Liming Rock Newsletter 2019

Liming Rock Newsletter 2019 Hello climbers! Welcome to the town of Liming. Liming is a place that is not typical in the southeast asia sport climbing circuit. Expect trad climbing, splitters, corners, sport climbing, multiple rock types, culture, tufas (yes tufas) and even some adventure along 400+ pitches of climbing. We are dedicated to Liming being a rock climber’s area with immersion into the community. We hope to contribute the most possible to the economy by using local business and creating opportunities for the native Lisu to benefit. The Lisu run all the accommodation and restaurants in and around liming. This makes it easy to contribute! Be sure to shop around and spread the money out. There are all sorts of new things happening in the community. New rock climbs, the continue development of sport climbing, resources, and information. Don’t forget to sign a waiver of liability, buy a ticket, and photocopy your passport at the gate office. Not doing this could compromise our access to climbing here. Also please be safe climbing here. Don’t do anything stupid like free solo and kill yourself. New ROUTES!! There are a ton of new things happening. The following is a summary of the new climbs going up in Liming. Anything with a question mark is a closed project but worth asking if it is open. Honestly this newsletter will most likely be out of date a day or two after this newsletter comes out. We will try to continue to post new stuff on the Liming rock page. Liguang village area Sport climbing: The area in and around the Coreshot house is turning into the easy convenient climbing area of Liming. A great answer to all the people that have a problem with walking to the crag. Yes this is a problem for some people. We expect there to eventually be many crags within a 10 minute walk from the house/drop off point. Originally the only crags here were the Uncensored and Censored walls. Now there are an additional two walls with more on the way. The area is about 2 KM from Liming town and totally reasonable to walk as well. If you approach to the Censored Wall it’ll take you to these areas. a. WIFI WALL: Named due to the presence of wifi at the wall. You can theoretically top rope belay from a car. The climbing seems like a mix of a bit of the Red and a bit of the Grampians. Hard grades and good quality routes ranging from 5.10 to 5.13. The steep 5.12b/c (The Goatman) next to the 5.10 is very popular. Afternoon sun. The wall is visible from the main road on the left walking towards censored and uncensored wall.

b. SCIFI WALL: A nice little wall with a good concentration of climbs. Most of the climbs a fun and probably has the best 5.10a sport climb currently in liming. The 5.11’s are nice too. The 5.12c with the 5.13- direct start takes the crown as one of the best climbs in liming. There is a dirt road that accesses this crag on the west side of the main road about 200 meters north of the coreshot house. Liguang Highlands Sport Climbing: The golden rock type at the higher elevations of Liming is a more compacted and pocketed sandstone with some of the stuff that makes Limestone. The climbing style can be compared to the New river gorge. There is a ton of this rock. At this point approaches to both areas require motorbike transportation. The coreshot house rents a few motorcycles. It is highly recommended to fit at least one or two of your days in Liming to these areas to get long mileage on the wall with amazing scenery. a. Goat Rodeo (2900meters): The more developed of the two areas. A few of the pitches are 50m and very fun. Bring a 70m rope at least and 26 quickdraws. Below is the approach which can take either 20 minutes or 35 depending on the way you go. Drive up to Liguang Village and once through the town center take a sharp right up a steep paved road. Drive this road until you reach the hairpin curve pictured below.

Recommended routes: 50m 5.10b (Where the Monkeys Live), 50m 5.11c (Clan of the Cave Bear), 20m 5.11- (Sandy Monster), Route on the Pillar called The Goat Rodeo 5.12, and the mega classic 35m 5.11c to the arête extension (5.12a/b) called Primal Infinity that tops out at 47m.

b. El Dorado (2850m): The wall is huge. We estimate that it is about 800 meters long 100m high could have 70 routes that start from the ground. There has been a good amount of development on it! But definitely still a work in progress. The approach involves a 15 min on the motorbike and a gradual 40 min hike. To get there take the paved road that travels east from the Coreshot house down across the creek (towards Wifi wall) . Continue on this road as it passes into a canyon (lots of potential here). Continue up this road for 3-4 Km. On the way you will pass the trad crag Rainbow Cove (on the left). When the road goes steeply uphill past a few houses on the right you will see a dirt road on the right after a field. Either park here or drive up the road 100 meters and park . (it is possible to continue up this road but it is steep and rough, maybe in the future it will be paved). Walk up this road, past a house on the left (can have aggressive dogs). Walk to the end of the dirt road and continue up the trail. When you get to the shack after walking up the trail for a few hundred meters head left straight up the hill to a trail that traverses. Take a right and walk on this trail until it reaches the small stream. Cross the stream to the other side and walk up the grassy slope, until you find the main trail the cuts back to the main wall. The trail should arrive the area described on the middle topo.

