After falling in love with the sport of rock climbing abroad, Kae Vin Goh came back to his hometown only to find that there were no rock-climbing gyms. After years of waiting, he decided to open one himself.

This story is about that: how he got started to how he opened Project Rock, in Pulau Pinang. His views on the sport and how he is coping during the pandemic.

Some of the stories he talked about that I could not fit into the story is the various games and ways rock climbers play and challenge themselves on the wall. How groups would play a game where one person starts a climb and the other has to continue and add moves, taking turns until they reach the top or someone fails a manoeuvre.

He emphasised the importance of the route setter and how rock climbers look at a wall like a chess game. They think ahead of every move, pacing themselves, noting each hold and grapple. Although there is no official notation, each climber has a general vocabulary of how to describe their ascend which, in turn, becomes a path others could learn, follow, and improve upon.

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