THE Fiordland Indoor Climbing Wall was used for its first competition on Saturday with 25 Year 7-12 pupils from Fiordland College and one Year 10 pupil from Northern Southland College competing.
New Zealand outdoor rock climbing instructor Vaughn Filmer said the event was supposed to have been round two of the Southland Secondary School Rock Climbing Championships.
As round one did not go ahead, due to the lack of entries resulting from a shift to term 4 and Covid-19 interruptions, members of the Fiordland Indoor Climbing Wall still decided to host round two, he said.
“But with no other schools entering, it became the Fiordland College Rock Climbing Championships.”
To prepare for the competition, the entire wall was stripped of every hold and all the holds were washed with new routes put up.
“This took a team of six volunteers about 30 hours,” he said
Teams rotated around eight ropes with an intermediate and advanced climb on each.
Climbers were in groups of four and had 20 minutes per group to attempt the two routes on each rope.
Points were awarded for how high climbers reached on each route.
Most of the pupils had competed in this type of competition previously in Invercargill, he said.
