Crack climbing in Liming – where Hongkongers can learn trad as experts take risks to plot new routes
Only a day from Hong Kong there is a climbing Mecca where Hong Kong’s sports climbers can graduate to traditional climbing
Traditional climbing is more akin to fighting than effortlessly gliding up rock faces, and even the most experienced climber should expect to see blood on the route.
A day-long trip from Hong Kong there is Liming, a university of traditional climbing (trad) for Asia-based practitioners, from where Alex Reshikov, a Hong Kong photographer, graduated this April.
“I loved the feeling of being completely beat up at the end of the day in Liming. There was lots of blood left on the rock every day,” Reshikov said. “As you gain confidence leading on trad, it makes you want it more, push more. My goal now is to keep climbing trad for many years and keep myself safe.”
Trad climbing requires climbers to place their own protection (pro) by finding cracks in the cliff to fit equipment to which they can then clip their climbing rope.
In Hong Kong there is mainly sport climbing, where bolts have already been screwed into the rock so climbers can clip their ropes with relative safety.