UKC

The Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC) have produced some guidelines for the future reopening of climbing walls in the UK amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A campaign named 'Climbing the Walls Together' has also been launched by the ABC to support the industry. As a follow-up to our recent UKC article exploring the topic from a global perspective, here's a brief overview of the progress made so far by a working group of UK climbing wall industry professionals.

9m2 per user, I am trying to visualise that. What are the dimensions of a shredded rubber flooring tile? 

Typically 0.5m x 0.5m, so 6x6 tiles 

The 9sqm is to calculate the maximum allowed capacity. You then have to work out how many people you can fit in in a safe social distancing way.

So thinking about the Climbing Works (main bit), we are 1050 sqm, take off the office, the storeroom, the reception etc plus a bit for the footprint of the walls and we are down to 900+ sqm. Could 100 people practice social distancing. Probably not. As an indicator the comp wall is just under 20m long so we could fit 10 there.

I reckon 9 square metres per person would be busier than the busiest day ever at Ratho!

Mile End is a similar footprint and we're around 50. 

Andy

The Works is a bit more open than Mile End so I would expect we can fit more in but I doubt we'd get 90 in safely.

You should try Vauxwall on Friday evening. Probably closer to 9 people per square meter.

Whilst this is all valid work towards a return to service, it doesn't currently look viable to me. 

What multiplier would need to be applied to entrance fees for a facility to remain solvent under these guidelines?

It will be viable for some walls, it won't be for others.

Whereas the busiest day ever at The Works would be more like 9 people per square metre!

The multiplier need not be direct, ie a £10 ticket suddenly costs £30. It can also be indirect, ER recently sent out a questionnaire proposing time slots (think 1970s swimming pool, blue bands out now). A 2hr time slot compared with a typical 6hr Sunday gives a similar return. 

Time slots seem a great solution and an even better solution when I'm trying to find an excuse to move away from chatty people sucking my free time up at the wall. 

Except the vast majority do not spend 6 hours down the wall*. And with social distancing making socialising harder I would guess more people will climb more and talk less and therefore not spend so long.

* Big Ron being the obvious exception.

I would disagree there, a typical kendal wall Sunday for many would be 5 to 7 hrs inclusive of a lunch break. Sure less than  50% of this is climbing but you wouldn't get far without a belayer. 

Which VauxWall? There are two! 

Mile End also has the Secret Garden which, I think, could be classified as outdoor exercise. 

HarroWall is really open and, considering I have frequented there quite a bit, I still find it hard to find some of the areas there.

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The original one under Vauxhall station. Great place if you go off-peak, but at peak it’s packed. I was there one time when they stopped letting people in. At that point it was so packed it didn’t feel safe as you would inevitably land on someone if you came off. The new one seems to be less crowded at peak, though I’ve only been twice.

The liquid chalk testing will always come up inconclusive, unless you test each brand separately!

Each company uses different concentration of alcohol! We use 70% as this has been tested to be the most effective at killing bacteria. Some other companies use as low as 30%

I have been there a few times in the afternnoon and you are right it can be really packed.

I've been to the new one a few times including at one of the competitions in the evening and it wasn't crowded then. 

Has anyone got access to the ABC document - it appears you have to be an ABC member to view it on their site

# And Matt Sander and Joe 'Tealey' Heeley

The concept of social distancing in a climbing wall seems a little pointless... You only have to look at the chalk haze in your average wall / boulder venue to see that the air is stale, and I would have thought that if someone in the wall is contagious then there will be a risk that transmission will occur regardless, albeit not so high as you are unlikely to be standing in some else's breathing space for a long period of time.

I would have thought the sensible interim solution as stated is to limit to lower numbers so if someone is contagious then there is less people to transmit to.

This is personal, but I go to a climbing wall to mentally relax, and I find almost nothing relaxing about skulking around people obsessing about their 2m of space, in fact quite the opposite.