We have had a look at the Island Health rules and are complying with them in full.
We are already a mask-only facilty. Three layer masks only.
We have cancelled/postponed group bookings and Taste Tests. If your session was cancelled, you will aready have received an email from us.
Rise and Shine and Lessons are still proceeding.
We have removed cardio equipment from the studio. It is available for stretching/strength only and capacity is restricted to four persons at a time.
We are always working to make things better at Crag X, doubly (triply!) so during this COVID time.
To make things work a little smoother we are:
!. Mixing up the COVIDSLOTS to give climbers more options for duration and start times of their session. Starting December 1st, climbers can book 3hour and 2 hour sessions.
2. We have streamlined the waiting process for DROP-IN slots and now have a waiting list that can send you a text when a spot opens up.
3. Even better, you can get on the waiting list using our Crag X RockGymPro app.
4. You can now cancel your COVID slots using the app. Go to your recent bookings and hit cancel to free the spot for another Crag X Climber.
Climbers!
We have come to the difficult decision to put a temporary halt on membership sales. We will longer be selling unlimited entry EFT, Year, Three Month, Month or Early Entry memberships. We will continue to sell day pass and ten entry punch passes.
We have made this decision because we feel a responsibility to our existing members to give them the best possible experience as members of Crag X. We want to do right by the people that supported us during our COVID shut down.
We know that getting your regular number of climbing slots as a member is not always possible due to our government limited capacity. Although our membership makes economic sense after the fifth visit in a month, we understand that some existing members may want to freeze their memberships. No hard feelings if you choose this route. Existing members can renew their memberships.
Punch passes and Day passes are still available for sale.
We have expanded our hours to 11pm weekdays and added extra booking slots through the week to try to maximize the opportunities for climbing despite the capacity restrictions. The first and last slot of the day are now two hour slots. We appreciate those climbers that have adapted to fewer days a week of climbing - we know it was done in the spirit of sharing a limited resource and helping a business that has limited options to meet demand.
Thanks so much for your continued support, we look forward to all of this being over as soon as possible.
Take care.
Kenneth and Niko
We’ve had really great cooperation with all the changes we have had to make at Crag X. Thanks.
Here’s a plan, let’s double down on the diligence with hand washing and sanitation, especially when leaving. Climb with freshly washed hands. Go back out to the city with clean and sanitized hands.
Thanks for mask wearing too! Climbers are good at evaluating risk and mitigating it. Masks are an easy one.
Learn about the giant HVAC air-handlers that keep Crag X air fresh by swapping indoor air for outdoor air every 90 minutes all day long.
Read MoreStarting July 27, Monday and Wednesday will be Mask Required climbing days. The rest of the week will be Distance Required climbing days, with masks only needed to be worn when 2m separation can not be maintained and in the studio.
We are doing this to give climbers the option to continue climbing and maintain the BC Phase 2 level of protection. We chose to do it Monday and Wednesday because we have overnight cleaning the night before.
As we all feel our way through this, we hope to be able to adapt ourselves to make as much room for each other as we can. Climbing is important to our lives and we are happy to do our part to keep adjusting so that all our climbing friends can keep climbing.
We have had a great response from all the climbing community. Super great cooperation. Everyone is staggering their arrival, wearing a mask, respecting the 2m distance and being generous to their fellow climber.
Our next step is to allow non-members back into the gym and new people too. Any climbers who have already passed our belay test can now book a spot and come climbing. For those who have not done a belay test with us yet, sharpen up those skills before you come for your first visit. Belay Tests will be strict and we’ll be expecting high levels of safety to allow for the best possible physical distancing practices. We can’t come closer than 2m to make adjustments or help you make adaptations. So sorry. (And as always, you need to show us your stuff using a GRIGIRI)
We are also welcoming non-climbers, but under the guidance of members as a non-belayer. We aren’t quite there for restarting Beginner Lessons, although Harrison is doing a few to work out the kinks.
