UKC

does your local wall provide a tap, and cups for water? or do they insist on waterbottles from home? my local wall is denying water to those who don't provide their own receptacle. To me this seems harsh given the entry fee of £13/session. It really doesn't take time to load the cups into the diswasher! 

it really doesn't take much to bring a water bottle, if you've encountered this enough to be a problem then just take one, I don't see what you are moaning about.

Did it not cross your mind that it might not be the best thing for a climbing wall to have loads of identical glasses of water hanging around its centre when there is an incredibly contagious and deadly disease that's been ravaging the world for the past 18 months?

Just take an easily identifiable bottle with you. We should all be moving towards a world where we refill our own receptacles anyway. I don't think the 'cost' of providing you with a glass of water was one of their considerations with this rule.

I can see in normal circumstance this is rather mean and cups of water should be free and easy to get but I guess in covid you might understand why dealing with the cups or people sharing a water fountain might be a bad idea. 

However, if they serve drinks in cups and are happy to supply a cup with tea then they haven't go a leg to stand on.

I normally fish an old bottle out the bin when I've forgotten one but lately I've been a bit more careful to remember a bottle.

Ours has a water fountain so no cup needed, otherwise buy a cheap cup of tea and reuse the cup

I think you might not be acquainted with the concept of being thirsty and forgetful...

If you're organised enough to get yourself to the wall with shoes, harness and chalk bag you can remember a water bottle.

Forgot your water bottle and found yourself with a raging thirst?

Option 1 go the wall's cafe or vending machine and buy a drink.

Option 2 let the thirst burn into your memory so you remember your water bottle.

Option 3 posting on UKC will achieve zip.

When I forget to take a bottle to the wall, I just rummage for one in the recycling bin.

+1 for bin dipping when you've forgotten yours. Bonus karma for recycling.

...or you could drink straight from the tap in the toilet? Fashion a cup out of your hands if you're feeling extravagant. Possibly ask the staff if they'd mind saturating your t-shirt? You could then wring it into your mouth at appropriate intervals? 

The tshirt idea seems like an excellent hack for multipitch climbing when you can't be bothered to bring a water bottle, you would even be including some salts for extra electrolyte replenishment! 

thanks UKC. I was pretty pissed of with the meanness of the local wall in not provisioning me  with a cup, but I was well aware that I was being unreasonable. You have set me right as usual. I will now just boycot the wall based on a completely reasonable unwillingness to pay its extortionate entry fees. 

It may well be that the wall in question don't supply water during the pandemic…but if you forgot, and grovel to staff they may well sort you out. That’s the situation for at least one wall I know. Most climbers (=wall staff too) are pretty pragmatic/nice folk* as a default setting.

*there ARE exceptions…

yes they are, but in this case it was an edict from above. No water to those who don't bring cups - No exceptions. I suspect a bogus environmental reason but maybe it was covid, though that wasn't explained.

A lot of walls are doing this because their insurers require them to, to fit in with the COVID risk assessment requirements.  Just take your own bottle.

£13 is a bit steep though.

Will you also now boycott UKC as you've had your face rubbed in it?

of course not - I was hoping someone/everyone would kick my butt and tell be to see reason. I find that all this WFH and lack of social interaction gets some strange ideas stuck in my head. the UKC is a great place to straighten me out. so thanks. £13 is still too much for a climbing wall though.

Good plan.  Stick to wild climbing.

There's a thread on the go just now that might have some good info in it for wild water drinking too.
https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/hill_talk/water_in_the_hills-737602?v=1#x...

I'm guessing the wall is in London in which case that's more the going rate.  Perhaps boycott London in its entirety?

Not unreasonable at all, they're in hospitality after all.

Don't you know how to form your hands into a cup (after you have washed them) so that you can catch water under a running cold tap in a wash basin and slurp it into your mouth? Easy peasy and hygienic.

That assumes you've got a cold tap rather than a single warm press button jobby!

In England and Wales, by law restaurants and cafés are legally obliged to serve tap water free. But since the law is full of contradictions, they can charge you whatever they want to use the cup, or even refuse to let you use their cups. So refusing water may be illegal but requiring you to provide your own receptacle is not. Unless they issue disposable cups, what else can they do?

Pre covid, 'd have grumbled about the £13 and cups, but so many walls are struggling not to go bust. I suggest you give them the benefit of the doubt and take a bottle - or go and buy something from their cafe and help keep them open!

Hospitality?  I think anyone who serves drinks refusing to supply someone with a drink of tap water is in inhospitality tbh.

Certainly from the customer's point of view it seems a bit stingy, but then from the Wall's perspective every other customer asking for a cup just adds to costs, whether that's in buying disposable cups or paying for staff time to gather up and wash crockery. 
And either way, if one is being particularly bloody-minded, it's a bit of a waste, eco-wise