The fourth edition of Girivihar’s Open International Sport Climbing & Bouldering Competition was held over January 26-28, 2007, at CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai. It was dedicated to the memory of the club’s founding member, the late Sharad Ovalekar.
The club originally started this annual open competition in 2004. Anyone who enjoys climbing can participate. It has since grown to be one of the biggest open competitions in the Indian climbing circuit with the additional hue of a get-together. The competition spans Bouldering and sport climbing.
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Sharad Ovalekar
At the competition’s inaugural ceremony, two minute-silence was observed to mark the passing away of Girivihar’s founding member, Sharad Ovalekar, on April 27, 2006. His had been a versatile personality. In a career spanning over 50 years he trekked and climbed in the Sahyadri and Himalaya. He was part of the club’s first Himalayan expedition and among those who started its annual rock climbing camp, a tradition that helped create cadres of young climbers. He was easily approachable and ready to assist. Mr Ovalekar’s guidance contributed to realizing several ambitious expeditions undertaken by Girivihar and other clubs, including expeditions to Kanchenjunga and Everest.
Seeing the helpful side of villagers following a climbing accident on Mumbai’s outskirts, Mr Ovalekar revisited the region with social work on the agenda, something few climbers do. He also mixed his aptitude for social work with his interest in physical fitness, devising and running a project to wean workers off alcohol through body building.
In his passing away, the climbing community would surely miss a fine human being, someone who had been for long, a friend, philosopher and guide to outdoor enthusiasts. He leaves behind a legacy of fortitude, endurance and grace.
Bouldering entails the ascent of difficult routes on small to medium sized rocks. This year bouldering was held in the Belapur crags’ new nursery; so called as its collection of boulders includes beginner grade rocks used for training new climbers. Twenty two boulders, most of them with multiple routes marked in separate colors,were chosen for the competition.
| Bouldering (Juiniors) | ||
| Name | State/Country | |
| 1. Bibhas Roy | West Bengal(Kolkata) | |
| 2. Shaikh Ajij Jalil | Maharashtra (Pune) | |
| Bouldering (Seniors) | ||
| 1. David Gliddon | Australia | |
| 2. Indranil Khurangale | Maharashtra (Pune) | |
| 3. Sadiq A | Karnataka(Davangre) | |
The difficulty of routes ranged from B to V8, it depending on the overall texture of a given rock, its shape, nature of holds, limitation of available holds by designating specific ones for use in climbing, assigned climbing sequence and the posture to be adopted at the start of a climb – whether the climber has to sit down or not. A sit-start for instance, can be terribly strenuous. In this open competition, competitors are given personal score sheets, in which the points awarded for each route and the grade of difficulty of that route are shown in advance. With this in hand, the competitor designs a personal climbing itinerary, climbing as many routes of his choice and ability through the day. At each boulder, judges and observers note on the score sheet whether a given route was completed or not and if completed, then in how many attempts it happened. Maximum points are awarded to a `flash’ or completion of route at the very first attempt.
Sport climbing semis were held on seasoned routes at higher reaches on the old nursery side. In sport climbing (also called lead climbing) the climbing routes are longer and located on high rock faces.
| Lead Climbing (Juiniors) | ||
| Name | State/Country | |
| 1. Bibhas Roy | West Bengal(Kolkata) | |
| 2. Ravi waghela | Maharashtra (Mumbai) | |
| Lead Climbing (Seniors) | ||
| 1. Sadiq A | Karnataka(Davangre) | |
| 2. Navin Arya | Delhi | |
| 2. Asmath Ulla | Karnataka(Davangre) | |
| 2. Indranil Khurangale | Maharashtra (Pune) | |
During the ascent the climber clips his rope into pre-fixed anchors for safety. The lay of the anchors along the rock face also indicates the flow of the route to the climber. In this discipline, competitors are judged on parameters including the extent to which they completed a route and the time they took for doing so. The finals were conducted on a large rock at the lower reaches of the nursery. Overall the sport climbing routes chosen for the competition, ranged in difficulty from 6a to 7b.