Members (EFT and year pre-paid) receive two passes to bring a non-climber to the gym each month with no charge for the day pass. During our COVID-19 reopening, we are including rentals too! That means you can introduce your bubble-friend to climbing at no cost. Each member will have to sign a non-belayer agreement taking responsibility for their climber’s safety. The non-belayer will have to sign a waiver and the jointly sign the non-belayer form too.
We look forward to seeing some new faces in the gym as we move towards normal operation.
We have a mix of climbing time slots and drop in to manage capacity at Crag X.
To manage the number of people in the gym at any one time.
To fairly share climbing time.
To comply with Public Health directives.
Online booking slots can be booked for up to 3 climbers at a time.
A limited number of drop-in spaces are available but we recommend booking to secure your spot.
When appropriate, we will transition away from booked slots towards our old drop-in model.
Crowding as one block ends and another block begins.
Buy punches here to make your entry touchless. We are doing touchless transactions at the gym.
Staggered arrival. Leave your home at the start of your climbing session. That way everyone will arrive at a slightly different time and we can avoid crowds every hour on the hour. Climbing sessions are long enough that you shouldn’t have to worry about arriving right at the start to have enough time to climb. If you haven’t arrived by last hour of your session, we will give your spot to a drop-in climber. See how it works here.
Staggered departure. Try not to stay right to the very end of your session block. Have a good session and leave the building. The closer we get to a natural flow while respecting capacity limits the quicker we can leave behind the booking system.
Climbers wanting to book, but spots are not available.
Drop-In Climbing. There are limited drop in spaces available check our counter here. We can’t guarantee the spots will still be there when you get to the gym, and if it is close to a session start time, we may have to keep you on hold until the booked climbers get to the gym.
Share. Maybe climb a shorter session and free up a drop in slot for someone?
Belay tests requiring us to come closer than 2m. CV19 says “Not anymore!”
Belay tests will be strictly pass/fail. We can’t come close to you to make any adjustments or adaptations. We are really sorry about this. Belay test is on a GRIGRI.
Please arrange to have a partner from your bubble available to climb for your belay test. We can’t just grab anyone from the gym anymore!
Things you can do to get ready for climbing:
Get yourself a face-covering. Masks required everyday.
Make sure your waiver is up to date. Not sure? Fill out one here.
Thinking about bringing a youth to climb? Read up on our child policy before you arrive.
The app is faster, but you can always book here at the website. Download the RGPro Connect app (Apple or Google Play) if you want to make the booking practice faster in future.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Please don’t come to the gym if:
You have any symptoms of CV19.
You have travelled outside of BC in the last 10 days.
If 1 or 2 apply to any member of your household.
Let's talk about expectation for a second.
What do you imagine your first visit back to Crag X looking like?
Do a little scan of yourself as you think about this, do you feel excitement burning in your mind and heart? Palms get a little sweaty and your stomach tightens because there's a little bit of uneasiness there? Fingertips tantalized with curiosity to see what the difference a few months off the wall will have done?
These, and everything in between, are all valid reactions to returning to anything after a time apart. Us climbers have a bit of a thrill seeker in us and we're pretty good at pushing through pain and discomfort. That often comes with higher expectations of ourselves to perform under pressure. A first of anything comes with pressure and expectations of its own. In this time of global uncertainty it's good to know and honour our feelings which may be more heightened or pressurized than usual.
Before your first visit back to the gym, take the time to check in with those feelings and sensations of expectation. They are valuable tools to knowing more about ourselves.
On your first visit, take a moment before your first climb to orient yourself to the space again. Stand or sit somewhere comfortable and let your eyes wander over the walls, up at the lights, across the floors. Just let your eyes do the moving and try not to specifically look at things. Orienting yourself to the environment gives you time. Time to process the changes in the space and in yourself that have occurred in the time away. Time gives your expectation time to settle.
Deep breath.
As you climb, be gentle on yourself. Enjoy the physical sensations of the movements of climbing, the soft release between each vertebra as your spine twists, the strength and stability that your legs and feet can provide, the familiar texture of the holds under your hands.
