drytoolinguk.com

High Sports - Redhill

February saw the High Sports climbing wall at Redhill make the decision to set aside a dedicated drytooling cave and section of wall. This is the first of its kind in the south, although High Sports, who have seven walls in total, are planning to extend this to others. DrytoolingUK were asked to provide staff training and route setting, and a good day was spent at the facility getting things prepared.
A staff training session took up part of the morning, and this looked at various techniques and methods of providing coaching and training to participants. All of the instructors were very keen and anyone using the wall for tooling will find the advice given to be of a very high standard.
The rest of the day was then spent route setting. A dedicated cave was established, with routes varying from easy through to testing, along with some hanging logs to give problems across the roof. Chains will be added later to give extra possibilities for technical moves. The wall immediately outside the cave was then stripped and re-set for tooling, and four rope-lines were rigged, giving five routes and scope for more in the future.
High Sports are making a great effort to get drytooling off the ground (so to speak!), in the south of England, so it would be good to see them being supported by local climbers as much as possible. They certainly offer the staff and facilities to make a tooling session enjoyable, either as a taster or for more serious training.

Logs are drilled for use in the drytooling cave

They are then hung by rope from double attachment points for safety.

The inside of the cave was set with a variety of routes - the lighting is better than in the photograph!

The bottom-rope wall was the stripped of holds and tooling routes set on it.

Once the finishing holds were placed, the routes were tried out and all is now ready to go.