Technical services
Site specific staff training
If you are a school, gym, club, centre or facility that has its own climbing wall or tower, then we can provide individually-tailored site-specific training for your team. Whatever your setup, however big or small, we can devise a bespoke training programme, closely following the Mountain Training guidelines for site-specific training, as well as the required legal documentation, including operating procedures and risk assessments.
Why site-specific?
Mountain Training provide nationally-recognised qualifications that allow instructors to work at any wall (CWI, RCI etc). However, these tickets are costly, time-consuming, and more of interest to those who are pursuing climbing instructing as a career. We instead create each syllabus specific to your needs, meaning that we can cover training elements not included in a nationally-recognised qualification, such as floorwalking or rescues. Site-specific qualifications are much more easily and quickly achievable, meaning that staff can be trained, assessed and ready to work in a fraction of the time.
How does it work?
Firstly our technical expert will visit your site to see the wall itself, and also discuss with you who and what kind of sessions the wall will be used for. If required, this initial visit can also include a PPE inspection. Following this initial visit, we will draw up a training programme, typically lasting between six and twelve hours over one or two days. This will include a consolidation and assessment element, after which successful candidates will be presented with a certificate of competence. This qualification is valid for a period of one year, after which time candidates will need to be reassessed. We will also provide you with tailored operating procedures and risk assessment documents.
PPE inspection
Personal protective equipment for climbing sessions encompasses harnesses, helmets, ropes, belay devices, carabiners, and any other piece of kit that is used for personal or group safety. We will inspect any PPE that you already own thoroughly to ensure that it is within date, fit for purpose and undamaged. If you need to restock then we can make recommendations and help you put together a shopping list! We will also provide you with a PPE monitoring system to check for any defects and to quarantine contaminated or faulty equipment.
Our technical expert
Our technical expert is Edmund Hastings, a Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor Award holder and a ROSPA-certified PPE inspector. He brings a wealth of experience to the role, having devised site-specific programmes for many schools and centres, as well as being a course director on Mountain Training’s CWI courses.