Ask yourself - Does it feel like home again? With all that has passed can you find that old comfort and release? If not, can your mind be more gentle? Can it let your body move with ease to allow a deep breath to come and release your tension?
Warmed up?
Ready?
Go.
We have an opening date!
Thank you so much to all the people who kept us going through the long COVID19 shutdown. We could not have done it without you!
We will be reopening with top-rope, lead-climbing and bouldering. Auto-belays too.
While BC is in Phase 2 we will be operating in a way that minimizes the chance of outbreak while still allowing climbing to happen at Crag X.
To limit capacity and maintain physical distancing, climbers will have to book a time to have their climbing session.
To decrease chance of spread everyone will be required to wear a face covering while in the building.
In order to limit spread we will be making some physical changes (screens, fountain shut off etc) and behaviour changes (studio capacity limit, hand-washing when you enter and before you leave the gym, refraining from socializing outside of your climbing partner etc)
Only swipe and go climbers who already have a belay test can climb at the gym. This means Members and punch-card holders only. No non-belayers or children.
If you have never been to Crag X, you can not climb in this first stage. We will announce when we can start adding new climbers.
Extra procedures (breaks, first aid methods and equipment etc) to protect staff are being put in place.
A spirit of minimizing the risk to our climbing community and the larger Victoria community will motivate every decision we make about how to operate Crag X
To find our more about Booking a COVID-Slot Climbing Session (and staggering your arrival), see our page on booking.
A COVID FAQ is where we put the answers to the things that need to be clarified.
A guide to being an COIVID19 minimizing climber will help you think about your part in all this.
Drop-In Climbing for Members (in addition to booked sessions, still with capacity limits)
Belay Tests
‘One-Bubble’ Lessons
Relaxation of Face Covering wearing (if BC Health directs/allows)
Small groups
Increased studio capacity
Drop-In Climbing for Punch Pass holders
Drop in Climbing by Day Pass purchase
As you can see there is lots to figure out as we move towards June 1st. Check back here and we will keep you up to date.
Thanks for your support and see you at the gym!
We’ve been doing lots of work with others in our industry to get ready for climbing in the CV19 era.
We are working with the CWA, CEC, SCBC and the BC Gym Owners to determine a path forward and create a plan for operating the gym when we open.
First priority is the safety of our staff. They will be spending more time at the gym than anyone, so it is important that we operate in a way that will minimize risk. Staff will be asked to protect themselves and climbers and keep Crag X a good place to be. For stage one of opening, protecting others by having everyone in the gym wear a face covering will be one part of the solution.
Next is all you beautiful climbers. Climbers will be asked to protect staff and each other by only climbing when healthy and by maintaining good hand and respiratory hygiene. Coupled with appropriate physical distancing, wearing a face covering, and our extra cleaning we think we can run a climbing gym that does as good a job as possible to reduce transmission of CV19. In the beginning, climbing will need to be less social than it was. We are working out the details of a system to fairly share climbing in a gym with a CV19 mandated smaller capacity.
Finally we must do our part to protect the rest of society. This means washing hands before a climbing session and also before leaving the gym and returning to the outside world. It means being careful about your personal ‘restart’ and making choices about how much of your old life you restart and how much mixing of households you do.
We are making the final decisions on our three stage plan for opening and will be announcing it soon. We also hope to give a firm date for restart.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Crag X
In this CV19 time it isn't always easy to keep up with who you are, or even with things you love. I've been reconnecting with my love of climbing by dreaming my way through guidebooks and rereading A Youth Wasted Climbing, by Dave Chaundy-Smart.
The book is an autobiography and covers Dave's entrance into climbing in 1980s Ontario and then out to the wider world of climbing. He describes the climbing scene I entered as an 18 year old on the limestone cliffs of Milton, Ontario. Reading it, I felt like I was always just out of frame, standing at the bottom of the cliff watching from afar as he and his friends pushing climbing.
Click to buy it at Munro’s books.