This year, for the first time in the competition, a round of indoor bouldering was introduced. Climbing in this case, is done on specially created walls fitted with artificial holds. Tracking the nature of bouldering, the wall’s design is partial to difficult, gymnastic moves.
| Indoor Bouldering(Juiniors) | ||
| Name | State/Country | |
| 1. Bibhas Roy | West Bengal(Kolkata) | |
| 2. Ravi waghela | Maharashtra (Mumbai) | |
| 3. Shaikh Ajij Jalil | Maharashtra (Pune) | |
| Indoor Bouldering (Seniors) | ||
| 1. Shyam Sanap | Maharashtra(Mumbai) | |
| 2. Ketan Surve | Maharashtra (Mumbai) | |
| 3. Amit Sharma | Delhi | |
Typically, artificial climbing walls are expensive and have to be imported. However, even abroad cost effective alternatives are present. In their quest for home climbing walls, senior Girivihar members had both successfully fabricated such walls and acquainted themselves with related best practices. The required plywood walls for the indoor competition were put together at the house of Girivihar’s competition-in-charge, Abhijit Burman (Bong). They were then transported to the local Community Centre managed by Belapur’s nodal development agency, CIDCO. The indoor competition generated much excitement. For the competitors it meant climbing in front of a cheering audience with music playing in the backdrop, while for the organizers it was pure thrill to design, build and install the walls at short notice. Installation was done using ropes and sand bags with no civil work undertaken at site. After use, the walls were dismantled and taken out.
To its credit, CIDCO quickly approved our request for using the Community Centre as venue for the indoor competition. In fact, we not only got the venue but also found our Chief Guest to inaugurate the whole competition – Mr D.P. Samant, CIDCO’s Chief Planner, who came for the ceremony with Mrs Rima R. Dixit, head of CIDCO’s social service wing. We are delighted by the support CIDCO extended and hope that as the region’s main development agency, it takes cognizance of the climbing activity in Belapur.
The club was privileged to have veteran French climber and mountain guide, Jacques Perrier (Pschit), as Chairman of the jury. Accompanying him was Jean Luc Jubert (Titli), a businessman and long standing climber, who now represents a clutch of French climbing equipment manufacturers in India. Perrier, 59, amazed everyone by his dedication to the task at hand, including personal supervision and climbing of every route assigned for the competition. During the indoor event, soon after Chief Route Setter Vaibhav Mehta had finished his work or the competitors had concluded their attempts, Perrier would sneak in a climb, sometimes pulling off a flash. A rather quiet person, it took a while to learn that he had climbed El Capitan in Yosemite, done 8c+ routes and won an ice bouldering competition at the age of 51.
Partly compensating the drop in outstation competitors, were large contingents from Mumbai and Pune. Not to mention, that one-boy army from Kolkata, Bibhas Roy, who topped all the disciplines he took part. We were also rewarded with a higher level of participation from overseas climbing enthusiasts – four this year, compared to last year’s two. Besides David Gliddon from Australia, won the senior bouldering competition, the others were Colton Lindeman from USA, Eve Menger Krug from Germany and Michael Kropac from Switzerland.
The competition would have been impossible without the help we got from our sponsors. The club brings energy and ability to the table. But it is the sponsors and donors who help pay the bill, which this time neared Rs 1.57 lakhs. Some of the sponsors provided financial backing, others donated in kind as in the case of prizes for winners. While climbers who topped their categories earned cash awards they also got climbing boots, crash mats, harnesses, chalk bags, finger boards, carabiners, sleeping bags and day packs. Our main sponsors included
Kangchenjunga Mountaineering Foundation (K.M.F), AVI Industries, High Place, Coatwel enterprise, S.B.I Life, Top Roc, Adventure18, Wildcraft, Gypsy Tents, Countryside , Rocksport. , Wonder Stuck, First Accent, and Srikant Oka
In addition to this, we received donations from supportive individuals and through its representative Jean Luc Jubert, the chance to feature Beal equipment in the array of prizes. Thank you all for your continuing support.
We already have some ideas for 2008; among them, a full blown indoor bouldering competition, on a scale much larger than the introductory round we had this year.
As we work towards that, we would like to reiterate our request to the climbing community – please come.
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