In 2008, he climbed to a height of 14 meters in less than 10 seconds and won the Cheung Chau Bun Scrambling Contest. Three years later, a car accident left him half paralyzed and unable to take care of himself; he fell from the peak to the bottom.

He had been lost, depressed, and shed all his tears overnight... He decided to forget his past self and start over!

He is the "包山王" Lai Chi-wai!
 

Lai Chi-wai, an ordinary name, has an extraordinary life - at the age of 17, he won multiple Asian championships and even became the world's eighth-ranked rock climber... His outstanding achievements have earned him the reputation of "Spider-Man" and "包山王", and he has become a shining star in the rock climbing world.

The elite became useless due to eating disorders

His career was at its peak, but unfortunately, a car accident in 2011 changed his life. "The 11th and 12th vertebrae of the spinal cord burst and shifted. (The doctor) implanted 6 screws to fix my spine. I lost sensation below my navel, couldn't tell hot from cold in my feet, and had no reaction to needles or electric shocks."

 

After the operation, Chi Wai had to stay in bed for all his meals and illnesses. "It's hard to accept that I went from being an elite to a disabled person. I feel so helpless!" 


Taking care of a pregnant wife is was like a Korean drama scene

What touched him was his wife who was seven months pregnant. "Her belly was as big as a basketball. She had to twist a towel and fetch water to wipe the body of her half-paralyzed husband. I can still remember it vividly. It was like a scene from a Korean drama." His wife and unborn son became his only motivation to survive at that time. "I really wanted to leave the hospital bed and sit in a wheelchair to see my wife and son being born and to see them for the first time."

 

Chi Wai recalled that everyone who visited him in the hospital always had a sad face. "They wanted cry but did not dare to cry in front of me, I was so lost, very unhappy, but I couldn't cry, I kept suppressing it. At that time, if I had chosen to cry or collapse, they might have been more unbearable and heartbreaking"


Read the comments crying wet pillows again

Until one night, he saw more than 1,000 messages on Facebook encouraging him, and he burst into tears instantly. "I was so moved that all the tears I was about to cry came out overnight. By the next morning, both sides of my pillow were wet!"

 

Afterwards, Chi Wai decided to cut his hair short, "start afresh and forget the old Lai Chi Wai!" He began to learn how to live in a wheelchair and trained himself in the hospital.

Tied to the hospital bed, practice "taking care of yourself"

“I feel relaxed after crying for a while, and I train my hand strength every morning. I try to make myself feel fulfilled, and there are different things to learn every day.” Chi Wai ied a rubber band to the side of the hospital bed and trained continuously every morning, hoping to restore the strength of his upper body so that he can "take care of himself" as soon as possible without worrying his family.

He tried hard to control himself but couldn't resolve the inner grudge. "Is this Lai Chi Wai? The king of mountain climbing? The king of rock climbing? Why does this young man have to sit in a wheelchair?" It was not until half a year later that he gradually realized, "It doesn't matter if I sit in a wheelchair. at least I know what I'm doing, what direction and goal I have. It wasn't in vain!"

 

The goal that Chi Wai said is to climb to the top of Lion Rock again. After two years of preparation, he deliberately chose to climb to the top again on December 9, 2016 (the fifth anniversary of the traffic accident injury), and also gathered a group of people who were willing to "accompany him in his madness" to make a documentary "Crux結".

Looking back at the preparation stage, he not only resigned from his position as coach of the Hong Kong team, but also had to learn a lot of rock climbing and tree climbing techniques, and test them on a wheelchair, "to ensure that he would be safe whether he reached the top or not." The most difficult part was: who could transport him to the top of Lion Rock?



The team of 40 people are volunteers

Chi-wai then called on his former Trailwalker teammates to organize a 40-member climbing team to transport climbing equipment, photography equipment, etc. "It's harder than I thought. Climbing Lion Rock in a wheelchair is an idea that just popped into my head. No one has ever done it before, and I don't know if it will be successful or safe." The team came from all corners of the world and all helped on a voluntary basis. They all had a spirit of "誓要去 入刀山". Even though not everyone could be present at every meeting, everyone kept their promise and showed up on time on the day of the climb.

"They carried me up Lion Rock at 3 or 4 in the morning. I was scared as I walked because the final section to the top was so steep and narrow that a normal person would have to use both hands and feet. The climbing team had to accommodate a wheelchair user and carry the wheelchair, which was actually very difficult. I was worried that if something went wrong, I would slip or a rock would come loose, and there would be a risk of falling down the mountain."