In those early small days of climbing, learning was hand-to-hand and Dave was a guy to look up to. Young climbers all knew the names of First Ascentionists and routes were going up all around us. Niko and I would goof and joke and pretend to be Helmut Microys because he was a local hard man and his name was cool. We acted cool when they walked by on the way to their latest projects. It felt big when we first started to get a nod of recognition. “You guys doing Straight Up? Take this red Friend for the roof” We were young kids and we were hanging around the cliffs long enough to be climbers. It was like joining a secret world.
A memory: Spring of 1989 and standing with Niko at the bottom of local 5.9 test piece Cat's Tail; looking up at it and remembering hearing Dave say "If you can climb that, you can climb the Nose." I can still feel the texture of that rock on the back of my hand. Cooler as you reached deeper.
(Dave was right, and Niko climbed the Nose eventually. I never did, a major regret.)
Dave was an Ontario guy that was friends with Peter Croft and lived in the Valley and helped us expand our 25m climb out to the size of the most famous route in the world. A real life person walking around. Climbers like him were my connection to the big world of climbing that would eventually become my life and livelihood.
So, dig into your guidebooks. Find the old issues of climbing magazines you used to pore over. Go through your photos and remember why you love climbing.
(And if you want a sideways path to know a little bit about me, and what climbing was when I started, and why it is I still think of myself as an outsider even though it isn't true anymore, read Dave's book.)
Kenneth
PS As a bonus, it's published by friend of Crag X RM Books [FB @rmbooks INSTA @rm_books]
I've now had over twenty hours of meetings with provincial, national and international associations of climbing gym operators to discuss the range of options available to climbing gyms looking to reopen. Senior staff meetings on top of that to figure out what works with Crag X and what will serve the needs of our staff and climbers.
We'll be letting you know what procedures we will be rolling out. Lots will be changing as information changes, but know we will take the approach to risk management we have always taken:
make climbers aware of risk
give information and techinques to mitigate risk
put procedures in place at Crag X to help with that mitigation
trust climbers to make judgements about accepting risk that keep themselves and the community safe.
Looking forward to getting back to being Crag X again.
Thanks again to the vast majority of our members who by continuing their memberships are providing Crag X with the resources needed to continue to pay our full time staff and keep essential bills paid while we anticipate reopening.
We are starting to look at how we do things at Crag X to open up in a way that minimizes risk.
Luckily, climbers are already skilled at evaluating risk, informing themselves on how to mitigate that risk, and making good choices on how to practice their sport knowing that risk can only be minimized and never eliminated. Covid-19 risk is a new and serious factor, but like all risk it can be approached in the same way.
Climbing Escalade Canada, the Climbing Wall Association and a ad-hoc group of BC gyms have all met by online to discuss methods for restarting climbing at climbing gyms. Kenneth is a member of all these organizations and is participating in those discussions.
More importantly, Kenneth, Drew, Silva, Harrison and Emily have been having conversations about what things are going to look like at Crag X. Being on the island, we are operating in a Covid environment unlike the experience of Vancouver gyms or Toronto gyms.
Keep your eyes out for more from us as we start to talk about aspects of our plans as we gear up for the Happy Day.
Fingers crossed.
Last UPDATE of this post on APRIL 6
Click here for the latest news.
We are preparing to run billing on April 10th for everyone and want people to indicate their choice about how you would like us to proceed.
Starting March 30, sixteen of the Crag X employees will be collecting the CERB and four are being kept on and paid full wages by Crag X. Our ability to do this is thanks to all of you who have chosen to support us.
The reality is that we can not be closed without income for very long. We are hoping that members allow us to bill EFT on April 10. This money will be credited in full to you when we reopen. You will not be paying for time where we are closed, you will only be paying for climbing when we are open, just in advance. It is a kind of micro-loan to Crag X from you to us, through your EFT.
We are asking for members to either continue with full EFT or 50% EFT. You can make the choice here.
We will pay you back as per this chart:
Some members have asked us for a way to support the climbing community even further. For those who ask, we can give your credit to someone else. This is a way for people with secure income to support those that have not had their income recover.
Please head to the cragx.ca/membership page and make your selection before April 10, 2020. You will be able to change your mind at any time.
