Day: July 16, 2022
Autobelay Safety
As you will be aware, the use of auto belay devices has grown in the last few years and accelerated during the pandemic. We have been seeing an increasing number of accidents on auto belay lines which are gaining the attention of H&S and Environmental Health.
We at the ABC, and our partners in the UK and beyond, have seen developing evidence that climbers (often but not exclusively experienced ones) are at risk of not clipping in on auto belays and causing themselves severe injury when they fail to do so.
We have collaborated with a number of key partners both here and in the US to create a consolidated set of new and specific guidelines for auto belay usage which you can download below. We feel it is important that walls roll out these upgraded guidelines as soon as possible.
Mountain Training works in partnership with the indoor climbing industry to produce the instructors and coaches of the future. In order to do this our candidates need to gain experience in managing and assisting group sessions in walls as a crucial part of their training.
Trainees can also be very useful. They can act as an extra pair of hands and eyes, even if this is only to fit a harnesses, hold a rope or manage a simple warm up. They can provide some useful feedback for the instructor even though they are there to learn themselves (some come with a lot of experience from other sports or teaching for example). Best of all it is an excellent staff recruitment tool with in-built observation, induction and site-specific assessment.
Managing trainees requires special operating procedures and some basic administration, but this is relatively easy to set up and advice is easily sought. Mountain Training has published its own ‘Guidance for managing assistants during climbing activities’ here: https://www.mountain-training.org/help/downloads
We would ask climbing wall managers that use Mountain Training qualified instructors and coaches to please work with us, and thereby support the indoor climbing industry, by offering these experiences that trainees need to develop their skills – where possible. If there are any concerns or difficulties we would be only too eager to learn about these and to help you with these if we can.
Many thanks.
Guy Jarvis, Exec Officer, MTE
