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Scouts sign-ups will be unavailable on scouts.org,uk from 11am to 12pm on Wednesday 17 June. Thank you for your patience

Scouts sign-ups will be unavailable on scouts.org,uk from 11am to 12pm on Wednesday 17 June. Thank you for your patience

Scouts sign-ups will be unavailable on scouts.org,uk from 11am to 12pm

Climb your way

Take part in a friendly climbing challenge focused on progression, teamwork and personal achievement on the wall.

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You’ll need

  • Scorecards
  • Route or challenge cards
  • Climbing harnesses
  • Climbing shoes
  • Chalk

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 

Planning and setting up the activity

  • Set up a simple scoring or challenge system. You could use the traditional climbing scoring systems, or adapt it to be based on personal achievement rather than difficulty alone. 

Running the activity  

  1. Begin with a safety briefing.  
  2. Warm up with easy climbs or boulder problems. 
  3. Explain the challenge format: 
    • Explorers will attempt a range of climbs and collect points for completing different types of challenges. 
    • Points can be awarded for effort, technique, problem-solving and progression — not just reaching the top. 
  1. Set a series of climbing challenges, for example: 
    • Complete a route at your comfortable level 
    • Try a route one grade harder than usual 
    • Find two different ways to attempt the same problem 
    • Support another climber with positive coaching feedback 
    • Complete a climb without making any noise 
  1. Encourage participants to track their own progress and reflect on improvement rather than compare scores. 
  2. Keep the atmosphere positive and supportive, focusing on personal achievement. 
  3. Finish with a group reflection and optional informal “top effort” shout-outs. 

Reflection

Climbing challenges are about progress, not just performance. Talk about how people chose their routes and what helped them improve during the session. Did anyone surprise themselves with what they could do? How did encouragement from others affect confidence and performance? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Adventure

This activity has specific rules and systems to make sure it’s managed safely. Take a look at adventure activities for more guidance. 

Visits away from your meeting place

Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts. 

  • To make it easier, focus on more obvious observations like weather, wildlife and visible landscape features. 
  • To make it harder, add in specific challenges for each route, such as limited attempts, completing a move in a certain way, or having silent feet on the way up.  

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.