5 January 2010

Imagine nothing more than thin air between your tender behind and the ground 20m below - and this is just you taking a break. You dangle off the Via Ferrata facility on the fourth floor of Orchard Central shopping mall, and if you feel butterflies in your stomach, this 30m vertical wall is the perfect mountain for you to climb.

Italian for “Iron Way”, Via Ferrata is named for the iron rungs that form a “pathway” up the rock face. These rungs make for easy handholds and footholds, but don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this iron ladder.

Unlike normal ladders, this one weaves a meandering path upwards, and sometimes even sideways. This means that for an instant, your feet must find a hold on the flat wall instead of the convenient rung. Fancy hanging by only your arms a good 15m off the ground? (10m, by the way, is the height of a lamp post in Singapore.)

At that point, there’s still 15m more to climb. Fear not, if the strength of your arms belittle the courage in your heart - there is a resting carabiner that hooks onto a rung and takes the weight off your tired limbs.

If you climb too quickly and forget to clip or unhook your safety, then you’ll just have to climb back down to reach it. Since you have to juggle between a pair of carabiners, a cable, a rope and protrusions called ‘pigtails’ (for hooking your rope on), it is quite likely that you will miss something. Usually, you have to look below to complete that forgotten task or at other times, you have to stretch sideways to retrieve a forgotten carabiner.

It is incredibly reminiscent of classic moments in the movie Cliffhanger, because even if you are attached to two levels of safety, it may not actually feel like it.

If, and when you finally reach the top, you might see that the iron way you have just conquered is not unlike the Himalayas of your own psyche. After coming out tops, surely you have earned the right to indulge your ego.

Looking down 30m had never felt so good.

Via Ferrata sessions are available at S$35 for one and a half hours, inclusive of equipment and safety briefing. Group discounts are available for 10 or more persons.