At Alter Rock it does not matter if you are a beginner, intermediate or an old hand... there is something for everyone. To get you going, take a beginners indoor climbing course to allow you to climb at any time. If you can already climb safely then standard entry costs £7.50 any time for as long as you like or for £4.00 you can climb for an hour when entering between 12 – 2pm on weekdays.

Birthday Parties

Almost in the heart of Derby a birthday party at Alter Rock includes an hour's climbing session, all of the children will get the chance to climb on the roped walls putting their trust in their friends (and our instructors) to belay them and keep them safe. During the birthday party everyone will also get to abseil where they will be descended from on high from the eves of the old church and finally everyone will get to try out the bouldering wall pitting their strength against the climbing wall.

Bouldering

Bouldering is a type of climbing that is done without the use of ropes which are replaced by a large crash mat at the base of the wall. Bouldering walls are typically much lower than roped walls, the bouldering at Alter Rock is 4m high.

Bouldering problems can range in difficulty from climbs not much harder than a ladder to climbs using finger tip sized hand and foot holds. At Alter Rock we try to cater for as wide a range of people as possible and the holds are changed every few weeks.

Top Rope Climbing

Roped climbing requires people to work in pairs, one person climbs whilst the other stays on the ground controlling the rope using a belay system. Just over half of the routes at Alter Rock have a top rope in place at any one time and as with the bouldering wall, routes range from big chunky positive holds that are as easy to climb as a ladder to almost professional grades.

Lead Climbing

As with top roping, lead climbing involves pairs climbing on a rope. The key difference is that the rope is clipped into insitu-runners or quickdraws by the climber as they progress up the wall. The belay system used in lead climbing is similar to climbing on a top rope although the technique is modified to allow rope to feed both ways.

Lead climbing when not done properly vastly increases the risk of a climber falling to the ground and therefore should not be done by a beginner. It is recommended that people should not begin to learn to lead climb until they have sufficient experience and skill gained from top rope climbing.