Harrow and Wembley Outdoor Group

Rock climbing grew out of a desire by mountaineers to find and tackle more difficult and challenging routes to the summits of mountains. Rock climbing quite obviously presents higher risks but these are significantly reduced by using proper safety equipment and procedures. Rock climbing involves using small holds, particularly footholds, and making best use of rope by belaying onto rock spikes. Other rock climbing equipment is karabiners, chocks, belts, pitons, expansion bolts and etriers. Rock climbing has a number of types. Aid climbing might involve hammering pitons, pegs or bolts into cracks in rock to enable climbers to ascend overhangs and difficult routes. Free climbing involves using safety equipment to protect climbers from falls but which do not aid the climb. Solo climbing involves climbing alone, usually without the aid of safety equipment or a rope. Abseiling is not rock climbing but a controlled slide down a rope!

Rocks have different features. A crack is where the rock is broken into thin and narrow fissures. Some cracks may only be wide enough to fit fingers in, others may be wide enough to fit a fist or foot in (this is called jamming). A chimney is a wide crack big enough to put a whole body into. A gully is wider than a chimney and is usually easy to climb with plenty of holds and places to stop and rest. A corner is the name given to the rock where the walls meet, rather like a corner in a room. A ledge is a place where the rock levels off enough to allow someone to stand on it.

French Alps - July 2005 - Photo by Derek

Indoor climbing walls exist in many sports halls. They are ideal for beginners and for experienced climbers who want to practice particular techniques or maintain fitness and skills during the winter. Indoor climbing walls present different challenges to real natural outdoor rocks because they are protected from the weather and there is greater visibility of the wall.

Basic equipment for rock climbing involves knowledge and access of ropes, belts, helmets and footwear. A rope is the most important item of safety equipment. Belts are used to attach the rope to, maybe a waist belt, harness, karabiner or a troll. Helmets obviously offer some protection to a climber's head. Finally, rock climbing benefits from specialised footwear, with rubber soles.

Techniques involved in rock include bouldering, belaying and climbing calls. Think footholds, always have 3 limbs in contact with the climbing surface, don't hug the rock and work out 1 series of moves to go from one resting hold to another.

Members of the group meet throughout the year for rock climbing. Outdoor rock climbing happens at many of the groups weekend events. Check our programme for details.

Brunel Climbing Wall, Uxbridge
Indoor rock climbing happens most weeks, often at Brunel University climbing wall.

Wye Valley
In July 2004 and July 2002, Mark organised a Wye Valley weekend. This included an abseiling and climbing session for an hour or two. Tying himself to a tree, Mark checked out the ropes and the route for safety. Then one by one we abseiled down and climbed back up about 40 feet or so.

If you're interested in climbing, please contact Mark or Tom.

Westway Climbing Wall
Sometimes we visit Westway when we need a challenge. It's one of the two best climbing centres in London.

www.westway.org/sports/wsc/climbing

Rock Climbing Training
In late May, Glenda, Charlie, Krishna and myself (Noel) completed the RockFrog 'Introduction to Climbing' course, which ran over the period of four Wednesday evenings at the Brunel University climbing wall. We kicked off with learning the basics, including how to tie in to a harness, and some basic belay techniques. Then toward the end of the course we learned some more interesting things. We learned how to climb up a rope using prussic loops. Those of you who are familiar with the book 'Touching the Void' by Joe Simpson will remember how he had tried to climb up his rope, but then dropped one of his two all important prussic loops, which is when his friend Simon Yates controversially cut the rope to let Joe fall down an impossible crevasse and left him for dead. Then we also learned how to rescue a body from the top of the climbing wall, which comes in useful when a climber is either injured, loses their nerve to go on any further, or is simply protesting to 'Save the Whales of Harrow'.

If there are any HAWOGers who were feeling a wee bit unsure about joining this course, then I can only encourage you to take up the opportunity next time round. I certainly felt as though I was jumping in to the proverbial deep end, and really wondered whether or not I'd be able to climb at all, but soon found that it isn't as daunting as it might seem, and we had plenty of fun too. If you're concerned as I was at not having suitable climbing shoes, then you can hire a pair from RockFrog for a small fee each evening. Glenda and I took the plunge and bought our climbing shoes off of eBay, which is another inexpensive option.

I need to recommend Graham who heads up the RockFrog operation, and who was our instructor for the four weeks. He is very relaxed about the training, and is also very flexible in terms of possibly rescheduling the odd evening where it might not suit. He is very keen to develop peoples' interest in climbing, and has offered anyone who has done one of his courses the use of his ropes and harnesses at no extra cost whenever he is at the wall training other groups, which is obviously a fantastic help to anyone just starting out.

P.S. For more information on the 'Save the Whales of Harrow' campaign, best speak to Charlie...