Macaque at the base of the tonsai tower. Watch ou...
Description
The “main” climbing wall on the beautiful island of Ko Phi Phi Don; not to be confused with Tonsai Wall, on Tonsai Beach, on the Phra Nang Peninsula. And by “main”, I mean popular. The wall doesn’t catch shade until the afternoon, so depending on the season plan accordingly. Add in the ubiquitous guides and gaggles into your plans; best bet is to wake up early and put in a couple climbs before the day starts. Leave when the heat or the crowds become unbearable, and return when they both subside in the afternoon; like clockwork. Bring some mosquito coils for those evening climbs.
A large wall hosting some two dozen moderate routes in close walking distance of Phi Phi town, it’s obvious why it’s so popular. The majority of the routes have either been retro-bolted with titanium in 2000 or have been established since; the threads look like they may have been installed sometime in the last decade or two. The nice thing about Tonsai Tower is that if you’re ever worried about the protection on any particular route, the grid bolting allows you to just clip protection from one of the neighboring routes.
Even with the grid bolting and the guides, there are some fun and interesting routes on the tower. There are some unmemorable ones as well, but even at its worst, you’re still in Thailand. This is a great place to get comfortable with Thai climbing. Take a day or two, start on the left and work right or vice versa. There are only a couple routes above 5.10, and by the time you’re done with the wall you’ll be at ease clipping threads and hanging off tuffas.
As of summer of 2007, most of the info I have heard said that there is only one “safe” way all the way up the tower (Rev De Phi Phi Dom 5.12b), the rest have questionable protection. There are also a couple of “two pitch” routes, but they can be done in one with either a 70 meter rope or just use the LPL lowering method. Always tie knots in your rope!
Getting There
Head out of Phi Phi town toward Tonsai bay and continue west along the beach towards the towering (aptly named) Tonsai Tower (“Tonsai” meaning tower). You can’t miss it. Follow the beach to the end past the Tsunami evacuation sign and the newly built (2007) bungalows. At the end of the beach you’ll come across a local Thai who has built his house in the tree over the beach, and just past his house is a trail leading up through the jungle. It’s just a short 30 feet or so of hiking and a bit of scrambling, there are a couple fixed ropes. You’ll come out in the middle of the base of Tonsai Tower. Many of the route names and rating are written in at the base of the climbs. Convenient, but such a shame.
One of the finer routes on the Tonsai Tower, for the reason that it keeps going up, up, up! The climbing becomes more varied the higher up you go. There are 4 standard pitches, the first 3 are .10, the 4th is .11 and the fifth is .12b. The .12b pitch reportedly has not been retrobolted, and is probably extremely hazardous in it's current state.p1 & 2--start just left of the trail up from the beach. You can use any of the routes in that corner...[more]
These were all taken from memory and pieced together with what little notes I took in my guidebook. And of course, info learned from Lightner's book. If anything seems severly out of whack, drop me an email and I'll fix it up. Have fun in Thailand.
By caughtinside From: Point Richmond, CA Aug 1, 2007
I think those new bungalows at the end of the beach might be the best deal going on phi phi, we paid 800 baht for one. They wanted nothing to do with bargaining below that... They had 8 bungalows when we got there, 3 days later when we left there were another 8 under construction, they were so in demand...
Tonsai Tower
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