UKC

A friends child has been in an introductory course and really enjoyed climbing indoors. The mother would like to belay the child so he can continue to go to the wall, but she has no interest in climbing herself. Do walls offer a course for parents who only want to belay, without doing a full introductory climbing course?

I'm used to going to many different walls and being allowed to climb and belay by a simple process of declaring myself experienced/competent. 

I started with a belay course at Leeds Wall. Didn't really have an idea to get into climbing. But we did it as a group of friends and also climbed and belayed each other with an instructor holding the rope as backup.

But I think you might be able to do this anyway, without a course or instructor. I've done it to teach a friend to belay, I just held the tail of the rope as backup. Pretty sure I checked with the wall first, that I was okay to do this.

Thanks, I was wondering if a wall would be happy with me teaching a non climbing friend how to belay and her subsequently going with her son without me.

I'm sure there is a safe and sensible way around this.

Great question.  I used to have similar feelings when I was trying to get into ropes with my young daughter and kind of muddled through.

I am sure any roped wall will give instructed training to anyone who asked.  You might have to pay for it and if you can do it as a group it would be more effective.  

The process of belaying should be fairly simple for them to learn, either at an indoor wall or out with you/another friend. I'd be more concerned about them learning how to set up anchors properly for top-rope etc than the act of belaying.

Most places will allow you to sign a novice in under your supervision and teach them.  At a later date she can then take her belay test - I recommend teaching her to tie in so that she can pass a full belay test, and it also means she can check her child's knot.  Once she's passed her belay test she can then go with the child without you, and she can sign the son in under her supervision.  If she's not climbing I expect she won't be charged for the session.

Thanks. At this stage they are only interested in top roping safely indoors. The boy is only 6 years old. If in the future they do want to go outside I'm sure they would seek experienced/qualified instruction.

There was a recent thread about this. Seemed to be a North/South divide. Or was it London vs The Rest? Oop North tended not to charge for belaying. Leeds Wall never used to.

I'm not sure what the problem is with taking a standard top-roping introductory course.

It's not going to cover much in terms of skills beyond tying in and belaying safely, and it might be helpful to her to know what it feels like to be lowered (for example), even if she has no interest in climbing herself ever again. Just having had the experience will help her support and encourage her son.

Still doesn't as the Big Depot.  I think I must've missed that thread - I've never heard of a wall charging a belayer who is not climbing.

It was Westway, I think. Can't really remember... One of the London walls which is perma-rammed. 

Most walls offer either 1-2-1s for a beginner or to join a group beginner class, these can be either a single session or several sessions over several weeks.

One thing that may hinder you, as the mother does not climb, would be if the wall has ropes already "in-stitu" so the child would not have to lead any of the routes first. Some walls have none, some to many.

Auto belays are becoming quite common in many walls so if the wall had these and some ropes already up this would help, otherwise the child would have to lead the climbs.

Some climbing centres may put some ropes up for you if asked but am not sure about this.

This has just been launched today:

https://www.mountain-training.org/climbing/skills-and-awards/indoor-climbin...

Whilst it says you should be able to belay, there is a lot to be said about how to actually belay! It also has to be delivered by Mountain Training approved providers, plus it will give you an idea of why certain things are done at the wall in a certain way and a bit more of an insight instead of this is the rope, this is the belay device... 

If you are based Leeds way my advice would be to contact Dan McKinlay http://www.mckinlaymountaineering.com, I travelled from Liverpool for some of his courses and would highly recommend him. 

Our local wall has courses for parents who want to belay there children. You do need to climb on the course so your partner can practice belaying, but once you have passed you don't need to climb ever again. It's around £80 I think.

Pretty expensive to be taught how to belay and check knots however. I've seen them offered at one of my semi-local haunts, and IIRC were £25 and a few hours long?

Back in the days when we started out climbing, well about 5yrs a go really I visited Eden rock and enquired about how I got to take my kids climbing.  £20 and an hour of instruction later (I even got as long as I wanted to climb after) I was signed off.  It covered safety around the centre.  Basics of climbing up and preferably climbing down.  Not walking under climbers etc etc etc.  It was a very worthwhile £20.

If there had been something similar for ropes I would have snapped your hands off for it.  But as per the OP, it’s actually a bit harder at roped walls for some reason.  I imagine ropes carries a bit more risk and teaching.  I expect there is more responsibility etc.  But I see this kind of ‘course’ as a bit of self investment for the wall. They want new blood into the centre and they have a responsibility (in my eyes) to give this kind of coaching out as cheaply or as easily as possible.  If I ran a wall I would charge £30 for it but Give a credit towards their next few climbs.

Yes true, you could just have a friend teach you instead, it's not that hard.

But if you're at the wall because your kid wants to be there, you may have no climbing friends to teach you.

True, well then pay the money for the course - it's less than the price of dinner for two at a lot of places!