Rock Climbing on Koh Phi Phi
   

Ao Ling Wall

Prominent buttress on the left of Tonsai Tower is accessible in low tide (walking) or a five minute boat ride. Three 6b multi-pitches have been rebolted in 2002 by Cathy and myself. All glue-in bolts and stainless steel rap rings. In the shade after 10am.

Prominent buttress on the left of Tonsai Tower. At low tide it's a 15 minute walk. At high tide it's 5 mins by boat. Cathy and myself have rebolted the 3 most left routes: Ligne De Vie, La main de Buddha, and Vd Resort. These three routes, after their second pitch, join together and lead to the summit. Easy but very exposed climbing. Do not rap from the right-most anchor in the cleft of rock. Instead, rap from a hanging belay on the left (2 ropes), or traverse farther left where we have installed a short rap anchor (20m) that takes you behind the tower into the gully where you can walk-off.

Warning: The green guidebook describes a rap anchor half-way on the wall; DO NOT use this anchor, it has expansion bolts from 1987!! Make sure you use one of the
glue-in anchors with stainless steel rings. If you don’t see large stainless steel rings on an anchor anywhere in southern Thailand be warned that it is most probably unsafe. Any anchor system with binners is to be not trusted.

Hin Tak Wall
     

A short boat ride away from the main beach. Pay the boatmen when he picks you up in the evening on your return. 100-160 baht per person. There are 3 major climbing walls in this area. Monkeys are a major problem here. Arrive “monkey-proof,” i.e. no visible food or water or plastic bags. We used to throw rocks at the monkeys, and now throw rocks at the stupid tourists who feed the monkeys.
On the center of the beach there is a separate leaning tower (‘Travels with my aunt’ 6a+). There is an anchor half way up the climb for teaching multi-pitch. A 60m rope will get you back to the beach from the top of the tower.

Happy Banana (6b with one 6c move) is a must do multi- pitch. Solo up the large boulder off the beach to a ledge beneath corner crack system (pitch one).
At the top of the pitch belay in a notch behind the tower.
The second pitch is a delicate traverse going left across the face and up to a visible hanging belay anchor (6b).
For the third pitch, climb right and up the crack system passing the huge roof on the left. Crux is at the end of the
crack before the exit onto a large belay ledge.

The 4th pitch is the easiest but most intimidating. The 6a+ pulls through huge roof, when you lower of its hanging anchor you are dangling in space 60m over the beach. Your partner can throw you a bite of rope to pull you back onto large ledge. The second usually topropes and cleans the pitch. The hanging anchor is not recommended for belaying the second.

All glue ins and s/s rings, rebolted by Soley, Cathy and Shamick in 2000/2001.

On the right side of the beach and up 10 meters is a striking wall with a nice spectrum of grades from 6b on the very left, up to 7b on right. Karem Marlon, Christine and Shamick spent a day here
and got 7a+ and 7b (same start and same finish) rebolted with red glue and titanium staples.

Hua-Ling (Monkey Head)
      

20 mins by boat from Charlie beach. The boatman will pick you up in the evening; 400-600Baht for the day. Tell the boatman you want to go to Ao-nui bay. In fact, any boatman who sees your climbing ropes will know what you’re up to.

We have rebolted two stunning multi-pitches here.
Difficult landing for the boat at low-tide; have your climbing shoes on and be ready to jump off the boat. Solo for three metres to the ledge.

Djamuuk-Ling (6b) goes straight up past two sets of glue-in bolts to a ring anchor, traverses left ‘via ferrata’ fixed line style to an anchor on a large but sloping ledge. To get across clip your daisy-chain or quickdraws onto the fixed line and get belayed across. The next three pitches follow the arête of the overhanging wall. Make sure you've got water as at times you will be climbing in the sun. You could combine the two last pitches and avoid a hanging belay. A double rope 60m free-hanging rap into the boat ….very wild. NOTE: If you want to wait for your boat on a nice comfortable ledge after you finish climbing then fix
your trail line before doing the last three pitches. That
way you will be able to rap down and pull yourself onto the
ledge. Very airy and exposed climb.

Monsun (7a) the second multi-pitch, starts on the same pillar you arrive at by boat. This time, go left and clip the first bolt, which is hidden behind the pillar. Difficult stemming takes you straight up and left to the same anchor as the second pitch of Djamuuk-Ling. Large belay ledge.

Naitaa-Ling (multipitch 6b and 6c -Monkey Eye) is the route going right and up. It is dramatically overhanging and finishes 5m below the top anchor of Djamuuk-ling. This is another classic not to be missed.

Both routes were rebolted in 2003 by David Kaszlikowski and Shamick. Thanks to David for practically soloing this tower to fix our working ropes. David has done some other solo-s up the different buildings in Europe which is why I got his help here. A year later Karem, Fuji Rob and Shamick went back and added more bolts to this amazing intimidating multipitch.

As of early 2006 lots of fixed lines have been fixed and left on the right side of the cliff. Don’t trust any of them.

The beach across is awesome and don’t miss great snorkeling under the tower itself....

Future developments:
       

Both Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh offer fantastic potential for future route development. It is absolutely essential that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. When putting up new routes we absolutely MUST use titanium glue in bolts and Hiltty Epoxy Re-500 glue. Anything else quickly becomes a dangerous liability.

Please help us put climbing in Phi Phi back on the map!

In the year 2000 Soley Onbut, Cathey Beloeil and Shamick Byszewski started rebolting the climbs on the island. The premise of this effort was that the reopening of this area would attract climbing businesses that would support the continuation of bolt replacement on the well-known classics.

However, the competition between various climbing shops has made a co-operative rebolting effort extremely difficult. The dilemma of how to fund the restoration of this area is still not solved. Unlike Railay and Tonsai, Phi Phi does not have a local climbing community who in turn support rebolting efforts.

Even though there has been money donated to climbing shops on Phi Phi Island in the past 3 years, none of it has gone towards the actual rebolting of this area. So if you are a visiting climber who wants to help us rebolt this place, you should make a careful assessment of who actually does the work.

 

.....................................................................................................................................

Provided by Tourism Authority of Thailand