Background
Indoor
climbing has come of age. A few years ago there was little choice
in places to climb indoors, but that has now changed, with new
centres springing up to cater for demand.
Guildford, in the heart of Surrey, has its own established National Class Dedicated Indoor Climbing Centre. Drawing on the best elements of other walls, Craggy Island is designed to offer the ultimate artificial climbing experience for all abilities.
Whether you climb at competition standard or have never even climbed a tree you are welcome at Craggy.
Craggy Island Guildford is built in a new high quality industrial building. Visitors are greeted by a bright reception area for registration, information, courses, equipment hire and climbing shop, which leads into our main arena containing our climbing.
An open-sided mezzanine overlooking the climbing is the Island Cafe where visitors can have a drink and snack, relax and watch others using the centre. We have parking in front of the building and there is extra overflow parking available.
There are a number of distinct areas to climb at Craggy. Before you start, you can warm up on the 20m traverse wall. There is a dual surface bouldering wall with freeform and flat panels incorporating a huge range of problems at all levels and crash matting throughout.
We have a novice and abseil area with 7m high slab routes - ideal for beginners. There is a freeform rock tower with some excellent climbing for all. We also have huge sections of intermediate climbing up to 10m using the latest innovations in climbing surfaces.
Then there is a massive freeform rock arch. . . dripping with challenging problems. There is a competition tower with overhangs up to 5m and giving routes up to 12m, with flat panels, quickdraws for leading and set with big holds for powering up and routes designed to challenge the best of the best.
Beginners If you are between 8 and 80 years old
and new to climbing, Craggy Island is perfect for you. We have taster courses
to let you try it out safely, beginner courses
to learn the ropes, private
instruction and everything you need
to make your transition from novice to expert.
Climbers For experienced climbers, Craggy has everything you need for a great visit. 89 top rope and lead lines, 100s of professionally set routes, self belays, bouldering, training areas, friendly and trained staff and most of all, a great vibe!
Registration for climbers Anyone climbing at Craggy either needs to be a registered member, be supervised by a member, or be on one of our courses. To become registered you have to be over 18 (children entrance details click here)
When you visit Craggy Island for the first time we will ask you to fill in a registration form. This will ask for your contact details and ask you to agree to our terms and conditions, the BMC participation statement and waiver.
We also ask if you can put on a climbing harness correctly, tie in with an appropriate knot and belay safely. We then carry out a brief assessment to see if we agree you can do this with a trained assessor. You can use your own equipment or we will supply what you need.
This assessment can be taken without notice, just turn up!
There are four levels an assessor can register you into Craggy Island with as follows;
1. Full registered member - this gives you full access to our
facilities plus you can supervise up to two novices as long as
they have signed Novice supervision forms or parental consent forms,
depending on their age. When supervising you must not leave the
ground. You cannot supervise someone while climbing yourself.
2. Full registered member but no supervision - this gives you full access to our facilities but you will not be able to supervise anyone else.
3. Registered member needing refresher and cannot climb unsupervised - this is a level set for those who we feel would benefit from being refreshed in their safety technique. Often, people who have not climbed for some time forget some of the basic safety aspects of the sport. We recommend that a refresher course will get them 'up to speed' with current recognised indoor climbing safety practices.
4. Registered member needing beginner course and cannot climb unsupervised - this is a level for those we feel need to enroll in a beginner course. We feel it is in everyone's interest that we maintain a high safety standard. A beginners course - either at Craggy Island or with any qualified instructor - is vital to give someone a good grounding in safety procedure, theory, practice and basic climbing technique.
Once registered you will receive your membership card and after paying your entrance fee are free to climb. For return visits your details will be stored on our membership system so all you have to do is turn up, pay and play!