Useful information for Freshers
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Useful Information for Freshers
As someone who may be new to climbing it's hard to know where to start. This page will allow you to get some idea of what is needed to start climbing with UUJMC.
If you get stuck on a big word look it up in the Climbing Terms
Initial Requirements
For the first few weeks the only thing that you'll require is.... Yourself!
You dont even need to join the club for the first few tryout sessions and the club will provide all of the equipment you'll need.
Something that's worth knowing is that climbers come in all shapes and sizes; small or tall, weak or strong, you just use different techniques to get to the top, so if you feel like giving gravity the finger (metaphorically speaking of course) climbing is for you!
The only warning I would give is this: Climbing can be addictive; be prepared to, without warning, be struck with the need to climb. Door frames, bus-stops and other day to day objects start looking less like just useful utilities and more like something you may be able to scale/hang-off.
The Indoor Climbing Wall
Our main training focuses on the indoor climbing wall at the Ozone. The club will provide transport from the sports union reception every wednesday or if you want to make your own way down there are maps available to help you find your way there.
The wall itself is made up of sections. Some sections emulate real rock whilst others are simply vertical or are at various gradients and are covered in coloured climbing holds. The colours of the holds will signify that they are part of a specific route, initally you'll just want to climb everything and anything but later as you become more skilled you'll start to climb using the colours. Each route is graded according to how hard it is to climb. Some routes are also bolted, this means that a series of fasteners are on the wall through which you can clip quick-draws. The only thing you need know about these initally is never to use them as a hand-hold and it's probably not a great idea to stand on them either; people have lost fingers on them and one with a decent edge may be able to damage your climbing shoes.
There are also a series of Climbing Calls which are used to comunicate when rock climbing.
Costs
It's important to remember that there are actually only a few things that are necessary when you're just starting out, the club gear is brought along on all of the club trips and is usually enough for everyone. So dont rush out and blow your student loan right away! After you've been in the club for a while you'll know what you need to buy.
Once you pay your sports union membership £10 and your club insurance £10 you'll get a membership card. Joining the Ozone is cheap and means you can get in for £1.70 (subject to change) every time you go there. That cost means you can climb from when it opens on that day to when it closes at around 9 or 10pm. Bring your student card, almost everyone behind the desk there will let it slide if you forget it but there are one or two that might try to charge you full price (over £5).
