Matt Chooses The Tall Size

Taiwan has a short technical climbing history, with its roots dating back to the 1970s. It wasn’t until marital law was lifted in 1987 that coastal recreation became possible. After that, Long Dong’s major cracks and obvious lines began to be explored by a core crew of dedicated climbers from Taipei. “Every Saturday, a group of us would take the bus from Taipei to Keelung, then transfer to Long Dong,” recalls 50-year-old Niu-nai (nicknamed “Milk”), a major Long Dong developer. “We’d sleep outside the local primary school, and the next day we would climb from dawn to dusk. To those of us who’d learned to climb at Dapaoyan, Long Dong seemed so big. Every cliff had new routes, every route offered new inspiration.”