The Wall on Ropes Courses
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tro ...@cox.net (trobin)
How tall is the "Wall" on most ropes courses. What is the correct way to do the exercise?
tro ...@cox.net (trobin)
I apologize for the last couple of questions that I asked. I realize that most of you are experienced climbers and some of you may be ropes course instructors, but I am attempting to find answers to a few questions and I can think of no group better to ask than this forum.
Unfortunatly, I asked the most important question in an other thread but here goes. During the wall exercise is there a safe way to do it for a group comprised of 40 plus year-old overweight participants? Do you use the exercise if you know it will involve standing on the shoulders and heads of the participants? Is there a safe way to instruct the participants to avoid injury? Is the wall an exercise for young participants? Can the exercise be done safely with with 200lbs plus men or short heavy individuals? Thanks again, I could use your opinions.
n42 ...@aol.com (N42461)
The Wall...you mean this kinda thing?
http://www.uai-ropes.com/images/Wall%201.JPG Looks like an exercise in trust and self realization and all that.
I could think of a few better. There are Ropes Courses forums.
Google revealed a few.
http://carolinanavy.com/fleet2/f2/zoutdoors/RopesCourseshall/shakespe... These people probably would answer your question with tact and candor.
We are more likely to suggest stapling a few twinkies to the top of the wall.
nathan sweet
tro ...@cox.net (trobin)
Thanks for the help.
"Scott Grimes" sgri...@inet.net
"trobin" wrote Minimally 12 feet but, if you staple Twinkies to the top you should probably increase the height 2 feet more There is no correct way. Even if the young college coeds want to start removing their clothing to hang over the top to help others over is fine by me.
SMG
Steve Axthelm stev...@pobox.com
Hi Trobin, This is a bit late, but I've been away from rec.climbing for a while.
I've built and run many courses over the years, haven't done much of that lately, so my info is dated and some may be suspect because of that, but here goes anyway...
In article <fd6221b1.0203101651.2368e...@posting.google.com>, Project Adventure I believe is still the leader in providing equipment.
They also have many publications and it might be worth a trip to thier website if you haven't yet: <http://www.pa.org/> In addition, the AEE (***ociation for Experiential Education) has some publications that might be of interest: <http://www.aee.org/publications/books/aeebooks.html> I've certainly run groups like that safely through the exercise, many times. IMHO though, the wall is one of the most dangerous activities on most courses. It requires vigilance from the supervisors/instructors at all times and because the activity is not in direct control of the instructors, it needs to be run pretty tightly.
I'll give you some anecdotal info (look to PA and the AEE for more comprehensive data).
We screened for conditions/previous injuries pretty rigorously when considering someones participation on the wall. Often times we would grant an "over the wall already" status to someone who was suspect.
These "over the wall" people could help with planning, and depending on our ***esment, sometimes spotting and ***isting others over.
A couple of rules we had that were the result of our experience:
- No one who had a previous shoulder dislocation goes over.
- Participants must keep their head above their *** at all times (people seem to go where their head is pointing)
- We didn't allow the use of "props" (clothing "ropes" etc.), but if you do allow such devices, don't let people wind or wrap the ropes/belts/etc. around wrists or any other body parts.
As always, take my (usenet) advice with a big shaker of salt as YMMV.
--
-Steve
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