Standardizing Entry to Your Climbing Gym Could Prevent Hassle (Or Worse)
I hadn’t seen a belay orientation video until I was well into my climbing career. I actually saw one for the first time while climbing after work at my girlfriend’s gym. As usual, I prepared to display my belaying skills to receive the coveted belay check so I could go climb. After I filled out the waiver, I was shown to a row of iPads and told that they had a video for me to watch. At that moment, I didn’t even know it was a belay orientation video, so I mentioned to them that I was an experienced climber. They politely told me that that didn’t matter, and this was their process. I was happy to do it once I realized this was their risk management procedure; I was only unfamiliar with it at the time.
It was engaging and informative. Working for the Climbing Wall Association, I tend to look at things like this with more curiosity than I imagine the average climber does. Even so, I mentioned to my partner that I liked this process. I demonstrated my belaying technique, using the commands that this facility preferred (which I learned in the video), and was on my way. I didn’t think much about it from there until I learned that through a partnership with Monument Sports Group, the CWA was developing standardized belay orientation videos for the industry.
“We know the process of building out your own orientation videos can seem like a daunting and expensive task, so we wanted to simplify that process for CWA Member Facilities and make it easier to implement all over the country,” says Will Jorgensen, the CWA Program Manager at Monument Sports Group.
After a 15-month-long process, the CWA produced, with the help of Monument and an outstanding graphics partner, six activity-specific videos. They come in all shapes and sizes, quite literally, as the orientations are designed to serve auto belays, top rope climbing, bouldering, and lead, while also serving small and large facilities. and they are free to Monument Sports Group Clients.
View Belay Orientation Videos in the CWA Store
“One of the important things about this project was to make sure individual video files were made available to gyms, along with the ability to edit or add to them as needed,” says Will.
The development process for the orientation videos was summed up by Garnet Moore: “The ClimbSmart orientation videos were developed alongside the updated 4th edition of the industry practices. The videos were written and reviewed by a number of different CWA Committees, the CWA Board of Directors, Insurance Partners, and legal professionals who have experience defending climbing gyms from claims. We wanted the videos to be short, informative, and easy for the average climber to understand.”
“Paired with being able to document the entire orientation process, these videos can help dispel questions regarding the clarity and consistency of instruction provided to a user in a claim scenario,” Will said.
By creating a standardized product that comes from the industry itself, the CWA is allowing folks to maximize their risk management and provide an easy user experience for visiting climbers.
The videos range in length from 2.5 to 4.5 minutes, depending on the video and the needs of the facility. They use tasteful animation, color, and representation of different bodies to support inclusivity. The videos have text on screen as well as audio to assist visually impaired or deaf individuals (or those of us who prefer subtitles).
Each video highlights important risk management practices for the various forms of climbing. The most common reason for an auto belay incident is user error (and the video states this), so it’s particularly helpful to have the reasons laid out in plain language for climbers, so they can understand that mistakes can ‘cause injury or death’.
Likewise, the video specific to bouldering-only facilities, or facilities that have bouldering, discusses ways to fall properly, and that every fall is a ground fall. While this is obvious for those of us in the industry, it's a novel concept for new climbers. That’s the beauty of these videos, because they include things we may think are intuitive.
Monument Sports Group is providing these videos for free to any CWA member who is a client of theirs. For those who aren’t clients but are CWA members, the videos are heavily discounted vs. what would be paid to create one from scratch.
The CWA continues to innovate and help the industry grow and mitigate risk. Reach out to us with questions about the videos, their use, or anything else you’d like to know!
About the Author
Jake Byk is the Content Manager for the Climbing Wall Association. He's an avid hiker, mountaineer, lover of hard-to-reach places, and long drives. If his phone isn't on airplane mode exploring some far-flung region of Colorado, you can find him at home, perfecting his espresso addiction with his three cats and a wonderful partner.