Wednesday, December 9, 2009 @ 11:20 PM
Via Ferrata wall@ Orchard Central
Ever experience rock climbing on a 5 story high wall within a shopping mall? The idea sounds mad and the fact that you being suspended in mid-air on a 5 story high wall, scary aren’t it? but it has become something true after BorderX, a joint venture between two sports climbing gyms, Singapore’s climb Asia and Malaysia camp 5 introduced Asia’s first ever indoor rock climbing wall in new orchard central mall. Feeling excited already? There’s more to come. The via ferrata wall is unlike the common rock climbing wall facilities which you see, unlike a common rock climbing wall, it makes use of fixed cables, steples and climbing hold to assist climbers up the wall.
An even more unique point is that unlike normal rock climbing whereby you scale the wall individually, in this rock climbing, it’s about team effort whereby you would be attached to a few other people, most likely 4 to scale up the unique wall together. Thus it doesn’t matter if you are a fast climber or not, you need teamwork and be mindful of your climbing mates below you. To further let you guys understand the experience of climbing it, I carried out an interview with my friend, Xuan Wei who have experience it beforehand. He mention to me that like normal rock climbing, your safety gear must be on and stress that you shouldn’t rush on your way up because to scale this unique wall, you need to climb slowly and steadily as you need to be mindful of your climbing mates who might be lagging behind and that further drains your strength if you rush up.
He said that after he climbed the first few steps fast, he felt that his arm had little strength left and till the halfway mark, it’s totally about your determination and willpower to scale this wall and conquer it. You wouldn’t want to let your climbing mates down by falling and giving up he said. Therefore you would need to pay attention to the briefing or pay the price.=) For those wandering for your safety, the cutting edge belay system makes it impossible for you to fall so do not worry about it and enjoy the whole adrenaline-rushed experience. Thus, for those seeking for adventures/sports, this is one full of adrenaline rush for you.
Not suitable for people with phobia of heights!!! 
Additional information: the Via Ferrata wall opens daily from 12pm – 8pm. Tickets are priced at $30 on weekdays and $35 on weekends. Visit
http://www.borderx.com.sg/ for more details.