Guy Jarvis of Undercover Rock, Bristol approached Ali in June of 2011 to become a provider of the Climbing Wall Award as one of his providers had left the area. At the same time Craig Armitiger, head of Gilwern Outdoor Education Centre in South Wales expressed an interest in providing this course at his centre. With two major centres supporting her application, and already 12 CWA courses under her belt, Ali created a comprehensive and professional application which was sent to the board in August 2011.
The board met on 16th November and Mal Creasy, Development Officer of MLTE, contacted her personally to give her the good news.
The Climbing Wall Award was launched by Mountain Leader Training in January 2008 and was the outcome of considerable consultation with voluntary youth organizations, the education sector and the climbing community.
Monsterclimbs CWA courses will cover the skills and leadership qualities needed to introduce and supervise novice climbers on typical top roping and bouldering climbing walls.
Candidates will also learn how to manage groups in a busy indoor climbing environment. They will learn how to carry out appropriate warm-ups and cool downs, to prepare their clients for the activities ahead and to prevent injury. They will learn how to coach climbing techniques and how to spot the potential Johnny Dawes. They will also learn how to prevent and overcome problems in a simple and safe way.
Monsterclimbs will also train and assess the additional module in supervising abseiling from artificial structures.
Before candidates can attend a training course they must fulfil the following requirements
- be at least 17 years of age
- be registered for the CWA with the Mountain Leader Training Board
- be members of the British Mountaineering Council
- have climbed on at least 3 different walls on 15 occasions, one of which must be a major venue
- have led climbs
- have at least 6 months personal climbing experience
Candidates must allow 10 days between registration with the BMC and MLTE and receipt of their logbook. Their logbook must be up to date and ready for presentation to the Instructor on their CWA Training Course.
This award will appeal to teachers, youth leaders, scout and Duke of Edinburgh Award
supervisors who have access to a climbing wall or artificial climbing/abseiling structure. It is also useful but not essential if candidates have an understanding that climbing indoors is just a small part of climbing and that ultimately climbing is about the big outdoors and the crag environment. Monsterclimbs aims to motivate candidates to become inspirational and professional instructors/coaches who are open minded and never stop learning.
Keep checking Monsterclimbs and MLTE website for the next available course.