School fined by HSE over climbing wall accident

The HSE have release a report on a fine they imposed on a school for failing to safeguard youngster on a climbing wall. There is a full report on the incident on the HSE website. It seems like an interesting case that we should learn lessons from.

The school was fined it seems because the instructor wasn’t qualified to teach lead climbing. It was when one youngster attempted to make his first lead that the accident happened. In particular though the instructor used another student to belay the climber.

I guess not having the right qualifications meant that he might not have been aware of the difficulties in teaching young people to lead and belay a lead climber for that matter. I feel sorry for both the belayer and climber who will both be traumatise from this incident which was no fault of their own.

I guess the keys points are:

  • Be qualified to do what you do.
  • Be current with accepted practice.
  • Beware of peer belaying, whether lead climbing or top roping.

Just bought a new domain

I was browsing the internet for domains and just couldn’t resist buying another domain. I have a plan for it, but probably won’t get round to setting it up until this autumn when the guidebook is out of the way.

In the mean time if you are a climbing coach who operates in the UK or any of its dependencies and would like a low cost way to further advertise your courses and services. Then get in contact. What I am looking for at this stage is what you would want from a site that is aimed at promoting your business.

What information would you like to be able to display?

  • Name and Business name
  • Area
  • Climbing Walls Used
  • Qualifications
  • Coaching Experience
  • Personal Climbing experience
  • Profile picture and Logo
  • Courses offered (Indoors, outdoors)
  • Courses dates and availability
  • customer reviews

Am I missing anything? If you think so then please comment below and I will keep them for when I start coding.

Can Grunting Improve your climbing?

I just saw this interesting post on shouting and performance, so thought I would take a closer look. The first reference (not included here as I don’t want to link to quackery) seemed OK until I scrolled down to the bottom of the pages. Where the about the author sections says he invented a machine that cures viral desease, cancer and other stuff. I instantly felt he had possibly rubbished any credibility with the eradicating cancer claim.

However the next bit of research they mention looks like it shows some effect in hand grip strength. Showing an increase in strength when a martial art breathe exercise similar to a grunt or shout is used.

So I would possibly forget the first reference but otherwise I quite liked this simple look at shout and how it polarises people opinions. You can read it here.