Rockwall Safety Rules
CLIMBER RECOMMENDATIONS
Must weigh 45 lbs minimum, 250 lbs maximum to wear climbing harness. Climber must be a minimum height of 42 inches. Climber must fit in the harness to be allowed to climb.
BEFORE YOUR CLIMB STARTS
After you are hooked into your harness, stay in the harness area. Wait until the operator tells you to go to the climbing area. Don’t step on the Auto-belay cable while you wait to start.
DURING YOUR CLIMB
Stay on the climbing route for your station. Don’t cross over to put yourself directly beneath or above other climbers. Don’t climb without shoes or a top. Don’t climb beyond the wall top. Don’t go beyond chest-height to the wall top.
DURING YOUR DESCENT
Don’t kick off more than 4 feet from the wall. Rappel straight down, and don’t swing too close to other climbers. Be alert for other climbers beneath you, who may have strayed from their routes.
Special Climber Situations
The vast majority of climbs take place without any difficulty or interruption, but sometimes a
problem can occur. Here’s what to do.
Climber frozen at top
Ask the climber to stay calm. Say that you are going to come up and the climber down. Put on a harness. As the climber next to the frozen climber finishes climbing, clip into the Auto-belay cable
and climb the wall. When you reach the frozen climber, show the participant the climbing holds to climb
down. NOTE: Encouraging the climber to rappel down generally will not work.
Climber reports discomfort
Ask the climber to stay calm. Ask if the climber is comfortable rappelling down. If so, then ask the climber to do so (if not, follow the procedure for “Climber frozen at top” above). If there is a problem with harness comfort, then adjust the harness, and let the climber
begin climbing again. If a climber is unable to resume for whatever reason, unhook and send the climber back to the harness area.
Climber is intentionally reckless
Ask the climber to take it easy. Choose one of the following options if he or she persists:
If you DO NOT believe adjacent climbers would be endangered, tell the reckless climber to rappel down or climb down now;
or
If you believe other climbers might be endangered, tell the reckless climber to freeze at their position, and ask the other adjacent climbers to rappel down first (you can let them restart once the reckless climber is removed from the wall).Then, tell the reckless climber to either rappel down or climb down. Unhook the climber and send the climber back to the harness area.
Climber too light to rappel down
Ask the climber to stay calm. Put on a harness As the climber next to the frozen climber completes their climb, clip into the Auto-belay cable and climb the wall. When you reach the climber, grab the climber’s Auto-belay cable. Then your weight
and the climber’s weight will cause both of you to safely rappel down.
Auto-belay cable retracts to top of wall
Put on a harness Clip onto another available Auto-belay cable and climb wall. Grab the loose Auto-belay cable and bring it down. When you get to the bottom, attach it to a bolt hanger at the bottom of the wall.
BEFORE YOUR CLIMB STARTS
DURING YOUR CLIMB
DURING YOUR DESCENT
Special Climber Situations
The vast majority of climbs take place without any difficulty or interruption, but sometimes a
problem can occur. Here’s what to do.
Climber frozen at top
and climb the wall.
down.
Climber reports discomfort
begin climbing again.
Climber is intentionally reckless
Ask the climber to take it easy. Choose one of the following options if he or she persists:
or
Climber too light to rappel down
and the climber’s weight will cause both of you to safely rappel down.
Auto-belay cable retracts to top of wall