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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

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Author
Climbing in Vietnam
Liz
25-Mar-2013
2:24:06 PM
Hey! I am planning my next climbin trips at the moment.
I have heard that Vietnam is supposed to be awesome! Has anyone been climbing in Vietnam yet and could maybe give me some more information about good spots? :)
I would also be glad about some information about the weather there in July. Do you know if will be too hot to climb there at all in July? I have so far found really different answers in the internet to those questions...
So maybe some of you guys have experience with climbing in Vietnam and can give me some advice :)
Thanks a lot,
Lisa

dr box
25-Mar-2013
3:00:26 PM
Have a look for SloPony. They are based out of Halong bay. I did some DWS there, but there are also lots of routes. good fun too.
Just becareful with the long boats getting there
cheers

pedro.c
25-Mar-2013
4:51:10 PM
Lisa

I was there in January. We spent a week in Tonsai, Thailand (not long enough) followed by three weeks in Vietnam (too long).

If you really want I could give you the run down how to get around however I really wouldn't recommend going there if you are planning a climbing trip. It is not awesome. It is barely OK. You can order a guide book from Asia Outdoors online (They were called Slow Pony but changed their name) and see for yourself. There's about 20 climbs in Butterfly Valley on Cat Ba Island, five on Tiger Beach, five across the water from Tiger and the rest is deep water soloing (DWS).

The DWS may be good but it was too cold in January and you are swimming in some pretty manky/polluted water.

The other problem is you can't get on the climbs without getting fleeced by Asia Outdoors. Most of them are boat access only and they're the only guides who know how to get on them. Everything else is cheap except the climbing.

Even Butterfly Valley is on private property where the hand is out for dough to get on the wall.

I'd head back to Tonsai/Railay in a heart beat. Now that place is awesome.
Pete.
One Day Hero
25-Mar-2013
5:01:44 PM
I went a couple of years ago over christmas. Weather was super good at that time of year, no idea what it does in summer. The deep water soloing is a bit wang in my opinion, the rock at sea level was pretty sharp and crumbly and you need lots of shoes cause climbing in wet shoes is probably less effective than barefooting it. The crag near town is pretty good, about 60 routes, heavily weighted in the 21 -24 grade bracket..............can't really see how it would keep many people entertained for longer than 10 days unless they're heavily into projecting.

I was less than impressed with Slopony, couple of seppos who are trying to make a living from guiding (but also attempting to get money for shit which is free everywhere else). They have a bottomless well of excuses as to why that area is different to every other area in the whole world, but they're just scammers really. Be warned that the guidebook they sell doesn't include any of the deep water soloing (or most of the climbing on the little islands), because they run their own boat trips out to those areas for a mere 2000% of how much it would cost to hire a local boat.
Liz
27-Mar-2013
8:57:00 AM
Thanks for the answers! ...Sounds a bit as if I should see if I can head to Thailand instead. Will have a look for the weather conditions there aswell :)
Lisa
dan_b
27-Mar-2013
12:25:20 PM
If you're thinking of climbing in Asia and haven't done so before, definitely head to Tonsai first.
f_ladou
27-Mar-2013
6:46:35 PM
Hi Liz,

Have a look here for some infotainment:

http://www.chockstone.org/forum/Forum.asp?Action=Display&ForumID=2&MessageID=6841&Replies=4

Cheers, François
88chees
28-Mar-2013
2:44:54 PM
definitely don't waste your time in vietnam.
One Day Hero
28-Mar-2013
5:19:50 PM
Hmmm, I think that might have come across as being a wee bit negative.

I really liked Cat Ba, great food, good routes, and the climate was actually suitable for climbing (unlike Ton Sai). However, I only stayed for 6 days. Could have happily stayed a second week, but I think that would have been it. A month would have left me extremely bored. I would recommend 2 weeks on Cat Ba and 2 weeks in Ton Sai as a better option than spending a whole month at either place.

nmonteith
28-Mar-2013
6:37:32 PM
I liked Vietnam but it certainly didn't have more than a few weeks of climbing - unless you are interested in bolting new routes. I found the SloPony guys really helpful - they lent me drills, motorbikes and boats when I offered to help them do new routes. I also found them a lot more reliable than some of the shadier guides around that area.
StephanieG
29-Jan-2016
7:54:29 PM
In my opinion, rock climbing hasn't been developed in Vietnam. I participated in climbing in our Halong Bay tour booked through Bestprice Vietnam. If you ever heard about Halong Bay cruises, you may know the common itinerary is cruising through the rock formations, visiting caves, kayaking and sunbathing. That sounds boring for us, so we chose the route to Catba Island which includes rock-climbing. The level was not really challenging, not enough for someone who seeks for thriller. And if you tend to go in July, please remember summer is high season, expect for the crowds.

Goshen
30-Jan-2016
4:29:45 PM
This post is a bit old... But since you revived it... I was very keen in doing a DWS trip to Vietnam (or somewhere similar). I've done the Tonsai day-trips, and it was awesome; but that was a little limiting too, after a couple of days I didn't think there was that much there to do, seems they took us to all the main spots (but I could be wrong).

So where IS the best place in Asia to go DWS? Vietnam does have more extensive DWS than Thailand, yes?

There are 12 messages in this topic.

 

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