Mulundi, Malawi – Shalom Maholo is hanging from the side of a rock with a drill in her hand. The 22-year-old balances herself before making a hole in the wall, which she carefully cleans with a brush, then hammers in a screw that she tightens with a wrench.
She straps her equipment to her harness, rappels down two meters, and then does it all again, and again, and again, for 20 meters, until she touches the ground 90 minutes later. It’s a physically exhausting and highly technical process that Shalom must get right, because climbers here will depend on these bolts to survive for decades to come.
She is creating a new climbing route where climbers can attach their ropes to pre-drilled bolts for protection during the climb. But here in Mulundi, on Malawi’s western border with Mozambique, Shalom is also making history. She is the first Malawian woman to follow a new route in the country, which she calls Zikomo, which means “thank you” in Chichewa.
“Climbing has done a lot for me,” says Shalom. “People here think it’s something only white people do, but I want to show that climbing is for everyone, it’s for women and it’s for Malawians.
“We are women and society thinks we can’t do it, but we need to eliminate these barriers.”
In the last decade, climbing has gone from being a niche sport to a global sensation and multi-billion dollar industry. The sport made its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and will be shown again in Paris this year, while the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo made Alex Honnold a star when he climbed the 3,000-foot mountain El Capitan ( 914 m). wall without rope or safety equipment in 2017.
In 2022, The New York Times said that climbing could be the “future of tourism” in Malawi thanks to its towering granite rock faces that have drawn comparisons with Yosemite National Park in the United States, one of the global climbing centers. But although Yosemite alone has more than 2,000 sport climbing routes, Malawi has not yet reached 50.
Shalom is still one of the few Malawians trained to develop new climbing routes, but this is a diverse group of volunteers, with a mix of men and women, as well as people of different ages, dedicated to seeing Malawi fulfill its potential as a climbing country.
The Climb Centre, an open-air gym in the capital, Lilongwe, is at the heart of this cause. The gym is operated by Climb Malawi, an NGO that aims to attract young Malawians to climbing, create new routes across the country and develop Malawi’s local and international climbing scene.
‘I know I can do this too’
In one of the poorest countries in the world, where two-thirds of the population lives on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank, climbing as a sport can be prohibitively expensive. Climbing shoes alone can cost at least $30 (bought online from abroad). But Climb Malawi says it will never turn someone away if it cannot pay for the appropriate equipment or travel costs to climbing sites – all of these things are subsidized through voluntary donations from those who can afford it.
A partnership with the Global Climbing Initiative – a non-profit organization that aims to equip climbing communities around the world with knowledge and resources – also helped provide professional education to a new generation of climbers and route planners.
But there are also challenges. There is nowhere to buy bolts, ropes or climbing shoes in Malawi, according to Climb Malawi, so climbers rely on donations, imports and volunteers to provide this equipment. Malawi is one of the five countries most affected by extreme weather events, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. This means that both flooding and extreme heat of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) during the hot season from September to November can limit climbing opportunities.
The biggest challenge of all is to attract more Malawians to sport. Climbing is still far from popular in Malawi, and while it may be a perfect place for it, the sport needs Malawians to thrive and for those already building a community to inspire others.
Celebrate Nhlane, 18, regularly attends the Climb Center, but never thought she would have the opportunity to explore new climbing routes in the country. But after seeing Shalom finish off Zikoma, she says she’s desperate to be next.
“If she’s doing it, then I know I can do it too,” says Celebrate. “We can make Malawi an amazing place for people to climb.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
