pros
Aug 8, 2016
Chinese climbers Liu Yongbang and Xiao Ting-better known as Abond and Ting-are not only incredibly talented big wall climbers, but they are pioneers of the sport in China. Their skills are undeniable and have elevated them to local celebrity status, and not to mention, they are quite possibly the cutest couple in climbing (they're going on 10 years!).
Unlike the legendary big walls of Yosemite, which climbers started scaling in the 1800s, the rock faces sprinkled throughout the varying nature preserves of China remain relatively untouched, despite having routes climbers can only dream of. This is partially due to government restrictions and partially because climbing only started gaining a significant following in China within the past 20 years.
But that's changing, and last month, Abond and Ting were invited to be the first to climb in China's Quingfeng Valley. The Chinese government granted permission to Ting, Abond and climbers Mayan Smith-Gobat and Ben Rueck to be the first climbers ever to conquer the big walls and challenging lines of the nature preserve.
We caught up with Abond and Ting, who are both part of the GoPro family, to learn more about their training, the growing climbing scene in China and about life in general-spoiler alert, it's amazing.
GP: How is training is going? Do you have anything big in the works?
Abond: Right now, we are training for my project in Squamish, Canada. There's a climb called Dreamcatcher. Only three people have done it, and I want to be the fourth one. So far it's training mostly every day-3 days on 1 day off. All training, arm training, endurance training. I'll go to Canada, we'll see if I can do it, and it will be a wonderful trip.
GP: How long will you be in Canada?
Abond: One month. Then after Canada, we will go to China to find some new areas. We go to these places to bring new gyms for climbing and bouldering. We are hoping to develop five more outdoor areas where we can bring climbers from indoor areas to the outdoors in search of rock.
GP: How do you pick the climbers to join you?
Abond: We are going to do a little competition event and pick the top 10 to join us.
Ting: In the past 5 years, we've want to inspire more people to climb, and we want to show people how climbing can change your life. I used to be a city girl, and now I love to climb. My life has a lot of variety and I am very happy every day. I wish more people would join us in climbing.
GP: How often do you climb together?
Ting: Every day-we've been together for 10 years. October will be our 10th anniversary. The last 10 years, we've been together almost every day. It's hard for people to believe so. We believe sports can last forever, and I also believe your partner could be forever.
GP: Do you challenge one another while climbing together?
Ting: Yes. It's a sport, but also for us, it's also like life. All the problems, all the things can happen in climbing. You can have good stuff and you can have problems, so you have to find different ways to solve the problems. You find that people have different ideas.
GP: How is it in the climbing community in China?
Abond: The sport is growing fast. We have 200 climbing gyms now and each gym has 1,000 members. That's a lot. So, now there's a lot of gyms opening up. We want to visit all these gyms.
Ting: In China, there are one or two places that are famous for outdoor climbing-mainly it's Yangshuo. We established a rock searching trip about four years ago to find rocks and to develop routes for people to climb. For example, four years ago in China there were 1,000 routes, but now there are 2,000 or more. And we want to keep doing this. One day, imagine if there are 10,000 routes in China and maybe half of them have been developed or discovered by our group, I'd be so happy. All the climbers can enjoy and climb and look at their happy life.
GP: What would you say to climbers and your followers in China to inspire them to keep climbing?
Abond: I want to tell them: it doesn't matter how hard the climb is, just keep on climbing. Climbing is fun and happy.
Ting: I want to tell them nothing is impossible. If you believe your dream, if you really believe, it can come true.
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