UKC

Hello,

We are a Scout Group with a 10m vertical climbing wall. We'd like to install up to 3 auto belays so that we can use the wall more.

Would be keen to receive advice on what we shopuld buy, the costs, the ongoing maintenance/safety costs and the training required.

Many, many thanks! Keen to get our folk interested and keen on climbing.

Best regards,

Doug

Initial cost of the unit, which may have changed since we last bought them. 
 

With regard to Trublue the ongoing cost of shipping, inspection, and potentially new tapes each year. It’s probably around £800 per unit per year assuming nothing goes bang in them.

Theyre not cheap! 

At my local wall, the Quay, I was informed they are about £3000 each so not cheap!

Hi Doug,

I'm not sure where you are based but this is something you should probably be speaking to your County's climbing advisor about.  General guidance for Scouts and Autobelays can be found here https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/running-your-section/programme-guidanc....

If you're stuck for who to contact in your County drop me an email via my profile and I'll try and help you find someone.

Thanks,

Gavin

(County Climbing Advisor, East Lancashire Scouts)

Definitely speak to your county advisor as suggested by Gavin - you should be able to look them up in Compass.

Make sure you think about what you're trying to get from the climbing sessions. Swapping to auto-belays will remove the teamwork aspect from the sessions, removing one of they main learning opportunities. Yes, the young people will still get to climb the wall, but you'll have many more of them not engaged in the activity compared with using one of the many peer belaying options.

I guess you might be considering auto-belays to reduce the training requirements on supervisors, but for a private wall it may not make that big a difference, because you still need to be able to deal with any problems that occur. I'd suggest you might be better off putting the money towards getting a group of you trained up - your county advisor or a local MCI might be able to help you with something bespoke for your wall to get a group of you with the appropriate permits, and will help develop young people more in the long term. NGB training plus assessment will probably cost you under £250 a person and will set you up for a much broader set of activities, including using walls when you're away elsewhere in the country.