When we were young, we ran about, went swimming and climbed trees. As we grew older, climbing trees wasn’t an option so we lost touch with the little monkey within.
But now’s your chance to rekindle that mischievous fun and adventure. Now is your time to climb again!
Read more...
Wonderfully we have found that this is a sport almost anyone can find a strength in, satisfying the cheeky monkey within.
Climbing indoors in a safe environment not only expresses that climbing urge, it offers great physical exercise and mindful engagement. Flexibility and core strength play a part in the sport too, very similar to gymnastics, yoga and meditation.
Combine this with putting your life in your friends hands as they hold your safety rope, climbing develops trust and life long bonds.
Along with great friendships it also develops responsibility, understanding and often a wanderlust for travel.
When we were young, we ran about, went swimming and climbed trees. As we grew older, climbing trees wasn’t an option so we lost touch with the little monkey within.
But now’s your chance to rekindle that mischievous fun and adventure. Now is your time to climb again!
Wonderfully we have found that this is a sport almost anyone can find a strength in, satisfying the cheeky monkey within.
Climbing indoors in a safe environment not only expresses that climbing urge, it offers great physical exercise and mindful engagement. Flexibility and core strength play a part in the sport too, very similar to gymnastics, yoga and meditation.
Combine this with putting your life in your friends hands as they hold your safety rope, climbing develops trust and life long bonds.
Along with great friendships it also develops responsibility, understanding and often a wanderlust for travel.
Family Taster
Give climbing a go!-
Experience: None
-
Fitness: Any
-
Confidence: All
Adult Taster
Try climbing!-
Experience: None
-
Fitness: Any
-
Confidence: All
Bouldering Safety
-
Experience: None/a little
-
Fitness: Any
-
Confidence: All
Auto-belay Safety
-
Experience: None/Bouldering
-
Fitness: Any
-
Confidence: All
Rope Safety Course
-
Experience: None/Bouldering
-
Fitness: Any
-
Confidence: All
Learn all the necessary skills to start lead climbing!
Required experience: Proficient top rope climber and belayer – we recommend you can top-rope 6a.
Fitness: Any
Confidence: Medium/High
This 3 week course will equip you with all the skills needed to climb the lead wall (purple walls). Some of the topics we will cover are:
The art of correctly belaying for a lead climber.
When and how to clip to keep yourself safe.
How to catch a falling lead climber.
The course is run over 3 weekly 1½ hour sessions. Once you’ve completed the course, you will be able to confidently lead up the purple walls, giving you access to many more routes!
NB: We insist that you are confident climbing and belaying on the top-ropes. We need a minimum of 2 participants to run the course.
Can we just turn up and let the kids have a go?
All children aged 16 and under need to be supervised by an adult when at The Boardroom.
NB: We now run a strict supervision ratio of two children to one adult.
If you are an experienced climber then they can be supervised by yourself. If not then they will need to be supervised by one of our instructors.
It’s just not safe to let your children play on the wall without correct supervision as climbing can be a dangerous sport.
There are a few options available to you to get your kids climbing:
- Book them onto a “Fun Session”. This is an hour long under the supervision and guidance of one of our fantastic instructors. The Fun Session is a great way to try the sport out and see if they enjoy it.
Book yourself onto a “Family Fun Session” if you’d like to join in!
- On weekend mornings (and week days during school holidays) we run our “Fun Clubs“: “Wild Climbers“ for ages 3-6, Caterpillars” for 5-7 yr olds, “Funky Gibbons” ages 7-11 and “Youth Climbing Club” for the 12-16 year olds.
- If you’re sure your child will love climbing, or if they’ve tried climbing, enjoy it and want to progress in the sport, then why not enrol them onto one of our “Climbing Clubs”
These development courses run all year round, every day of the week, and are a great way to learn climbing or bouldering.
At our Climbing Club we deliver the National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme (NICAS), for which we are one of the countries primary centres. These awards also counts towards GCSE and DofE!
Head to our Climbing Clubs page for more info and to book onto the Climbing Club Intake course to get started.
