Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy 15th Anniversary, Guelph Grotto!

The Guelph Grotto is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and we at True North Climbing just want to say congratulations! I've climbed at the Grotto a few times, including a Tour de Bloc event. It's a really good gym, with good bouldering, good routes, and a friendly vibe. If you're not busy this Saturday, check out their anniversary events!

Happy Anniversary!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Let's Get This Party Started!

After a lengthy and rigorous process to ensure that what we plan to build meets the appropriate building and safety codes, and satisfies each of 3 structural engineers (representing Eldorado Climbing Walls, our architect and our landlord), we now have approval to proceed with construction! We're now mobilizing both Eldorado's crew to build the climbing terrain, and the general contractor's trades to build all the other parts of the facility (change rooms, reception area, electrical, lighting, HVAC and plumbing support). So after almost 7 months of planning, designing, negotiating and badgering, we have reached the real start of the project. While things have slipped a bunch from the schedule we had in mind, I am optimistic that we can still find ways to make up the time and open the gym in early March as intended.

We'll see about getting some pictures of what we have planned posted in the coming days. Stay tuned; we have some very cool and unique stuff in store for you!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Safety: The Flooring

As a gravity-defying sport, indoor climbing brings some inherent risk along with it. It's our responsibility to minimize that risk, and there are many ways we are doing that. Today I'm going to talk about one of the important parts of that strategy: the flooring.

I've been thinking about what to do about floor padding since I started researching this project early this year. The padding makes up a surprisingly large part of the overall investment in the gym, and I wanted to make sure I got it right. For the areas under and around the roped climbs, the answer was pretty obvious. The nearly-ubiquitous carpet bonded foam on top of softer foam, with a total depth of about 6 inches, seems like the right approach. It provides a surface solid enough to walk on (and from an employee point of view, to set up ladders for routesetting), but soft enough to cushion a low fall from a bouldering traverse or a landing from descent on a rope.

The more difficult question is what to do in the bouldering areas. Many gyms put the carpet bonded foam throughout their facility, and then arrange portable bouldering mats in the bouldering areas. Boulderers are then responsible for positioning these drag mats appropriately under the areas where they expect they may fall. So there's an issue when they fail to do that. As I looked into this more, I came to believe that there are other injury issues tied to the use of portable drag mats. Landing on an edge, or between pads, can lead to twisted ankles, knee injuries, and arm/shoulder injuries if a climber loses their balance and tips over onto their hands when falling. Some drag mats are better than others (e.g. those with beveled edges), but the more I thought about this and discussed it with others in the climbing business, the more I wanted to find a seamless padding solution for my gym. I saw some of these in the gyms I visited during my reconnaissance tour in northern California in June.

I've spent the past 4 months (!) in discussions with 5 vendors of floor padding to explore my options. In the process I have learned more than I expected about foam density and compression measurements. I have finally settled on a seamless custom padding solution from Asana climbing. You can read about their custom padding system for gyms at their web site. I've talked to some of their customers, and am convinced that they'll put together a great system that will provide excellent protection, be custom-fitted to the shapes of my walls, install easily, and be reasonable to maintain. Oh, it should look great too!

Most of the gym, including some of the low bouldering walls (up to 9 feet high) will have the standard 6 inches of the carpet bonded foam system. The advanced bouldering area, with climbing terrain reaching 14 feet high, will have the custom padding system with 12 inches of padding. This will include an inch of closed-cell foam on top of softer open-cell foam. The denser top layer provides a stable walking surface, and distributes the force of a fall across a larger area, while the softer foam underneath provides the cushioning. I believe 12" is more than we really need for safety. I've gone thicker in part because some climbers may be a little unnerved by the lack of the drag mats under them (even if they know rationally that those mats contribute to injury). I expect the obvious depth of these pads to provide emotional comfort, as well as physical comfort!

There are a couple areas of the gym with mid-height bouldering (around 11 feet high) where the 12 inch system isn't needed but I wanted a little more than the 6 inch carpet bonded foam, so we'll add an extra two inches of open cell foam under the carpet to provide a bit more protection there. This will make more sense soon, when we start posting pictures of what the climbing terrain will look like!

There is a lot more than floor padding to keeping people as safe as possible in the gym. We'll have more to say as time goes on about the other things we're doing in other areas, including:
  • the design of the climbing terrain
  • the structural engineering analysis to ensure the structures are sound
  • the training of both our staff and customers to make sure everyone is well-informed about the potential risks and how to manage them
We take safety very seriously, and we want to make sure everyone understands what we're doing about it.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Making New Friends

I received a nice invitation last night, to attend the championship of the Toronto Roller Derby on Saturday evening. TORD is one of my coolest neighbours in the Downsview Park Sports Centre. I attended one of their bouts (yes, bouts!) earlier this season with my son, and we had a great time. The women have cute (and not entirely family-friendly) nicknames, but the action is serious and rough.

