot of crazy routes and even ascended one of the longest route back then in Selangor... Pussy Key which consist of 9 pitches and having a vertical height of approximately 200 meters from ground. It took us 11 hours to start and ended at where we begun...
Years passes and KF Lee slows down in climbing. And soon, more and more of my climbing partners stopped climbing due to some responsibility and obligation... And me too, soon left climbing 4 years ago due to my shoulder injury... A 3 years complete rest basically doing nothing on Saturday and Sunday.
So, as said in the first post, I was back in climbing about a year ago... And somehow, I manage to take another 2 enthusiast climber into the multipitch climbing... These 2 climbers are far more talented than I am and I am pretty sure they can go further than I was and I will be. Only if they can see their dream... And I hope I can bring them some new inspiration... And see their dream... But, I only manage to make one realizes his dream. I failed on the other one... Maybe Rock climbing and multipitches is not that important for her afterall... Maybe it's just me being over concern about other people's interest... Maybe I should just stop ranting around and get myself a life... Maybe I should stop pushing them because they climb on Saturday or Sunday because they have nothing better to do... haha... It was just me afterall.
Recently, I'm in the process of waking my dream again... I started to buy more and more gears to assist me in my Big Wall project that was scheduled to be on September but postponed to probably April. As planned, I will first make a visit to Colorado to meet up with my long unmet friend plus mentor... And we'll nail some big wall around Zion or Other part of Colorado. If time and financial permits, I will make a Florida to visit one of my friends migrated there from KL. Or, I might meet up with other climbers in California to try out some routes in Yosmite. And when I'm back, I am ready to call up Sharin to wake my unwaken dream...
Well, that's still just a plan until it materializes... But I will never allow it to just flew away just like how it did. If it failed this time, it better gonna be a pretty strong reason...
So, I begin collecting gears for my big wall so that I don't need to pay with my lungs and liver when the time comes... And I've been buying alot of gears.. Some online, and some from my friend whom owns a climbing proshop... He's also one of a person I taught once upon a time. He have been very supportive all the while to sponsor me some gears, some anchors, some chain and other maintenance we did at Nanyang and some other climbing sites. And one day he asked me,
SW: Tim, why are you buying so much gears...? U really want to climb The Waking Dream meh...
Me: Yeah... You knew I wanted to do it so badly back then right..? If I were to buy all the gears just to climb The Waking Dream, I would...
SW: Wah... Why want to climb Waking Dream and Bigwall so much..?
Me: Because it's there....
Thank you for reading, though there might not be any.... But do take care and have a great day ahead...
Cheers ^^
Timz
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