Let me know if you have any further questions about this, please email cronin@crax.ca
Thanks for your support,
Kenneth and Niko
Looking for some climbing training vids and such? The CX Crew are putting stuff up on Facebook and Instagram. Want to see the Instagram stuff without having an Instagram account? Right here.
We have figured out how to try and get through this since we won’t be open March 30. See our Membership change form for the details.
BELOW HERE LAST UPDATE MARCH 17
We are closing Crag X for two weeks to help break the spread of COVID-19 and help reduce the chance of our health system being overwhelmed.
Information from South Korea indicates that asymptomatic people, particularly those under 40, contribute greatly to the spread of COVID-19. This spread was unknowing. We hope that putting a pause on climbing at Crag X while we reorganize for operations with social- distance-climbing will allow us to make good use of this knowledge.
All Beginner Lessons and Lead Courses will be rescheduled free of charge. Groups will be rescheduled without charge also. Rise and Climb folks will get extra days. Memberships will be extended by the amount of time we are closed.
We will not cut the hours of any staff during the two-week closure and will continue to pay full wages. We are making no changes to our policy on freezes of membership, they can be frozen at your discretion. Our exception is to waive the freeze fee for those who have lost income due to COVID. We are also continuing to pay our cleaning company, GreenWheelCleaners as if they were still coming in cleaning.
While we are closed, we are sending all staff home with pay. The folks that can work from home will do that.
We will also be developing some procedures and methods to allow us to reopen in a manner that is consistent with the goals of Public Health and good citizenship. If things are significantly different between now and then, we will make different plans. We are hoping for the best.
In a strange irony, April 1st is the 25th anniversary of us taking possession of our part of the warehouse at 341 John Street where we built the first Crag X. We started construction April 1 working towards our eventual opening in July 1995. We are still a one location gym with the same owners; we’ve just worked our way downtown. Victoria has been good to us over the last 25 years, we believe this closing is us being good back.
Finally, we ask that you do your piece for social distancing in your life outside of Crag X too. This will work if we all do our part.
Be kind and take care of each other.
Kenneth and NIko
For sure. We will have someone at the gym on Wednesday March 18 from 4-6pm to let you get stuff from your lockers.
Here is a link to the archived email.
Yes, we will be adding time to all memberships, including EFT, Prepaid, and Beginner Lesson 14 day memberships.
Yes, our normal rules about freezes apply. If your wages have not been effected by COVID-19, consider continuing your membership. If you are losing wages because of COVID19, email cronin@cragx.ca and we will freeze you without charge.
We will be rescheduling all beginner lessons and lead lessons. Watch you email in the next day or so for details on how this will work.
We will make up the classes once we are open. Watch your email. Sean and Laura might have a little something for you…
We have committed to this closure and took it as a very serious decision and consulted widely with people we trust. If you have information you think we may not have considered, please email cronin@cragx.ca
We don’t think that a small-scale start up of climbing with proper precautions in place is in fact risky. We also feel that we will have much better information before March 30 and we will have time to figure out the best way to have you all climbing as soon as we can. Things could also be very different and none of this will happen. We will be following the advice of the Health Canada and HealthBC
We think that it is important that society acts together to minimize harm to vulnerable people and to ease the effect on our shared resources. Second, we need time to figure out how to have climbing happen safely, and it is hard to change a tire when you are still riding the bike.
We think so. Canada has said that it will be rolling out EI changes to support workers and British Columbia is saying they will be taking action to help business. We also hope that our members stick with us and keep their membership active while we are closed.
Here is an email we sent out March 13, 2020.
COVID-19
Hi Crag X people!
Climbers are always managing risk and taking steps to mitigate that risk. Corona virus is another risk for us to carefully consider and manage.
Some things you can do to manage virus risk:
Wash your hands more frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
Cover your coughs and sneezes! If you used a tissue, throw it away immediately, if not wash your hands.
Greet your friends with something other than hugs or handshakes.
If you feel sick, stay home!