This will be the start of what I hope is a great partnership between Toronto Roller Derby and True North Climbing, as we help promote and support each other's business. If you haven't yet had an opportunity to come check out the Downsview Park Sports Centre, this is a good reason to do so. The event is expected to sell out, so get your tickets now! Now I just need to decide whether I'm cheering for the Gore-Gore Rollergirls or the underdog Smoke City Betties!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Few New Photos

The start of our construction in the gym is still pending the landlord's approval; structural engineers are working hard to show that what we will be building will be safe and sound. Hopefully that won't take much longer, and the crews can get to work shortly.

In the meantime, I've posted a few shots of the freshly-painted space, to show how a coat of white paint brightens the joint up. Check out the most recent 4 images in The Building folder in our Picasa web albums. Here's one of them to give you an idea:


It's also time to launch a new tradition: True North Climbing Around the World. A little while ago I raffled off a True North Climbing T shirt to encourage more people to register for our online forums. The winner was Max Nanao, who happens to live in Grenoble France. He now has his shirt, and what do you suppose he decided to do with it? He went climbing!:


There are now more than 50 True North Climbing T shirts in circulation. Those of you who have one are encouraged to take it with you on your travels. Get a shot of you wearing it and send it in, and we'll add you to the gallery.

And of course, those of you who don't yet have a shirt can still get one for 20 bucks including taxes. Send me an email and we'll figure out the best way to get it to you. Hey, this is our only source of revenue right now!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

True North Climbing to Host Pan Am Games Events in 2015!

As part of Toronto's winning bid for the 2015 Pan-Am Games, True North Climbing is excited to have been chosen as the host of the following climbing events:
  • Men's Bouldering
  • Women's Bouldering
  • Men's Speed Climbing
  • Women's Speed Climbing
  • Women's Synchronized Dynos
These events will take place over 10 days of competition in late July 2015. Construction will take place in 2014 to raise the roof of the building to enable the climbing structures to meet the Pan Am standard of 30m of climbing height. Our youth climbing programme will be tailored to help develop young athletes and prepare them for these games. Climbers from across Canada are expected to train at True North Climbing during the year leading up to the events.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper remarked: "While the CSIS will not allow me to comment on specifics, I have seen the plans for True North Climbing's new facility, and they are truly impressive".

[Hey, I can dream, can't I?]

Monday, November 2, 2009

Certification

This past weekend I completed my certification as a Climbing Gym Instructor (Level 1) by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). I wrote earlier about my thoughts on establishing high standards at the new gym, and this is a key part of that. I want to share my experience going through the certification, and some of what I learned from it.

I headed into this because I want to be able to teach introductory top rope lessons at the gym, and if I'm going to ask my instructors to pursue certification, I should set an example by doing so myself. But I did not really have a full understanding of what it took to go through this course, and what I was putting myself through.

I started in August by getting my first aid training done (needed for other reasons as well), and learning to lead climb. Although I had been climbing since 2004, I had put off learning to lead climb because I didn't feel I was ready, based on my technical proficiency (top roping 5.9s and some 5.10- climbs in the gym). That was a mistake, because learning to lead climb has helped improve my climbing, and being able to do 5.9s well was enough to get started on lead. I wish I had done it earlier.

Part of the assessment for the CGI level 1 certification is based on demonstrating your climbing ability, both on lead (at the 5.9 level) and top rope (at 5.10a, and while speaking during the climb, to demonstrate to a group of students how easy a 5.10a, and how you approach each move). I was intimidated by this requirement, and focused a lot of my preparation in the weeks before the course on being ready for those climbs. Since the course was hosted by Rock Oasis, I started spending time there, climbing once or twice a week in the past month (in addition to my weekly sessions at TCA), to get used to the walls and routes there, and acclimatize myself to climbing where I was going to be assessed. Initially I found the ratings significantly tougher at Oasis than at TCA (where I am a member and have done most of my climbing over the past 5 years). Now I just feel it's different, with a lot more smearing required to compensate for "missing" footholds. The style of setting is going to vary from gym to gym (and from setter to setter), and it helped a lot to get some good experience with how Rock Oasis sets their routes. By the time my assessment came around Saturday evening, I was comfortable climbing on those routes, and did better than I had expected. I had one fall on the top rope route, but got good scores overall, and was really happy with how it went. That was by far the most stressful part of the course for me (and for several of the other candidates as well).

