Page 27 - 2015 AMA Autumn

Bring your wall back to life!
Climbing is a growing sport, moving away from the image of the scary outdoor adventure activity that only the most eccentric take part in to a wide reaching, inclusive activity for all ages and abilities. This has
led to a move away from the old pub meet ups and towards the local indoor climbing wall being the new social hub, where climbers meet up to train, plan their next outdoor excursion or just drink good coffee. Most climbing centres will offer facilities that cater for beginners, those operating at the highest end of the sport as well as those with a physical or mental challenge to overcome.
The Army has access to climbing walls all over the country but not all of them are regularly used or overseen by keen climbers and so often the full potential of the facility is not realised or worse the wall is not used at all!
So what can you do to help bring your gymnasium climbing wall to life?
•Find out who is currently responsible for the wall. It may have been entrusted to a non-climber, in which case they may not realise the huge amount of activities that the wall can be used for or how to go about getting it open for use. Often the task is perceived to be to daunting or complicated a prospect, with little return in comparison with “mainstream” sports. Getting a disused wall up and running again isn’t hard, it just takes a bit of knowledge and someone to take it on.
• If the wall has not been used for a while, try and find out where the doc- umentation is kept. There should be reports covering the last structural inspection and procedures for undertaking regular checks on in-situ metal work, ropes and equipment. If there aren’t any then you have no way of knowing how safe the wall or equipment is. In this situation, a trained competent person should be used to inspect and sign off the kit before use.
• If there is matting, check for soft areas and rips. Damage to safety matting can reduce its effectiveness in absorbing impact forces and holes or rips can trap limbs and lead to injury. Damage like this will probably require the mats to be replaced.
•Establish if there are measures in place to ensure the competency of the people using the wall. In the first instance limiting access to only people with qualifications or those under instructor supervision will prevent most accidents but it prevents a lot of climbers from getting involved.
• Don’t try and do too much too fast! Having access to a climbing wall is a fantastic opportunity to make the sport available to people of all abilities but start small. Try getting a climbing club going once per week on a set evening, this way you can start creating or bringing together a community of climbers and hopefully find someone else to help you grow the club’s offerings bit by bit.
• If you don’t have specialist knowledge yourself, you can hire in experts to teach the basic procedures for checking and teaching competence using in house qualifications. You could even consider only allowing top roping to start with. The priority has to be towards safety of all those involved and hopefully the sustainability of the club and wall long term. After all, injured climbers can’t climb!
Winter is coming up quickly and the training season is approaching. Regular, quality route setting will ensure repeat visits from wall users and set the tone of the wall. Too easy and you will lose the “wads”, too hard and the social, fun climbers will not bother coming. It is a difficult skill to balance and there are many professional route setters around the country that you can approach for partial or full wall sets to bring variation and challenge to your wall.
Have fun!
There is a whole wealth of knowledge out there in how to get climbing facilities going. Boulders provides a full range of wall consultancy services, from undertaking all Health and Safety checks to providing advice on getting the most out of your wall and help with establishing clubs and competitions. Please contact us for more information on any of these areas, as well as route setting, instruction and performance coaching.
02920 484880 • tom@boulders-climbing.com
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 25
it is worth threading the belay if you intend to strip the line as some could have been in place along time.
If you are interested in the traditional climbs than a normal Rack is sufficient with few cams. Most of the trad lines have some in situ threads that I would seriously consider baking up as they have been there for some time.
What ever you choose to do at Dinas take so insect repellent! As the sun starts to set midges can be a real pain at Dinas especially on the lower crags but a good spray can make the difference.
The Beta
Tidal status – Non Tidal its inland! Crag height – 10 to 3meters
Routes
Many climber have a tough time on there first visit to Dinas rock as the climbing is almost always technical and requires more problem solving than brute force, the holds are not always obvious but I can vouch that they are there!
The first crag that you walk past has two great lines with a great F5 ‘Fromage Frais’ Being a good warm up for most. There is also a great F7A+ ‘Rob Roy’ that goes direct to the same belay and is a lot of peoples first at this grade.
From here a stone throw will se you at the next crag which is home to some great f6’s ‘Charlie’s Rusk’ and ‘the deflated dick head’ are the pick of the bunch, also of note are the 4’s found by the track which climb some crazily feature rock.
The slab that follows is deceptively hard, although it looks quite easy due to its less than vertical inclination, don’t be fooled the 6’s here are technical and not easy.
Before moving up to the lower cave the last crag you walk past is, The love of Ivy sector and again a few great 6c’s and low 7’s, ‘Morticia’ probably being the most popular are be found. Also of note is the amazing ability this part of the crag has to stay dry in the rain. Don’t ask me how but I have climbed on dry rock here even in monsoon type weather.
The lower cave is obvious and found on the adjacent riverbank. ‘Rose line F7b’ and ‘Smashed rat F7c’ are the two must do’s. But the cave does have some other lines all in the 7’s and one very difficult link up ‘tiger Cut 7c+’
After the short scramble you will find Dinas main cliff. How do you pick a line on the main cliff? They are all so involved and tremendous routes. The obvious place to start is on the left of the main roof were a 6b, call a spade a spade, is a worthwhile warm up. From here walk under the massive roof until you find ‘Berlin’. This route is often listed in top 100 route in the UK so has to make an appearance here and should be on anyone’s tick list who operates in the high 6’s or 7’s. The start is a brutal battle over the first roof followed by some dreamy slab climbing sequences that will baffle most.
‘Chimes of Freedom7c’, ‘Harlem F7b’ and ‘H1N1 F8a’ are also regional test pieces that also seem to have the benefit of staying dry in most weather conditions.
Après’ Climb
Once you have finished climbing a short car journey will see you back at The Angel pub which is were most climbers seem to stop to discuss the events of the day and plan their next adventures.
Below 6a
F6a –F6c+
F7a –F7c
F8a and above
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