Rejuvenate The Towns Climbing Wall in Southport

Background
There has been a Climbing Room at the YMCA on Hoghton Street since 1992 and its still very much a hidden gem in our wonderful town. We currently have Climbing Sessions for Adults, Children and Families running through the week. The goal of this crowdfunder is to bring a breathe of fresh air back to our hidden gem and get as many people climbing as we can!

Climbing is a sport that everyone should try. It is perfect for getting fit and is also a fantastic way to meet new people, build confidence and improve mental health. At the Southport YMCA we work with lots of different communities within Southport and through this we are able to work closely with people from all different backgrounds.

Project Plans
With the money raised we will be able to purchase a host of different holds. Thus being able to offer a bigger selection of graded routes for the room, starting lower, moving up the grades to really bring a new dimension of climbing to our room. Also make our lead over hang more accessible for the climbers in our groups. Along with new holds, we will be able to purchase extra ropes to increase the amount of climbs available to our climbers.
New Harness and Equipment - Although we have enough harnesses currently, we are looking at bringing more fresh ones in to help with expand our sessions. Extra carabiners and Belay devices are also needed to help with our education programmes to help get more and more people climbing.
New Shoes- Some of our regular climbers have their own shoes and this really helps in climbing! With the funds we want to bring in a shoe hire option. Allowing new climbers the option to hire and improve their climbing without the upfront cost of purchasing shoes.

Education
A major part of climbing at the our centre is belaying. In our sessions we have fully qualified instructors. We also teach the adults in the sessions how to belay but also some of the older children in their sessions too. Belaying is such a fantastic skill to learn as it is something that will stay with you. Tying knots is integral to safe climbing and this is something that we teach during our sessions. We want to be able to offer courses and sight specific belaying certificates. The end the goal here would be to have our climbers fully competent in belaying - this means you can then come into the climbing room whenever we don't have a session on and climb with your friends without instruction!