South East Asia's first mountaineering training center has been established on Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia. It is located in Mt Kinabalu National Park, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, renowned for its rich plant and animal diversity.
Adventure seekers will enjoy the new 'via ferrata', or 'iron road', a mountain route equipped with fixed rungs, rails, cables, stemples (crossbars and supports), ladders and bridges, that makes an otherwise difficult terrain accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities.
Mount Kinabalu's via ferrata is the highest in the world, starting at 3,200 metres and ending at 3,800m above sea level. The next highest is in Italy, ending at 3,600m.
Mike Robertson from Wareham, on England's south coast, has dramatically climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris to protest at the Burma operations of oil giant Total. With 18 years of climbing experience behind him, he drew gasps from onlookers as he made the rope-free assault on the famous French landmark.
Mike wanted to draw attention to human rights violations in Burma, which he learned of while planning a climbing trip there. Read more in the report by Juliette Astrup in 'This is Dorset'.
A small video clip that illustrates why people flock to the UK's Lake District for rock climbing. It is a trailer for a rock climbing film featuring Dave Birkett, one of the UK's best rock climbers.
