Youngsters scale new heights at annual climbing open day
People looking to get into climbing were able to scale new heights on Saturday afternoon as the Guernsey Mountaineering Club hosted its annual open day at the Baubigny Schools’ climbing wall.
Dozens of predominantly younger climbers got to grips with the wall’s nooks and crannies, assisted by experienced club members, who provided them with kit and the relevant safety instructions before belaying them while they climbed up the wall.
Club training officer David Richings said the club aimed to make the day as accessible as possible.
‘We’ve laid out all the kit for people to have a look at, so that includes things like boots, wedges and crampons, and then we get them fitted into a harness and climbing up the wall once we’ve told them what to do and what to look out for.’
He said good climbing technique involved putting your bodyweight over your feet and pushing yourself up the wall with your legs, rather than relying too much on your arms.
‘Sometimes you do need to use brute force, but ideally you want to keep your balance as much as you can and use your legs, as they’re much stronger than your arms.’
Among those eager to scale the wall were brother and sister Aoutie and Alister Hurley, 6 and 4 respectively, who were being watched by their grandparents Avril and Chris Hurley.
‘They’ve both done a bit of climbing before and Aoutie is particularly good at it, but Alister is definitely getting better,’ Mrs Hurley said.
Aoutie managed to climb halfway up the wall she was practising on, and was proud of her efforts.
‘I think I did better than last time I tried,’ she said.
Another pair of siblings were hard at work trying to climb to the top of their section of wall, as Rowan and Gracie Colleran, 10 and 5 respectively, pushed and pulled themselves upwards.
‘We do climbing at La Houguette where we go to school, I’ve done it for two terms and I love it,’ Rowan said.
‘I hope that I’ll be able to get to the highest bit of the wall when I’m older.’
Gracie said she had found it quite hard to reach certain rocks in the wall, but hoped she would be able to have another go soon.
Dad Andy Colleran said climbing had been ‘really good’ for his children.
‘They get so much out of it, it’s nice to be able to watch them really try hard to get as high up as they can.’