Middle Topo Right side Topo

New developments in the main Liming area not in the guidebook: Elephant Rider 5.12b/c, 5 pitches (starts to the left of Soul’s Awakening). AWESOME at the grade. The first pitch is Liming’s first fully bolted route from the ground at 5.11+. Route tops out the wall. Gear .2 to 6, triple 5, doubles 1-4 and 6. Quickdraws. Rappel the route from the top of the wall. Rainbow Cove: This small crag is located on the road to El Dorado. Transportation/motorbike is recommended. 4 or 5 trad routes from 5.10 to 5.12. The 5.12 is a nice inversion OW. The Pillars area: Saxion Edge: located on the left arête on the left pillar in the pillars area. 5.11 R-rated. 4 ring bolts and .4 cam at the top. If you fall you will likely hurt yourself. Treat it as a no fall route. Also hard for the grade. Sign in box at the top in German style! Three sport climbs from 5.10 to 5.12 are currently being developed. Cave Area Main: More beta in the route book at the Faraway Hotel. 1) Flight of the Humingbird Moth 5.11 A0, Route listed as #2 potential in guidebook. a. Pitch 1: Where the wild things are 5.10-, 11m Gear .5 to 5 double .5. Bolt anchor. FFA Amanda Bischke b. Pitch 2: 5.11 A0, climbs the big right-facing corner through wide pods up into the giant honeycomb feature. Pull through the awkward OW bulge and tunnel inside where you squeeze chimney / use awesome honeycomb features to make your way up and then traverse back towards the outside to find a bolt anchor. Please stay off the spongey calcite lower down and instead A0 from the bolts back into the crack. I promise it is worth it for the chimney!!! FFA Petrouchka Steiner-Grierson 2) Pray Like a Mantis 5.10+, gear .3 to 4, double 3 and 4. Bolt anchor. FFA Petrouchka Steiner- Grierson 3) Polar Opposite (5.10+) right of Equator (marked as #9 potential in the book). Rack: c3 1 purple 2 green 2 red. C4 doubles .3, .4. Singles .5 - 1. Nuts useful. 1 bolt. FA/FFA Maria Parkes. Very interesting and cool moves. The Guardian: 1) RA 5.12 Bolts. First full sport climb at the Guardian. Located directly right on the start of The Gift. FFA Raul Sauco. 2) Hieroglyphic added a second pitch! Called Alphebet. FA Owen Lee. More info in Faraway Hotel route book. Guidebook: The current guidebook is on sale at the Faraway Inn and the Coreshot House for 230RMB. The guidebook primarily covers the traditional rock climbing areas. Expect to find awesome crags, multi pitches, typical cragging, and adventure. 350 pitches of climbing are documented. Transportation options: Liming is a big area. Not just a single valley of rock. There are four main valleys as well as many canyons that weave in and out of everything. Also rock in the highlands. In an effort to make the climbing walls in Liming more accessible, these are the options for transportation. The sport climber’s area has the easiest approaches in Liming ranging from 3-10 minutes. A quick ride up to the drop off point makes for an easy approach day to let your legs recover from some of the other approaches.

1. The Faraway boss (Laoban) will give and arrange drop off and pickups. He knows the English names to the more popular areas like… a. The Guardian b. Sport Climber’s Crags (or says Raul’s house) 2. Motorcycle and trike rentals: Go anywhere you want, any time you want. The Coreshot house rents a few motorcycles including a trike. For information please contact Mike Dobie at [email protected]. Another option is to go to the Liming town mechanic. He also rents motorcycles. Route Developers: All new routes should be discussed with a representative from the Liming Bolt Fund. Ryder Stroud, SiMei, Mike Dobie, and Ana Pautler. The areas around liming have little to no restrictions for new development. The areas around Liguang Village has an approval process through the local inhabitants. The Liming bolting fund provides all equipment, bolts, and hardware. If you are a developer we have gear for you. Don’t bring anything  Liming Climbing Association and Bolting Fund (LCABF): This group is newly formed and has a focus of maintaining access to the park, rebolting routes, and properly bolting new climbs. The LCABF exists solely by donation and is non-profit. If you would like to donate please visit our gofundme campaign page or purchase Liming post cards/hats. Also if you would like to develop new routes and/or rebolt existing ones you can use the equipment and hardware. https://www.gofundme.com/liming-bolting-fund Climbing Access: The Liming Climber’s Coalition maintains access to Liming and works with the Loajunshan National Park. Currently the only area of Liming where the park authorities endorse and permit any type of climbing is on the two Via Ferratas with one of their hired guide. All the other areas of the park are closed to climbing. The park and Chinese government cannot guarantee your safety in those areas. For this reason if you decide to enter these areas for climbing it is at your own risk and you assume all responsibility. From time to time the park employees will tell climbers that they may not climb. This is them making sure that you know that they are not assuming any responsibility if you go climbing. You can still climb, but at your own risk. If a park employee follows you to the wall and still insists that you cannot climb, then at that point there may be a problem. This has never happened. The park authorities would like to remind you to be sure to buy a ticket, sign a waiver of liability, and photocopy your passport at the entrance gate office if you have not done this already. Your cooperation helps keep the climbing access to Liming! Thank you. CoreShot House: A few people rent rooms from a local lisu. It has become known as the Coreshot house. This is where ropes go to die…haha. Yes we have a lot of old core shot ropes. From time to time we will have friend stay with us! Contact [email protected] if you are interested. The house also has a western food store and is stocked most of the time. Items can be delivered into Liming town if it is planned and coordinated. Western Food Store Menu: Beer Lao light and dark: 12 a bottle

Coffee 454g: 80 Doritos Nacho Cheese: 18 Frosted Flakes Cereal 420g: 35 Honey nut cheerios 250g: 32 Skippy crunchy Peanut Butter 510g: 39 Skippy crunchy Peanut Butter 340g: 28 Skippy Chocolate/peanut butter: 28 Oatmeal: 32 Liming Postcards: Postcards featuring art by Gabriella Indivero are available at the Faraway Hotel. Profits from these postcards are graciously donated to the Liming bolt fund. Liming Apparel: Cool trendy Liming hats are available at the Faraway Inn and Coreshot house now! 100RMB each. Profit goes to the liming bolt fund. Thank you for visiting Liming. We hope your stay and experience here is a great one!!