-information from January 2016-
| # number of routes: 300 # grades: 5 – 8a // 5.10 – 5.13 # type of rock: limestone # rock quality: excellent # bolting: excellent # is it polisheded: no # time to climb: morning & afternoon # approach: to most sectors 2-5 min # coordinates: 17.4564591, 104.9112363 |
| In Thakhek you climb on excellent limestone with a big variety of climbing styles: on tufas and stalactites, in the massive roof or even technical face climbing with tiny crimps. At the moment there are about 300 routes and all of them are well bolted! On the side of difficulty, you find everything up to 8a+ (5.13c). You can buy the guidebook at the Green Climbers Home for 130000 LAK. And how is the climbing? It’s really good! You climb on east and west facing walls, with enough routes for extensive morning and evening sessions. The majority of the crags is only a few minutes by feet. The ‘longest’ approach is walking from Camp 2 to the ‘Wall of Fame’, which has four excellent 55m climbs, and takes you about 35min.
Since 2015 the Green Climbers Home has two independent camps that are some 500m apart and only 12km outside of Thakhek. Each has its own bungalows, camping and a shared bathroom/toilet. The bungalows in Camp 1 come with a private bathroom/toilet. In total there is space for about 100 people. For info about the prices check their website. The restaurant is cooking well, the tents are fine and the bungalows have a comfy mattress. At the bathroom you see that you are at german run camp. It is always clean and every toilet has at least two extra rolls of toilet paper. The temperature during winter is quite good for climbing, considering that this is still Southeast Asia. Except for a few hot days in december, a little wind and shade was enough to make it a nice climbing day. In the end of January we even got to use our down jackets ;) On rest days one can play around on one of the many fixed slacklines, throw some darts, go for a swim in the cave next to Camp 1 or explore some of the surrounding caves. In Thakhek you can get motorbikes to drive around or doing the three day loop, starting in Thakhek. If you want to buy fruits, veggies, rice or snacks, there is a good market in Thakhek. All in all Ulli & Tanja did a great job building the Green Climbers Home! But as always there’s a little flaw: Although the restaurant serves good food, the portions are too small for the money you pay, or the meals are a little overprized. Depends on the way you wanna see it :) If you want to stay longer than 30 days have to do a visa run or you can also extend your visa. Click here for more info about that. |