See the most beautiful sunrise and hope for a miracle to stand up

One step at a time, I finally spent 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the top of the mountain, watching the "salted egg yolk" rise. "It was the most beautiful sunrise in five years. Watching the sun rise intact made me feel that there was still a chance and hope!"

"I really want to let my friends who have always supported me know that 5 years later, I climbed Lion Rock again and untied the knot in my heart. I completely overcame my lowest point and reached the top. I stopped at the top of the mountain, touched my feet, and patted my chest, wondering if I would suddenly feel something, or if I could stand up and walk again? I waited for half an hour, and it turned out that there was no miracle, but it was called letting go, and I started again!"

However, Chi Wai admitted that he wanted to give up when he was one-third of the way up. "It was so tiring, my hands were covered with blisters, and I thought: Why haven't we reached the end yet? But I couldn't just give up like that. I was the one who planned it, I was the one who had the idea, and I was the one who called all the people. If I said I didn't climb at that moment, I was afraid they would throw me off the mountain!"

 

In the next one or two years, Chi Wai hopes to climb Hong Kong's famous high-rise buildings."There are many people helping me, and we are gathering some energy. The chances of success are getting higher and higher."

 

At this moment, Chi Wai hopes to get a mechanical prosthesis so that he can stand up again and hold his son and spin around. "This has been from the time the child was born until now. I owe him a hug or a fly-by-night move. I reallu hope to do it!"

"Are you going to get better soon? If you get better, will you not need a wheelchair?" The naive question from the 5-year-old son made Chi Wai unable to respond. "The doctor has diagnosed me as terminally ill. I can no longer walk unless there is a miracle!" At that moment, Chi Wai could only answer evasively, "Yes, if I get better, I won't need a wheelchair. I can go out and play football with you." 

 

He hopes that his son will have his own ideas and know how to think for hiimself when he grows up. "I really want my son to know that he doesn't need to feel inferior just because his dad is in a wheelchair. I will continue to do what I want to do and complete my life in a wheelchair."

"Crux" is a rock climbing term, and it also records the feat of a group of people who "accompany Lai Chi-wai to go crazy together". Chi Wais perseverance is amazing, and the team's determination is beyond ordinary people! The documentary film "Crux 結" was able to record the touching scene of Chi Wai climbing Lion Rock, and the soul figure director Bernard deserves credit for this.

 

Bernard, who directed the Hong Kong documentary "S47", did not deny that he started from scratch. In the early stages of filming, there were no resources at all, and he served as a director, photographer and producer as a volunteer. “It’s free work, it takes time, and I don’t even think about whether it will be shown… It’s hard to implement if you think too much. When you start to calculate that, I’m sure you won’t do it!” Fortunately, volunteers from all over the world gradually gathered together, without asking for rewards, just to work together to solve the problem of a paralyzed climber reaching the summit. Fortunately, in the later stages of production, the project received sponsorship and was saved from abortion.

 

"In the rock climbing community, encountering a difficult problem is described as 'crux', which is the crux of the difficulty. You have to work really hard and make many attempts to overcome it first." With less than two months of preparation time, they encountered many difficulties. Some of them had never been to Lion Rock before. Could the volunteers carry Chi Wai to the top of the mountain? Can it be done? "We didn't think about how difficult it was, we only thought about how to solve it. Regardless of success or failure, the whole thing is worth recording and worth learning from the process!"

 

"During the process, I found that every volunteer has his or her own problems. How should they deal with them? The word "結" can have many meanings. I hope everyone can think more about it and let the audience decide what this "結" is. "
 

Chi Wai Lai's Profile

2000　　　 Asian Sport Climbing Championships

2000—11　National Rock Climbing Championship

2000—01　 Asian Sport Climbing Championships

2002—03　 Asian Sport Climbing Championships

2004　      Axe Mountain Rock Climbing Championship

2005　      Ranked 8th in the World Climbing Tour

2007　       Asian X-Game Sport Climbing Competition（the first Chinese to win the championship）

2008　      Cheung Chau Bun Scrambling Contest

2014　      Ten Outstanding Young Persons Selection

 

Quotes from Chi Wai:

"No matter what the external environment is like, you must be yourself. It doesn't matter what difficulties you encounter in the future. Face them bravely and you will be able to overcome them and climb up your own Lion Rock."

 

 

採訪、撰文：梁劍紅、莫雅瑜

Editors：梁劍紅、王煜棋

Photography：Jason、林栢鈞

Video Production：Lifewire、Brian

Venue Provided：Attic V Climbing Gym