By MaryAnn Soh

Scaling an indoor rock wall has always been a breathless experience for me. The first five meters is always a piece of cake; I'd start out in good stead with a very strong mind bent on conquering the vertical giant. But along the ascent, with stubbier climbing holds and more inclined reverse slopes, my 'sweaty palm' syndrome acts up and my energy wanes. Those weak fingers of mine lose grip and I inadvertently slip.

As you can tell by now, I am no rock climbing pro. But while I was covering the official opening of Asia's first indoor Via Ferrata climbing wall yesterday, I was told that this wall was created for people like me.

The newly installed fixture at Orchard Central is a towering 30 meters in height and takes up five storeys within the Somerset shopping mall.

I was faced with my vertical giant again, except this time its loftier and fiercer. And maybe you might be interested in this tiny fact, it is THE WORLD'S TALLEST indoor climbing wall!

So why is it for the average person?

The Via Ferratta is a climbing trail made up of fixed cables, staples, ladders, and bridges. All the unskilled climber has to do is to hook the pair of 'lobster claws' (they are really palm-size carabiners) onto the cable or the rung that is attached to the wall. The rung, which stretches from the foot of the wall to the top, in essence marks out your path so you do not have to plan your route up like in traditional climbing.

This towering giant stands at 30 metres tall.

This technique of climbing, which means "Iron Way" in Italian, does not require a partner to belay you up the wall. In terms of safety, what this means is, instead of relying on your partner to cushion your fall by fastening your rope in the event of a slip off the wall, you place your security entirely in the hardiness of the system of iron rods.

At any one point you should always have your safety carabiner clipped onto a ladder - that is your sure lifeline.

As part of the launch, I got a free go at climbing the Via Ferrata wall.

And I must say it was a worry-free experience. All I had to do was to transfer my 'lobster claws' from staple (a fixed point on a wall) to staple to make the ascent and literally let those claws do the walking.

Moving up the rungs like a steeplechase

While I did not like having my pair of hands full, busily trying to juggle between the three carabiners, I liked that I did not have to wreck my brains over planning a route up. Plus, a climbing guide will scale the wall with you, talking you through every step of the way.

This time I made it to the pittstop - the halfway point of the wall. That is about 15 metres (of accomplishment)! Well I know that it not a sound measure of achievements, but to me at least, that is a personal milestone.

On my way down, I had to abseil. Although I was a keen learner and followed all the instructions to keep my legs perpendicular to the wall, the descent wasn't as easy as I thought. I froze up, taking a good five minutes to arrive at home base.

But for now, I choose to home in on my accomplishment and leave conquering that fear for another time.

See photos:
» My first Via Ferrata experience