Girivihar Open International Climbing Competition 2010

Highlight of the 7th Bouldering competition held at CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai, India
www.girivihar.org

About Competition:

THE GIRIVIHAR ROCK CLIMBING COMPETITION 2010:

Navi Mumbai is probably the only city in the world which has a natural resource like a Boulders Park
located at a distance of less than two kilometers from its city center. Within the Mumbai-Navi Mumbai
belt, the climbing crags of CBD Belapur are the best developed. The state's first sport routes and
properly graded climbs came up here.

The region annually hosts one of the biggest open climbing competitions in India.
The area is blessed with good though limited natural crags, plenty of educational institutions and good
transport connectivity to other parts of the country.

About Girivihar:
Girivihar has been consistently active in rock climbing, mountaineering and trekking for the last over 50
years with major expeditions in the Himalaya and rock climbs in the Sahyadri to its credit. It has been at
the forefront of using modern climbing techniques and equipment. It has been conducting annual
training camps for children, adults and handicapped for the last over three decades and a climbing
competition at CBD Belapur for the last four years.

Girivihar's climbing competition has been an amazing phenomenon both for the totally homespun
effort that has so far gone into its making and for the success that it has reaped. It all began with the
club developing the first properly graded rock climbing crag in Mumbai / Navi Mumbai at CBD Belapur.

As youngsters flocked to it and the initial batch of sport climbers began setting new standards in rock climbing locally, it became clear that a competition would fit in well with their growing appetite for
challenges.

That was the context for the first edition of Girivihar's open sport climbing competition on natural rock
in 2004. Participation was mainly from Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. Over the following six editions,
the last being in January 2009, participation increased to include climbers from all over India as well as
foreign climbers.

The competition has now been a host to such climbers as Alex Chabot, a former World Cup winner,
Jacques Perrier a.k.a "Pschitt", the famous French Alpinist, Julien Gras and Chloe Graftiux, one of the
strongest female climbers in the world.

Last year, the highlight of the event was some brilliant climbing
from an unexpected quarter: Asia's best climbers from Iran!
If the history of this competition is anything to go by, this year's event promises to be another
blockbuster, which will be long remembered in the minds of Mumbai's adventure lovers. But this time
around, the competition has increased its scope by introducing an event called the "Introduction to
Rock Climbing for Citizens", which will be open to all citizens.

Further, the competition this year was honoured by the presence of Michael Fuselier and Julien
Nadiras, the former being one of the world's few climbers to climb the 9a grade and the latter being
one of only 3 boulderers ever to have climbed a boulder graded V16. Also coming is Florence Pinet,
currently ranked as the 16th best woman climber by IFSC (in Lead Climbing)

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Florence
• Pinet
• Julien
• Nadiras
• Michael
• Fuselier
• open
• climbing
• competition
• mountain
• contest
• Bouldering
• GIRIVIHAR
• Navi
• Mumbai
• Jacques
• Perrier
• Chloe
• Graftiux
• national