- As a parent if you do either our “Bouldering Safety Course” or our “Rope Safety Course” then you will be able to bring your child climbing by yourself.
With the safety knowledge and skills learnt you will not require one of our instructors to instruct your child. It also gets you involved in your child’s sport, and you never know you might enjoy climbing yourself!
- We also do fun kids birthday parties!
My kids are booked on a session, can I just drop them off?
Unfortunately not. Even when children are booked onto a session run by our instructors, a parent/guardian must remain in the building. Or in our lovely garden, soaking up the sunshine, devouring a pizza and washing it down with a cold beh, buh, beverage!
If your child is in “Climbing Club” please refer to the Climbing Club Handbook.
What is Indoor Climbing?
Indoor climbing (sport climbing) is a form of rock climbing carried out indoors on artificial structures which attempt to mimic the experience of climbing outside.
Originally used by climbers as a way to train for climbing during the wet winter months, indoor climbing has now become a sport in its own right with many new climbers using it as a sociable and enjoyable alternative to working out in the gym!
Sport climbing, along with Bouldering and Speed Climbing, have been in the last two Olympic Games. With a GB Athlete taking gold in Paris!
What is Bouldering?
Bouldering in essence is the simplest and purest form of climbing. Just you, your climbing shoes and some chalk (oh, and some comfortable clothes/gym kit!). No need for a harness or rope!
Not only is it a great way to get fit and tone up, it also increases flexibility and mindfulness, a bit like yoga, challenges your problem-solving kills and has the added bonus of being a very sociable sport.
Thankfully you’re never that far from the ground (well, up to 4.5m) which is covered with thick foam matting*. Without the harness and rope it also means it’s a much cheaper way to start climbing.
*the matting does not eliminate the risk of injury.
What is Top Roping?
Top roping is without a doubt the safest and easiest to learn of the two methods used in indoor climbing where a rope is required for safety (the other being “lead climbing”).
While top roping indoors (here at The Boardroom the top rope walls are the green wall and Tower) the rope, which is always in place, runs smoothly through an anchor* at the top of the wall, with both ends of the rope reaching down to the floor. The climber ties into one end and the belayer attaches to the other.
As the climber ascends the wall the belayer takes in the rope ensuring there is no slack rope between themselves, the anchor and the climber. Should the climber fall off, the belayer prevents the climber from dropping by locking the rope in the belay device.
Because the rope passes through the anchor at the top of the wall, the climber is supported by the rope from above, despite the belayer being on the ground. This is why it is called “top roping”; the rope is always at the top, above the climber. This ensures that any fall a climber takes results in them falling no distance at all.
* In indoor climbing the anchor at the top of the wall consists of two karabiners attached to the wall structure via steel chains and bolts. The rope runs through the karabiners.
Indoor climbing wall anchors are weight tested on site to ensure they can hold 800kg!
How much weight can a climbing rope hold?
Climbing ropes tend to have a breaking strain of 2,400kg which is more than a car or even an SUV! You’re going to have to eat a lot of tiffin to break one!
Most items of climbing equipment such as karabiners, harnesses and slings have a similar breaking strain.
What are the Auto-belays?
An auto belay is an automatic belay device that eliminates the need for a human belayer.
The auto belay is attached to the top of the wall taking up the slack as a climber ascends and controls the descent when the climber reaches the top or in the event of a fall.
And what is the, how do you say it, Psicobloc?
The Psicobloc (pronounced; see-koh-block) at The Boardroom is just a very high boulder, 8 meters high to be precise and very steep/overhanging with extra deep matting below it to take your fall!
The word Psicobloc is Spanish and its direct translation is “crazy boulder”. It’s also another name for DWS (Deep Water Soloing) which involves climbing rock faces above water, usually sea cliffs, free solo without a harnesses or ropes and using the water to break your fall!
We thought it was a pretty apt name for our solo wall as it is a pretty crazy boulder. So far it’s the only indoor one in the UK, and only a handful in the world!
