Lord of the Thais, 121m
5 pitches (6a+, 7a, 7a+, 7b, 6b)
Thaiwand Wall, Krabi

Said to be the best 7b multipitch in the world.

3 years ago, Wan came across a YouTube video of Sasha DiGiulian and Nalle Hukkataival climbing this exact route and immediately shared it with me. It is a route that spans nearly the entire height of the majestic Thaiwand Wall and consisted of amazing climbing on quality limestone with surreal views. Since that day, we knew we had to do it.

However, looking at the 3 consecutively hard pitches made the climb feel extremely daunting. We knew that in order to do it and still be able to enjoy the process, we needed to get solid on grade 7s. Three years on, we finally felt physically and mentally ready.

On 18 May 2019, we arrived at Tonsai Beach, checked into our accoms and immediately shoot off for Thaiwand Wall at 10am. The plan was simple (or so we thought). Do the hour long approach in the sun and start climbing when Thaiwand was in the shade. Climbing in the shade was CRUCIAL, especially so since it was the fasting month. Not being able to drink before, during and after the climb was definitely a serious consideration.

However, during our approach, we noticed that the entire face of Thaiwand was still in the sun as it was off peak season.

Nonetheless, we decided to push on slowly and reached the base of Thaiwand at 11.30am.

At noon, we decided to start climbing in the direct afternoon sun, in hopes that we will get some shade by 2pm. As we continued, we both realised that the sun was blistering on relentlessly. By the time I reached the 2nd pitch anchor, I was literally seeing stars and was belaying Wan up with my eyes closed. Heat exhaustion was real! I remember vividly how Wan seconded up and was happily singing until he saw the state that I was in. It was then that we took a break and contemplated our next move. Eventually we made the tough decision of rappelling down and possibly saving the climb for the next trip. This was the right decision as Thaiwand remained in the sun for the entire day.

That night, Wan shared a crazy idea with me. A plan that would allow us to climb in maximum shade, and be at our physical best.

As we needed to have our pre-dawn meal by 5am, the plan was to shoot off for Thaiwand Wall at 3.45am to beat the tides and to drink up as much as possible on the go. Once we reached the base, we would rest a little and rehydrate ourselves before starting the climb FRESH and in the SHADE! I thought this was a brilliant plan and realistically the best chance we had to climb it. I immediately said ‘LETS DO IT.’

We woke up at 3am the next day and executed our plan, starting our climb at exactly 5.01am.

Having climbed the first 2 pitches the day before, route finding was not an issue despite only having our headlamps to light up the tiny bubble in front of us.

As we were climbing the 2nd pitch, the sun started rising and we were treated with an amazing orange glow that lit up the entire wall. It was truly a breathtaking sight!

At this moment, we checked on each other and were both feeling fresh, so we had no doubts to push on.

Pitch 3 was led by Wan and was clearly the money pitch. Lots of weirdly shaped holds (Sasha touched those holds!!) up till the base of the roof. Wan was approximately 20m above me when I shouted to him ‘does it go left or right?’ He looked down and replied, ‘IT GOES STRAIGHT UP BROOO!!!’ He was referring to climbing straight through the roof on the steepest part of the section. About 7m of roof climbing on good holds with 100m of exposure below you. A final crux section allowed us to gain the 3rd pitch anchor. Took us roughly 2 hours to get here and we were at an all time high! We both agreed that this was hands down the best pitch we have ever done in our lives!!!

The 4th pitch was my lead and was the crux pitch of the climb. It consisted of very bouldery and burly moves. After reaching the anchors and belaying Wan up, we were both ecstatic as we had just completed the hardest 3 pitches of the climb.

All that’s left between us and the top was a 6b pitch and we knew we had it in the bag! But complacency has NO place on a multipitch so we immediately turned our focus back on the climb and continued on, reaching the top at 9.24am.

After a short celebration, we rigged the rappel and started the descend. Due to the overhang of the climb, we knew the rapps were going to be a challenge and redirectionals were a must. 3 long rapps later, we were safely back on the ground at 10.41am.

IT WAS DONE! 3 years in the making, and we finally accomplished one of our major climbing goals. We were both filled with a mixture of emotions and were thankful to have had a safe journey. No celebratory cold drinks tho as we still had 7 hours to endure before we break fast. Next best thing – pool hopping!

If you’ve read this long post till the end, then you will definitely be interested to watch the video I made of our LOTT climb. Enjoy! Till the next post!