The bulk of the scores for the certification comes from assessment of each candidate's instruction, based on 3 lessons that are presented in a team teaching format. Two of the sessions are introductory Top Rope lessons, one using a belay tube, one with a gri-gri, and the team members shuffle roles so each gets a chance to present two of the topics of the course. The topics cover putting on the harness, tying in with a figure 8 follow-through knot, safety checks and communication, setting up the belay device and the belaying hand sequences for taking in slack while the climber ascends and then lowering the climber safely. The other instruction session covered a range of basic movement techniques, with each candidate presenting one topic from a selection including weight transfers, balance and footwork techniques.

As part of the pre-requisites for the course, I had observed a total of 10 intro lessons at two of the local gyms, so I was very familiar with how these are typically presented. What I learned over the weekend is that there is a pretty big difference between the local standard and the ACMG standard (more on this below), and there is a big difference between observing an experienced instructor and understanding the material, and being able to teach it yourself to a group of 4-6 students. While I passed this part of the course, and did very well at some sections of it, I also struggled a bit in places, and learned that I will need to practice and improve before I can consider myself to be an excellent instructor. Most of the other candidates at the course have been doing this for some time, so I was playing catchup, giving my first real top rope lesson on Saturday during the first assessment!

Another section of the course was on rigging for routesetting. I learned how to rig a top rope for self-belay using an ascender, and the importance of setting up a backup system so that in case of emergency a self-belayed routesetter can be lowered by someone on the ground. This stuff was brand new to me and intimidating at first, but despite all the gear involved (jumar, two gri-gris, daisy chain, étrier/aider, mutiple carabiners, locking and not, two ropes, extra knots, ...) it all made sense together and it was really fun to learn how to do it and then try it out. This may come in handy when I need to change light bulbs up high!

I mentioned earlier that there are differences between the ACMG standards and local standards. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some examples include:
  • which belay devices are used for both top rope and lead climbing
  • the hand sequences used to belay, for both kinds of climbing
  • the extent to which a perfect figure-8 follow through knot must be tied, including dressing of the knot
  • whether or not to teach new climbers to tie the initial figure 8 knot in the climber's rope
Some of these differences made it more challenging to prepare for the course and satisfy the ACMG standard. I'll be having discussions with my Head Instructor (once hired) to figure out the policies that are appropriate for my business. There are some trade-offs between climber freedom, ensuring safety as well as we can, teaching new climbers without overloading them at the start, and operating the business efficiently (how long should an introductory lesson last?). That said, I appreciated learning and understanding the ACMG standards for each of these things, and the reasons behind them.

The weekend was a very intense and exhausting experience. I spent about 30 hours at Rock Oasis from Friday evening through Sunday evening, and got little sleep in between sessions. It was very stressful preparing for the course, and going through the assessments, sometime on topics I had just learned myself. And at the end I was feeling quite a strange mix of emotions, including the thrill of passing a very challenging course (including passing each of the sections within it), and some disappointment that I did not perform as well as I had expected on the last instructional part, and that I will need more practice to get where I want to be.

Perhaps the best part of the course is the people I met in the process. This starts with the instructors (2 full instructors and two Level 3 candidates who assisted) led by Cort McElroy who is an amazing instructor, and who provided valuable support helping me prepare in the weeks leading up to this weekend. The staff at Rock Oasis and TCA were also great, welcoming me as I observed them teaching during several intro classes. I'm very grateful to Karen McGilvray (owner of Rock Oasis) and Chris Mack (proprietor of Toronto Climbing Academy) for their support in letting me get in my observation hours. And perhaps most important of all was the opportunity to meet and work with my eight fellow candidates, from Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. They were a great bunch of people, and I learned from each of them as well, and I hope those contacts stay alive as my new gym gets going.

Looking back on the course, I accomplished my personal goals of getting certified and preparing to be able to teach intro classes (though I will continue to work on those skills to improve them further). I learned a lot of other things I hadn't thought about as well:
  • Now that I understand the details of what it takes to get through the certification process I am better prepared to hire instructors, and make sure they are really ready to head into certification
  • I have much better insight into developing many of my gym's policies and procedures, covering instruction, belay tests, waivers and routesetting
This course was one of the toughest challenges I have gone through in my life. If I had really understood what it entailed, I may well have waited longer before doing it, but I'm glad I did, and I feel great about completing it. I recommend it for anyone serious about raising the standard of their instruction abilities.