Imagine a time before climbing walls. How did people go climbing? Outdoors on real rock of course!

We can take you climbing outside but, if you want to do as much climbing as possible in a shorter time to see if you enjoy the physical challenge and can do the climbing moves then maybe an indoor climbing wall would be better.

 

Do I need climbing shoes? Yes, they have very sticky rubber which will vastly improve your grip on the rock/artificial rock. We provide climbing shoes free of charge.

We will very briefly cover the following topics on a taster session, just in case you do go on your own or with friends some time, at least you’ll have a bit of an idea:

Fitting a harness – extremely important to get this correct. It fits around your waist and must be tight enough so that if you went upside down while climbing (e.g., during a fall) then you would not slip out of the harness.

Tying-in – attaching the rope to your climbing harness. Also must be done absolutely correctly! We will not be fully teaching you how to do this, that is part of the Rock Skills Introduction course. However we will teach you the importance of doing this correctly and that you and your partner should “buddy check” each other before you climb. This is, checking harnesses are done correctly, knots are done correctly, the belay device is attached safely and so forth.

What is an Auto-Belay –  you can climb without a partner using one of these! If you ever want to go to a climbing wall on your own, attach yourself to these clever devices and the rope will retract automatically. If you fall, the rope will hold you and lower you to the ground in a safe manner! How to attach yourself, things to look out for, how to lower yourself down (climb or jump!) might be aprt of a taster session if held at an indoor climbing wall.

Climbing wall etiquette – what not to do when at a climbing wall!