UKC

Greetings from Glasgow,

I'm 28 and I've been climbing for about 3 years now, seem to be the only one in my group that is obsessed with all things climbing. 

I've ticked a few things off my beginners list, learned to lead, climbed outdoors, climbed abroad and I'm floating around 6b+/6c+. Next on the list is climb 7a and learn trad for the summer.

Basically I want to do this as a career, in almost any capacity. I'm currently a postie, and although it keeps you fit and it's relatively good money, it's boring as f*ck and I've lost all interest.

I'd gladly sacrifice my good wage to be able to do something I truly love.

I'm considering doing a CWA course and learning to instruct, but i feel to really progress there's so much more to learn than that.  

This is a call to anyone who has previously followed a similar path and can help a hungry guy out!

Apologies if I sound naive at all, I don't really have anyone to chat to about this stuff other than the folk who work at my local gyms and they always look busy.

Thanks in advance!

Sean

I would suggest that working near people climbing, is not the same as actual climbing. Similarly rope access stuff using climbing equipment isn’t actual climbing either. If you want to do as much climbing as possible, I would find a profession with super flexible working hours and then live in a van and climb all the time Sorry that’s shit advice. 

The most successful climbibg life ive seen are friends who do computer programming type jobs, they work solely online. Then they live in Thailand with a good internet connection, incredible quality of life and work 2 or 3 days while climbing the rest. Also flying off to other sport climbing destinations in SE Asia. Only stated downside is waking up at unsocial hours for the odd Skype call! 

A CWA or SPA will hardly climb.

A CWLA might climb a little for demos

An MIA / MIC will climb a fair bit but mostly only up to around VS (exceptions of course, but it always adds to the spice when leading harder routes with clients belaying if you don’t know them that well)

A Guide will similarly climb a fair bit, but normally below what they’d prob be doing for fun.

i love my work, being involved in climbing is flippin ace! Here’s a blog I wrote ages ago: http://www.jbmountainskills.co.uk/about/how-i-became-self-employed/

The other answer is to become a sponsored wad, but there’s only a handful in the uk that earn a proper wage from that (and climb a heck of a lot harder than most of us ever will.)

Always happy to answer any questions as best I can

A well paying IT or Software Engineer contractor role is good for that, work for a few months and then have a few months off. Sadly incompatible with family life however....

Climbing is such a broad church these days, I would spend time shadowing or volunteering in various aspects including route setting, coaching, physiotherapy, and sports nutrition.  If you value your time climbing then picking one of the career options that allows you free time to do this and then separately earn a good amount of money still being involved in the sport would be my bet.

In the new world of work try and set yourself up with several different income streams, some active requiring you to turn up and do your time and others which are passive and the money gets posted to your bank account irrespective.

Bloody go for it - you’re young enough and sound hungry for it.  Like others have said though, working within climbing can mean many different things.  I would imagine they all start with getting on the mountain leader training ladder though - this is easily researhable online.  Find out exactly what you want to do and get the appropriate level of training and experience under you belt.

reading your post though, I would advise trying to get on a different work / career path regardless of the climbing.  Being in a job that is “boring as f*ck” is a bad idea!   You may find something that you like to do for work that allows you to climb a few times a week too - most people on here would love to be able to say that! 

Back in the day when you posties worked about 2 hours a day it was probably a pretty good job for an aspiring tiger...not any more though eh?

I work offshore on a rotation. Currently spend 23 weeks at work and 29 weeks off over the year. I still work more hours than a normal 9-5 job but i get a ton of time off to dedicate to climbing.

If you're single you could dedicate as much of your time off to climbing as you wish and seriously work at becoming MIA/MIC or what ever you wanted. Then hopefully you could slowly transition into doing what Jez does and not work offshore.

I work as a chemist, don't know what your skill sets are but ideas for things you might be able to do offshore without a background in the oil industry are:

Catering, rope access (you need something to go along with this though like being certified to paint, grit blast, scaffold etc, scaffolder etc.

Working offshore can get quite boring, monotonous and the hours are long (21 x 12 hour shifts in a row for me) but the time off is hard to beat.

At the age of 21 I felt the same and dropped out of University and spent the whole year climbing. I was thinking that I wanted to spend the rest of my life climbing full time as an instructor or something. That year, climbing the whole time, was very instructive: I found climbing almost every day palled a bit and realised it was not such a smart idea to make this my full-time profession. So I went back to university, which led a very satisfying and fruitful career as a geologist. I was still able to do more than enough climbing and other hobbies and pastimes.

My only real advice here is to fully test out what you envisage. Like me, you might find that climbing every day is not the same thing as thinking about climbing every day. Or not.

