UKC

Hey up,

I've been back climbing for about three years in various indoor walls (Harlow, foundry, Milton Keynes and a couple of others) and whilst not great I'm doing ok for an irregular climber (6a normally, 6b at a push).

Recently I've taken a couple of friends from work along who were complete beginners and whilst I'm comfortable covering basic safety stuff and climbing I was thinking about going on an instructors course (CWA?) as it would increase my confidence in bringing new people along as well as increasing my knowledge of climbing.

Looking around at the courses they all seem to mention log books, previously I'd always thought of this as an outdoor thing so haven't bothered keeping track of what I've been doing.

So I guess the question is, should I be logging the climbs that I do each week? And can I get hold of a log book without signing up to the courses?

Thanks and hopefully that’s not a really obvious question.

Pete

In reply to Pete Fish:

Hi Pete

You will need a log book for any training of this sort. I'm not totally sure about CWA but for SPA (which I'm doing) you need a log of personal climbing AND of group instructing. You can use any spreadsheet type format - and maybe downloads? Or I (or someone else here) could email you a scan to photocopy?

You may get asked why you don't climb outside - there's a lot of fun to be had if you can get to a crag - sport would be the place to start as the technique is a natural follow-on to indoor wall climbing.

Have fun and stay safe!

Dom.

In reply to Landy_Dom: Thanks,

If you could send me a scan that would be great as it would give me the right level of detail that I would need.

Would you recomend logging every climb or just grouping an entire days climbs?

I would love to get climbing outside and we've tried to get it sorted a few times. Unfortunatly it comes down to money for the gear and finding free weekends as climbing has kinda become my "during the week" hobby.

I might give outdoor sport a try but the last time I asked about it I was told that most of the runs (in the peaks) started at about a 7 ish, so there wasn't much to try and get started on.


Thanks again

Pete

Hi Pete,

You can download the logbook pages and other info about the CWA (and other awards) from www.mountain-training.org/downloads. For indoor personal experience you just need to write down details about each session at the climbing wall, not every single individual climb.

You can start logging things on the downloaded forms but you will need to register for the award before you can do a training course. When you register you will be sent a logbook but there's nothing stopping you from starting to log now then just print out those pages and stick them in the book when it arrives. Registering for the CWA does not oblige you to do a training course but you'd just be wasting your registration fee if you did that.

In reply to Pete Fish:

Standard response, but find a local club and go out climbing trad with them. If you're keen and committed they won't mind showing you the, er, ropes, and assuming you've already got a harness and belay device, you can basically climb on other peoples' gear while you build up your own rack.

In reply to Pete Fish:

Everyone on here will tell you that sport climbing in the Peak District is all shit and not worth it. Actually this is not true.
Of course you can not compare it to the major sport climbinb areas in Europe, but that is not that point anyway, or is it?

I had a few good days at Harpur Hill and in Horeshoe Quarry. Routes start at about F5 and you find many in the low 6 range 6a/6a+.

Buy the peak district sport climbing guide book and visit http://www.sportsclimbs.co.uk/ and you will see that there is a lot to discover.

If you are looking at starting out with Sport then may i suggest Portland as an ideal place to start there is a good mix of grades there anything from 7m - 25m high starting at 3's all the way up to out of my leauge

I would avoid the cuttings though as the easier routes are polished.

You can get there from harlow in under 4 hours.

In reply to Pete Fish:

Hello Mr Fish. I think logging stuff is a really good idea for two reasons:

1) It's an interesting and enjoyable record of your adventures for the future, particularly if there are notes and pictures included.

2) Filling out registration forms is a right pain in the loaf, especially if it involves trying to dredge up details of routes 10 years previous etc.

In reply to alanlgm: Portland is so good i moved there. The only thing is, doesn't SPA require trad routes?

To be honest i dont have a clue what the SPA actually entails as its not something i have ever been fussed with.

Pete_Fish stated in one of his posts that he would like to try sport but where he was looking was all higher grades.

As you well know having done something i would love to (move to portland) there are plenty of sport climbs of all grades in Portland.

In reply to alanlgm: and you can get a 3 bed mid terraced house for £550 pcm...

In reply to homing-penguin: I must say I keep a log mainly because my memory is absolutely terrible, I allways end up forgetting what I've done.

Been climbing about a year now, and never kept a log, but wish I had now. It'd be interesting to see how I'd progressed (OR regressed).

In reply to Pete Fish: When I started out in 1964 our "log" was a note written in the guidebook showing when I did the route, who with and who led it. After 15 years or so I got out of the habit but have always regretted that and perhaps I regret even more not keeping a journal. It seemed so insignificant then. Now I realise that it would make interesting reading these days butI never thought that I would still be climbing up to the present day. My advice is keep a log and a journal.

In reply to stephen Rowley:

Shurely this is a good thing because you get to reclimb a route and enjoy it as if it were the onsight (the 'hindsight' as I believe Alan James terms it).

I've made various efforts at keeping a log over the years and always give up out of boredom. I've got a reasonably good memory for trivia such as routes though.

If you train for the SPA or whatever, though, then yes of course you should keep a log.

Have no idea about SPA/CSW/etc...

Thought about becoming an instructor too, one needs a logbook, presumably someone is going to look at it and judge me on it. Aside from getting the requisite vertical distance I'd rather the climbs listed were worthy of someone glancing over.
After a bit of thought I only wish to log my outdoor leads, or any multipitch stuff. Ideally I'd fill it with long trad stuff.

Don't really consider indoor climbs worthy of logging. A lot of the guys I know would consider it a waste of time reading, especially the older ones.

Not to discourage your indoor achievements, just saying.