Selamat datang (Welcome) from the Challenge Park in Putrajaya, Malaysia! Here the weather is pleasantly hot with a touch of constant humidity. We have tigers, white beaches, beautiful mosques, and oh… awesome rock climbing.

For a climber the country is quickly becoming an international destination (See Rock and Ice July issue 170) that will soon rival the famous limestone caves of its northern neighbor, Thailand.

But the climbing isn’t just in the jungles, it’s also in the cities.

In Putrajaya, Malaysia’s beautiful new capital city, the government has just completed its first and only national training center for Malaysian’s official climbing team. Travelers sick of sweating at the crag can also head to the Putrajaya Challenge Park where they can pull laps on 35-meter routes or practice their speed climbing.

So who had the privilege of designing this notable facility? The Swiss/Malay company of BlocX. BlocX is best known for creating Camp5, a world-class commercial gym in Kuala Lumpur.

Patrick Audrey of BlocX was so excited about the new Challenge Park wall that he got in touch with Routesetter.com so he could tell us all about it. Here’s what he had to say.

“The gym is funded by the government. The challenge park is a part of the master plan of Putrajaya. The park also includes a mountain bike trail system with bike park and skate facilities with concrete park and vert area. Our mother company Stretchmarks Asia also won the tender for designing and building both the skate and bike facilities.”

“The Putrajaya Challenge Park is meant to be a competition venue for those sports, but is also a facility that offers areas for recreational use, training and fun.”

“The competition scene is not that strong yet. Malaysia has a bunch of strong climbers who also participate in competitions.

But this facility was built with a glance into the future; creating a venue that builds the backbone of great training and performance for a wider region.”

“Featuring the largest lead competition wall ever built…” – BlocX

“I actually have not yet seen any larger competition wall. Compared to the comp wall in Arco this wall is at least one third larger. The comp wall alone (exclusive of the speed wall) has a surface of 672 m2. It reaches up to 16.5m at all places and goes up to 20m at the highest point.”

“The wall is arranged in a way that you can set routes in all directions. Spectacular and very long diagonal routes can be set, which do not create much rope drag. The longest route (without zig-zag) is 35m long, requiring a 70m rope!”

“I do not really want to tap on my shoulder, but this wall is a routesetter’s dream. Our walls are always built from the setter’s perspective.”

“The wall in general is maybe a bit on the steep side. The client wanted steep, and for me I am always in the clinch when it comes to steep walls, as I believe that too steep walls tend to force more monkey style moving than ‘climbing’. As compensation I have designed the advanced wall in all angles, from slab to 5m overhanging. My goal was to integrate every possible form, angle and arrangement into the gym so everybody can find something to his/her liking.”

“The gym now has 2200 m2 of climbing surface. However, the facility is very big, as it is built to host spectators. For example the main room has more than 1800m2 foot print. There is lots of room for expansion, i.e. outdoor wall and outdoor boulders.”

“There will be at least 300 routes and 250 boulders. The gym has more than 100 anchors.”

“The routesetters are Mahdi Parasid from Iran (former Iranian national coach who is currently the chief routesetter in Camp5), Thomas Dieny from France, Izat and Francis Low (who was also setting at the recent Asian Championship) from Malaysia. Also routesetting will be Llija Ristovski from Macedonia.”

“The gym scene is growing with fast pace, though the gross of climbers in Malaysia are recreational and the general level is still much lower than in Europe or the States. It’s also very hot and humid here, so the indoor scene is very much appealing to the people.”

“There is enormous potential for outdoor climbing here in Malaysia. Unfortunately not many people are bolting here. A couple of years ago, I opened – in an attack of bolting madness – around 100 new routes in Malaysia, mainly in the region of Batu caves and mostly sport.”

“Batu caves has about 400 routes in total. However, the great potential is further north with arrays of unclimbed limestone cliffs and outcrops waiting to be conquered!
Last February we organized a trip together with the Mammut pro-team and we bolted and opened more than 90 new routes in 10 days, our effort was concentrated onto two brand new areas in Ipoh and Perlis.”

“In this new venue we plan on having at least 4 comps a year. We will also try to get the World Cup back to Malaysia, the venue is large enough for such an event. Currently we are discussing options for an open or invitational.”

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