On May 26th 2017, our beloved climbing gym of the West namely Climbers Laboratory has finally reopened its doors at a more centralised part of Singapore. Located at PUB Recreation Club at 48 Woodleigh Park, the newly designed gym features several new additions from its previous gym at Toh Guan. Our team decided to come down and have the opportunity to check out its new facilities.
Photo: Congratulatory Flowers from the Team (Left) / Main Climbing Area, (Right)
Climbers Laboratory features not only the Main Climbing area, but with a new training wall for beginners / courses, a bouldering gym and even the new Augmented Climbing Wall.
So what is this Augmented Climbing Wall?
Photo: Two wall sections of Augmented Climbing Wall
Using a combination of projected graphics, body tracking, and a climbing wall, climbing itself has taken to a whole new level with new games and training applications, providing an unprecedented climbing experience for all.
It’s programmes enables climbers of all ages and experience to make training in a more fun way and even give feedback to help you become a better climber.
Augmented Climbing Wall features the following games and applications.
- Whack-a-Bat
- Climball
- Sparks
- Augmented Problems
Whack-a-Bat is a game suitable for all sorts of climbers from kids to adults. Its objective is to knock down as many bats as possible while hanging from the wall. Each bat spawned up has a timer on its head whereby the climber has to knock it down before the time runs out. As the game progresses, it gets faster and more difficult as more and more bats spawned up, giving the players added pressure.
Photo: Climb’O’Dachi Members trying out the games
This game motivates kids and adults to climb both faster and stay on the wall longer, improving endurance along the way. Whack-a-Bat can also be customised in terms of speed and difficulty level to make it even more interesting for the climbers.
Climball is a climber’s way of playing ball game among two players on the wall. It has two modes of playing. namely competitive and collaborative. In competitive, the objective of this game is to score the most points against their opponent by getting the ball over to the edge of the wall. Players have to use both arms and legs to hit the ball towards their opponents.
Photo: Climb’O’Dachi Members trying out the games
For collaborative mode, the game is to have two players teaming in ensuring the ball stays in the centre of the wall for as long as possible. Both modes enables competitiveness and endurance in a fun way.
Sparks on the other hand is another game of bouldering. Climbers are to get from one point to the other without touching the white lines that represents an electric fence. To make things more interesting, some problems can have moving electricity fences or even disappearing fences.
Photo: Climb’O’Dachi Members trying out the games
Without falling off from the wall nor touching the fences, climbers have to think and act quickly to get to the end point without getting shocked!
Augmented Problems is the most exciting but have not been introduced yet to the climbers. Our team was honored in testing out this programme for this article. Augmented Problems is a digital way of bouldering, whereby hundreds of routes can be produced without a single mark on the wall itself unlike traditional bouldering walls.
Photo: Climb’O’Dachi Members trying out the problems
The routes are projected on the wall using green circles, showing the route from start to finish. Whats more, the climb itself is being recorded whereby the climbers are able to review their movements and conduct sharing sessions on how to improve on their climbing. Videos itself are even projected on the wall to show and even compare two climbers climbing the same route at the same time, showing how each climber moves differently.
Augmented Problems is currently in route setting by Climbers Laboratory and will be introduced on its official opening. So stay tuned for tons of routes coming your way!
So there you have it, the new Augmented Climbing Wall at a glance. Giving experience and even new climbers a new way of climbing, improving skills and enhance endurance.
Will this benefit you in your climbing? One way to find out is to come down and experience it yourself.
Augmented Climbing benefits climbers in endurance training while having fun at the same time. Also it promotes kids in engaging them into climbing with its games that can even last for hours.
Climbers Laboratory currently offers half hourly to hourly sessions for using the Augmented walls. The publicised rates are from $25 for a half hour session to $50 for an hour, with a maximum of 6 climbers per wall. Thats about $8.34 per climber for an hour session. For more information, do check with the friendly staff at the gym.
For more enquiries, do drop us a note at the Contact Us page, or you may contact Climbers Laboratory at info@climberslaboratory.com.sg
See you there!
Climbers Laboratory has closed its doors back in April 2020. AR walls can now be found at T-Hall.sg, located at Crawford Lane.
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