Mountain sport

It started, they reckon, 12,000 years ago. Give or take a decade or two. A sudden rise in sea level flooded the area around Krabi, submerging low-lying areas and leaving only the mountaintops poking up above the swirling waters. As the years passed, carbon dioxide and rainwater continued to erode the limestone cliff faces, while gradually the peaks left above the surface sprouted vegetation.

A dozen millennia later, the legacy of these vagaries of nature is that - Purely and simply - Krabi is one of the most lovely areas in the whole of Southern Thailand. Azure waters dotted with islets and sprinkled with beaches combine to form a stunningly beautiful marine landscape.

And for the world's rock climbers, Krabi is not just a mecca; for them, it's as if the cornucopia of routes on offer up the many sheer walls rising up over Phang Nga Bay and around mean they've died and gone to mountaineering heaven.

Ask anyone with a crabiner on their belt or the residue of chalk under their fingernails exactly why they're here and they'll come up with a variety of answers, but they all agree on one. Krab is exotic, holistic rock - relatively easy to get to, with challenging routes, gorgeous backdrops, an unarguably delicious climate and a great social life on offer at the end of the day.

Other climbing sites around the world have the routes, but not the sun, the scenery and the ambience. There aren't that many places where you can start climbing straight off the beach, or more excitingly, from a gently rolling longtail boat, ending with a rappel into a blaze of shimmering turquoise water, It's a novel experience that's hard to beat.

In fact, if Alex Garland had been keen on getting his feet off the ground, he'd probably have written a novel called The Cliff.

Krabi's also a great place for mountaineers of all levels, whether they're just learning to belay or are expert free climbers. Climbing schools have proliferated over the years you can step off the plane at Krabi's new airport and take your pick of international-standard equipment from hire shops. It was not always so. As travellers began to converge on Thailand in the 1970s and 80s, word started to get out about Krabi. Beachcombers and backpackers wended their way there, divers struck out for the undersea treasures offshore, but the most avid breed of new visitors was the climbing fraternity.

It wasn't long before the big names in climbing arrived to see what Krabi had to offer.

Thierry Renault, Kurt Albert, Sam Lightner, Todd Skinner and Marile Walch - to name just a few - came full of expectancy, loved what they saw and promptly proceeded to conquer some of the more obvious climbs. then in 1990 two intrepid Frenchmen, Francois Burnier and Dominique Potard, pitched up with a petrol drill, several hundred bolts and a stack of imagination that foresaw Krabi as it should be for climbers. By the end of their trip they had gathered an impressive stack of first ascents to their names, mapped the routes and produced Krabi's first climbing guidebook.

Always interested in what foreign visitors were turning their hands to, a group of young Thai men decided they wanted to get in on this new daredevil act as well. Led by Somporn Suebhait, better known as "King", and Somyod "Tex" Thongkeaw, they learnt as much as they could from the visitors and were soon climbing on their own.

Many of the new local climbers had served an apprenticeship in muay thai (Thai boxing), and the strength, speed and flexibility they had picked up as boxers in the ring stood them in good stead on the cliff face.

By the mid-1990s, the words Krabi and climbing were inextricably linked on the local and international circuits, and it's worthwhile noting that many of the early Thai pioneers are now running their own mountaineering schools in Krabi (as well as mountain rescue operations), passing back the tricks of the trade they acquired from overseas visitors to novice foreigners.

The center for much of the climbing is around Ao Phra Nang, "the beach of the revered lady", to the west of Krabi town itself. At the end of a rough T-shaped headland, flanked by two other beaches called Sunrise and West Railae, it's more or less isolated from the outside world by large cliffs and steep jungle valleys.

The cliffs around have more than 150 bolted climbs, ranging from easy stalactite hauls to desperate pocketed faces which make even the most experienced climber sweat.

Jason Leong, who has covered most of the routes in the area, and who is something of an authority on the sport in Southern Thailand, comments: "One of the best things about climbing Krabi is that there are almost no roads or vehicles there.

Almost all movement is by foot power alone. This is because the place is cut off from the mainland by the limestone cliffs which you'll be climbing, so it is almost impossible to bring any form of vehicle over. And I say hooray for that."

Each of the routes has something different to offer, and "newbies" and old hands will all find something to give them pause for thought. "Muay Thai" is one of the most popular cliffs on Phra Nang, which is also sometimes referred to as Hat Tham Phra Nang.

In fact, Muay Thai is as much a social route as anything, due to its proximity to the nearby bungalows and beach cafes.

It's a great place to hang out when you first arrive, chatting to other aficionados and picking up on the local gossip. Muay Thai is a 50-meter-high pocketed wall, divided into two distinct sections offering more thqan 20 established routes across all grades.

To the west, Railae Beach is dominated by a 130-meter limestone tower known as Thaiwan Wall, an incredible formation which currently offers some of the best multipitch climbs in the country, and perhaps even Asia.

A path leads through the jungle to the base of the cliff, and from here on in it's all uphill, on simple routes like "Getting to know you" and Orange Juice".

As with climbs all over the world, routes are named by those who performed and logged the first ascent, and as often as not there's a pun or anecdote riding behind the nomenclature. One of the toughest routes on Thaiwan Wall is "Circus Oz", so named by an Australian team which was caught in a tropical downpour on their way up, which forced them to rappel down in the driving rain.

Sunrise Beach, to the east, provides the ultimate example of the easy-going ambience and ethos of climbing in Krabi. The Blue Bar is lodged in a cave at one end of the beach, while half a dozen routes lead up the rock just behind it. It's a popular ascent, so climbers waiting to head up can simply relax with a beer till their turn.

The landscape of Phra Nang Bay is familiar to many people who have never been to Thailand thanks to the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, as one of the limestone karsts sticking up out of the water like a petrified seamonster was used as the villain's hideout.

Happy Island, lying a mere 100 metres off Phra Nang, Is just such a magical edifice, with half a dozen routes rising from its single minuscule beach. "Don't Worry Be Happy" is one of the most popular, as it leads through a veritable web of fragile stalactites.

Non-climbers sometimes wonder why anyone in their right mind would ever put themselves in a position of such discomfort and danger when they could easily just chill out on one of Krabi's beaches.

"What's the point of coming here to mess about on rocks?" asked a novice climber rhetorically as she nursed a multicoloured cocktail in a beach bar at the end of her first three days in Krabi.

"I'll tell you. In a cave 25 meters above a challenging climb, the answer's oblivious. From our private little window on the world we looked at islands rising in the emerald sea, dazzling white shorelines and the dark coral shadows, knowing we had really earned that spectacular and exclusive view."

She grinned, drained her glass, and then eagerly switched the conversation back to which routes she was going to tackle the following day.

Sawasdee