As you know, our day to day job is watching out for risk and encouraging climbers in best practices to manage that risk.
What we are doing:
Extra cleaning during the day.
Wiping down non-climbing surfaces with cleaning spray.
Asking staff and climbers to stay home if they are experiencing symptoms of Corona Virus.
Putting up extra signage to encourage best practices during this outbreak.
A note on membership holds.
We are a membership and drop in based small company. While we won’t be making any changes to our rules about freezes, we would ask you to consider our staff when making a decision to freeze a membership. We will continue to support our staff economically to the degree possible should there be a downturn in business. If you have been asked to work from home (or are self quarantined) and are fortunate enough to hold employment where you keep your wages, consider keeping your membership active even in you are not going to keep your regular climbing schedule. We appreciate your consideration also in the event that we are ordered to shut our doors by Public Health.
If you have lost your wages because of COVID-19 then let us know and we will freeze you without charge or make other arrangements.
Be kind to each other and do the things we need to do to get through this as a community, city and country.
Thanks,
Kenneth and Nikolai and the rest of the Crag X crew.
A quick note on harness age and why we can’t let someone use an old harness in the gym.
Manufacturers set a lifespan for their products and no climbing company (to my knowledge) has a harness recommendation of longer than ten years. So: a harness older than ten years is a harness that the manufacturer has declared unfit for climbing. While people are of course free to do whatever they want outside the gym, inside Crag X things are a little different.
Our rule is pretty simple: Climbing equipment must be used according to manufacturers directions.
For harnesses this means only climbing rated harnesses of the correct age and condition can be used. While a harness might in fact be safe, there is no way for us to know, so we follow the recommendations of the people that made the harness.
There are a wide range of harnesses under $60 and most of them are way more comfortable than harnesses of ten years ago.
Are gear companies shortening their recommended life spans just to sell more harnesses? Maybe. Does buying a new harness every ten years contribute to waste? Yep. Can you continue to use your old harness outside for years and suffer no ill-efects? Totally possible.
As a business with a responsibility to both the climber with the old harness and the people below them who might be landed on if the harness breaks, we really have no choice. The old harness can’t be used.
So, get yourself one of those comfy new $55 harnesses and hangdog in the gym with the rest of us.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. In climbing there is more than one way to do everything. Here’s why we picked the methods we use at Crag X.
This is a standard knot. Easy for us to inspect at a distance. Easy to teach. If you know the bowline or the Yosemite Tuck, then you certainly know the Figure 8. Every climber knows it. (Don’t bother telling anybody this, but very often people tie the fancy knot wrong – giving us bowlines with their tail to the wrong side of the loop and Yosemite Tucks that were actually partial undoing of the knot. It’s just harder to mess up a figure-of-eight.)
The keeper knot doesn’t do anything safety-wise for the climber. Modern practice in the climbing world is to teach two-fists of tail. So that’s what we do. Tie a keeper if you like, we just don’t teach it anymore.
We get safety from standardization. It’s easier to notice to one incorrectly-tied knot against a sea of many correctly-tied knots. The difference stands out. Feel free to use any knot or tuck you like outside of Crag X, just in here it needs to be the standard figure eight follow through. (shhh about people tying them wrong)
It’s a perfectly good belay device with an assisted braking feature that allows climbing to be safe and social and fun. The Gri-Gri doesn’t have to lead to lazy belaying. We know that. The Gri-Gri also widens the weight differnce range. It adds a large measure of safety. It’s not perect, but nothing is.
We don’t have a problem with any of these devices. We know the GriGri isn’t perfect. We chose to standardize on the GriGri. You can only back one horse. The GriGri patent expired this year, so expect a flood of new devices. We keep an open mind.
We choose to rent and instruct with harnesses that have the old-school double back buckles. Speed buckles take care of themselves, but we have an obligation to teach the double-back. Looking for leg buckles, and putting it on is good practice too. Think how easy a nice modern one-buckle harness will feel once you know the old way.
Why do we care about updating climbers techniques for belaying or tieing in? Why change something safe that has served climbers well?