Thanks for the reply, I would if I could pal but I have a wife and a son on the way in the summer!

Don't think she'd look to kindly on me disappearing for half the year...

On second thoughts maybe she would

Yeah it's not the best these days, it's hard enough blasting up 4 storey tenements in the summer, winter is a whole different game dude, walking 12 miles a day on ice really sucks!

Finishing at 2/3 every day still gives me plenty of time to climb but it's hard to climb your best when you already feel like you've been at the gym for 4 hours

Wow, thanks for such a detailed and inspiring response!

I should have prefixed my post by saying that I'm actually not too bothered about not climbing, as long as I'm in that environment, learning knowledge and sharing it with like-minded people would be very rewarding on it's own merit.

I'll probably never get a sponsor but I'd still be happy enough earning enough to get by as long as I'm doing a job i truly love.

Sorry for the brief reply, I'm off to work at the moment to deliver debt letters to people on the bread line :[

In that case perhaps offshore isnt for you! Ive worked away on an off since i started working and my Mrs still doesn't like it when im away.

The reality is you'll be top roping kids from primary age to anything up to young adults on things like Prince's Trust. Not much in the way of like minded. It has a certain reward but still... 

I'm flat out from March to October (I'm multi qualified - it took a long time to get there). Wife and two young kids who basically see me when I whisk in and out from jobs. Best ever freelance years were when I was single (ish). It ruined a relationship that should probably have been 'the one'! That year I grossed £20k. I actually took home maybe 2/3 of that after expenses. 

Nowadays I try to fit a family holiday or two in and can now, with the relationships I have with employers, pick and choose a bit. That took a long time to develop. Gross income is less than the best year. (A reality could be you spend two or three lean years making the contacts to get known. Saying no gets hard to do). 

The months I'm not working* are usually grotty for climbing. *(You don't have days off. They are days I'm not earning...) 

Funnily enough, I know two career instructors who have packed the job in now family is on the way. They've become Posties. One of them is a very good road cyclist. He has more time to train now than he ever had while freelancing. 

Plenty of good stuff about the job, but don't believe the romance. And there are plenty of people out there making a good living from instructor training. With the upshot being,  the market is flooded. 

If I had my time again I'd probably not do it the same. Your experience may differ. 

Good luck either way. 

I looked into this too, and ultimately decided that the UK wasn't the greatest place for it for all the reasons mentioned already. I've moved out to Iceland, albeit temporarily. Loads of work available, it pays remarkably well and I get to take people ice climbing on a glacier every day. Granted those people are largely tourists with no intention of ever doing it more than once but the work is fun most of the time, the people I live and work with are great, there's loads of ski touring and ice climbing around and again the money really is pretty excellent. I hear Norway/Sweden are good for similar reasons. 

Possibly not much help if you have family and are settled but perhaps a useful thought for anyone else who reads this thread and is wondering the same thing!

I knew someone who worked at a climbing wall, then joined Fire Service to get climbing time (4 days on, 4 days off...).

Personally, I left a sensible grown-up job of 25 yrs a couple of yrs back, now work mostly (not totally) in indoor climbing environment.

It IS mostly kids and beginners (but they get very excited/enthusiastic/scared, and feel a wonderful sense of achievement, so that's pretty cool). I actuallyclimbed LESS for a while, as being in a wall AINT the same as climbing. I am very happy with my new life, though I am occasionally frustrated by how things are run.

*****HOWEVER, I have NO KIDS! And my wife still has a sensible job! And I have 25 years of earning a reasonable pension. So, I can afford to work unsociable hours on a low wage.*****

you're 28, wee kid on way, you need to be earning. Hopefully, your other half is a bit outdoorsy, in which case learn trad, and get the three of you outside, picnics, walks, camping, and as time goes on, a bit of climbing. Lots of easy sport climbing now in Scotland for taking kids on (age 7-8 maybe, a while away?). The book 7a Max is very helpful here.

if you go out sport climbing in a big group (Kirrie, Benny Beg...) , you can both take turns with baby, other one climbs. Baby gats used to being out in a climbing environment. Have friends who did this, baby from 5 months, she now climbs often, age 12).

My other answer as to how to make money climbing is open a Clip N Climb in Glasgow/Kilmarnock/Ayr, there is only one in Scotland and it is VERY busy indeed. Of course, you'd need the money to start with...

Best of luck finding a way forward, it's not easy. Meanwhile, focus on the good stuff - you HAVE a wife, and child coming, many folk are lonely and would swap with you in a heartbeat. You're young, fit, and employed. You finish work in time to see your wee one, how many Dads can say that? You're a lucky boy (but bored at work     )

Sorry for long post.