Climbing Training

Indoor Climbing again... are we mad??

We both did a bit of indoor climbing on our access course with Prince’s Trust but we tried it again to have another go, try harder climbs and get further than we did before.

We spent the morning learning about the safety checks and what equipment we need and their purpose.

Equipment checked and used:

• Helmets
• Harnesses
• Carabiners
• GriGri
• Ropes

 

We each checked our own helmets and fitted them to our heads.

The main parts to keep a safe helmet:

• All 6 clips attached inside
• The adjuster stays adjusted not loose
• No faded patches
• No white stress marks
• Keeping the straps untwisted

Then we went through harnesses and what to look out for. It is all part of us being able to check our own equipment is safe and others when they are getting ready to climb.

The main parts to keeping a safe harness:

• No fraying
• No tears or cuts
• All stitching is intact
• All metal buckles are free from damage

We were shown all different types of carabiners and other things you can use in substitute of the GriGri’s. To check to carabiners and the GriGri’s we checked along all the sides of the metalwork looking for:

• Sharp parts
• Broken mechanisms
• Shiny/ worn parts 
• Dust or dirt
• How much parts have been worn down to (Max 30%)

We talked through how to check the ropes and what to look out for, and then looked at a few examples; one that was 4-5 years old, one that was 2-3 years old and a two week old one. Some had examples of cuts and frays and others how they show their age. We used 60 meter ropes that went on forever! It had a twisted core of up to nine separate ropes and a tightly braided sheath bound over the top.

The main parts to keep a safe rope:

• No fraying
• No abrasions
• No fading or discoloured parts
• Flexibility

Once we got through all the security checks on all the equipment we packed what we thought we would need for the seven of us to climb with two separate climbs. We got it all right but didn’t put in extra carabiners.

We walked up to the army barracks where the indoor climbing wall is which, quite luckily, was only a ten minutes walk away at most!

We got the ropes changed over to ours and set up the climbs. In order to beeline each other safely we were talked through the V, Knee, 1, 2, 3 method and all gave it a practise.

We went through some warm up transverse climbs, where you climb the wall sideways across the bottom. Then we all did a climb each and took turns to solo beeline each other.

We wasn’t there long as after lunch the army needed the walk to climb and we came back but it was fun and we were pretty tired out as it is. Bear tied a perfect daisy chain on the rope - better than the one we had to undo, which didn’t even work like it should!

We finally got back and unpacked the kit and put it all away! We are definitely going to try to go again at some point and master the wall and be able to beeline each other safely. Always better when no-one falls to their death!

- Bear & Penguin x x x