Why are we such nit-pickers?
Often, it’s not a question of replacing a dangerous technique with a safe one. Mostly, it’s replacing a 90 percent good technique with a 95 percent one.
Accidents in climbing are rare. That’s because in the redundant systems used by climbers, more than one mistake has to happen at once. Lowering off the end of a rope on rappel requires two errors - the climber has to forget to close the system, and the rope has to be too short for the rappel.
A climber can climb for their whole career, never knotting the end of the rope but each time making sure the rope is long enough. At age 75 they can look back at an accident free career. Does an accident free record make Sally a safe climber? Is Sally an unsafe climber because she never closed the system? Those are hard to answer questions.
Here’s an easier one to answer: Would Sally reduce the chance of accident by making sure the rope is the right length AND closing the system?
Low percentage accidents are a tough one - two climbers can have accident free careers even though one was untrained and careless and one was highly trained and careful. One (or two) climbing careers just isn’t enough data to make a judgement on technique.
We’ve been teaching climbing for 29 years and keeping up with the latest in methods for teaching and climbing safely the whole time.
We’ve also been around long enough to see one in a hundred accidents happen and even a few one in 10,000 accidents. Our experience isn’t enough on its own. We belong to professional organizations and follow the advice of industry and professionals world wide, and we also contribute to the development of standards for safety. Then we pass that information on to our staff and then to you.
When one of our young staff offers advice on how to do something, remember that it isn’t a case of safe vs unsafe or pitting their limited personal experience against yours. Instead our advice comes from the collective experience of a worldwide effort of climbing professionals and industry to make climbing safer.
Unlikely things happen to less than 1 percent of the community, but the climber involved gets 100 percent of the consequences.
Be a part of a community where good practice is the norm, where climbers look out for each other, and give (and take!) advice in a positive spirit.
In addition to sponsoring two great people to keep them doing what they’re doing, we also offer full Athletic Memberships to members of the British Columbia and National climbing team members (13+)
Memberships last as long as the climber is listed as a member of the Provincial or National Team. Thanks to previous years Athletic Membership recipients.
If you are a member of the BC or National team and did not get an invitation email, please contact cronin@cragx.ca to set up your Athletic Membership.
More announcements are expected after the Nationals in March.
The announcement from CEC for the Youth National Squad:
“Feb.24, 2019: YOUTH NATIONAL SQUAD - The CEC is excited to announce the following athletes have been selected to the Youth National Squad. These athletes are invited to the Youth National Team Selection Camp (details coming soon) for the opportunity to be selected to the Youth World Championships Squad.
Andrew Wilson, High Performance Director
Climbing Escalade Canada
cec-hpd@climbingcanada.ca
B Male
Dylan Le QC
Oscar Baudrand. BC
TJ Foley. AB
Connor Jones. BC
Ian Tan. ON
Joseph Gray. ON
B Female
Sydney Park. ON
Tula Sherkat. BC
Mateja Vukojevic. ON
Lea Latour. QC
Emi Takashiba. BC
Sloane Smith. ON
A Male
Ben Newman. BC
Brennan Doyle. BC
Guy McNamee. BC
Victor Baudrand. BC
Kindar McNamee. BC
Ethan Hoffman. BC
A Female
Indiana Chapman. ON
Paige Boklaschuk. AB
Riley Galloway. ON
Sonya Coliander BC
Aspen Hendry. QC
Anne Sophie Nguyen. QC
Junior Male
Sean Faulkner BC
Manh Ellis. ON
Zach Richardson. ON
Dylan Bokenfohr. ON
David Trudeau. QC
Finn Battersby. BC
Junior Female
Bea Evans. ON
Bronwen Karnis. ON
Yinki Ying. ON
Sophie Buitendyk. BC
Madison Fischer. ON
Lisa Van de Panne. AB
Canadian Open athletes:
Sean Mccoll
Alanna Yip
Alison Vest
Babette Roy
Rebecca Frangos
Jason Holowach
Lucas Uchida
Sebastian Lazure
”
