Vietclimb Review

Vietclimb is the very first indoor bouldering wall in Vietnam. Located in Hanoi, this indoor climbing facility propose you to climb on artificial walls at safe high that doesn’t require a rope.

This indoor facility was my first every introduction to climbing and it was an experience that I won’t forget. We’ll see in this review if this activity is for you and how affordable it is.

The location

Vietclimb is located near West Lake, more precisely on the other side of the main road on the side next to the red river. It’s a fairly large complex which entrance is near a Tennis field.

The design of the complex is fairly simple, basically a hangar with 4 walls which 3 of them have bouldering activities.

Toilet and shower inside the men’s changing room

The desk is at the entrance and there is a small restaurant section with drinks and food avalaible to order. There’s some toilets and changing rooms with showers as well as lockers for your belongings.

Lockers for your belongings with key that you can attached to your wrist

The lockers locks are not extremely secure but it will do the job for Vietnam as most people don’t steal anyway. There’s probably the list of name present in the facility that day and some cameras, but if you want more security you can always bring your own lock.

The experience

My friend Joel filming my son in the bottom of the picture

The experience started at the entrance, where we paid for one session and for the rental of the shoes. here’s the price for one session.

Day-pass: 180 K
Shoes rental: 30 K/person
Chalk rental: 30 K/person

One thing to know about the shoes is that in Vietnam sizes are smaller and shoes for climbing are very small as well. I personally thought I was wearing 41 in europe and 43 in Vietnam but I had to pick up some 44.5 size shoes for climbing and it was very tight actually.

Some bouldering rules

Since it was our introduction to indoor bouldering we we introduced to the basic rules which were very simple actually.

There are different routes with different levels
Each of this routes uses only one color so you can only grip the holds from the same color
Colors doesn’t mean anything particular
You need to start with two hands on some designated climbing holds and finish on one designated climbing hold
Once you finish the route you can either jump or climb down using holds for any colors.

The difficulty of the routes

As total beginners, my wife, my friend and I were introduced the feeling to climbing. The first thing I would say is that it’s harder than it looks. It’s not as simple as climbing in a tree and the learning curve is quite steep.

It really has to do with understanding the physics of gravity and the physics of your body. Of course there is tons of technics that you can only acquire by the method of trial and error which means basically falling.

The first levels are holds that are very easy to grip and place so you can easily move upward without having to make any akward position. It’s very close to climbing a ladder actually in terms of physicality.
The second levels have holding that are less pronounce so your grip is not as secure as you would like to but still they are quite easy to achieve, you can do it within 1 or 2 tries usually.
The third levels starts to be akward and for a beginner will start to strain your muscle a bit. Some position will be very akward, for example spread out or you will have to change position within a hold.
The fourth levels and perhaps some of the third levels as well will require you to use strenght to get to the upper hold. For example you’ll have to jump or at least risk your current holds to get a grip to the new hold. Those routes start to widen quite a bit and the holds spreads out quite a bit as well.
The other upper levels are in my opinion for people more used to climbing than begginers. for example you can be inverted meaning hanging like a roasting pig and will have to grip like mad not to fall. Sometimes even griping with only one hold at the time. For us it’s looks like this kind of levels require some experience and some conditionning as well.

The Yooyi trying to do like the other adults

The good thing about indoor bouldering and Vietclimb is that the sensation are here. Even if you will fall on a matress, the fear of falling is still present and you’ll learn to use your body efficiently for climbing.

A steep learning curve

Some of the routes will be challenging and you’ll have to try many times even if you are sore. As a beginner and an uptight person when it comes to muscle, I tend to fold my arm to be closer to the wall but I should instead let it go so my bone structure will carry my weight.

My wife trying indoor bouldering for the first time

Another technic is to use the toe of your foot to grip instead of the plant to have better movement flexibility.

So as you guess there are infinite number of technics and details to become a better climber, just starting with the different kind of grips. There are actually walls full of differents grips where light color can be activated to trace a route.

360 View of the complex

I personnaly love technics and mechanics in sports and bouldering is quite amazing when it comes to the depth of the technics. Just being on the floor trying to picture the necessary movements to climb is already quite enjoyable.

My wife changing up to go to the restaurant for women’s day

When you finish, I guarantee you that your muscle will be sore and that you’ll feel the strain in your arms for days.

Verdict

8.0 out of 10

I always had fear of height or more precisely of falling to my death but indoor bouldering is something quite safe but at the same time quite challenging both in terms of fear but also of technics.

This mixte is a good formula for falling in love and getting more in depth with a domain. Climbing is literally what everyones tries to do in their life anyway.

I use to go to the gym to build some muscle but now I honestly think I’ve found an activity much more entertaining and rich for my personnal development both physically and mentally.