We have four practices a week, though you can attend as many or as few as you would like. At the beginning of the semester we have more beginner-oriented practices to help people get comfortable with the wall as well as to teach some basic climbing technique. As the semester progresses, we start to have more focused practices — mostly alternating between endurance, strength, power-endurance, power, and technique (we also have many fun practices spread around where we play climbing games). All of these practices are tunable to your climbing ability so that both beginners and advanced climbers can benefit!
We send out a weekly email to the climbing team list-serv (subscribe here!) which describes the workouts we will be doing at practice that week so that you can decide which practices you would like to go to. Some examples of climbing workouts include: “ARCing” — climbing up and down a route for 15-30 minutes, “Around the World” — climbing a route on every rope in the gym, and “Projecting” — everyone’s favorite kind of practice which involves trying to climb new routes that are hard for you.
The only pre-requisite for attending practice is that you are belay certified. If you do not know how to belay or need to take the OA Wall belay test at Open Hours, please visit the OA climbing wall website for information on belay classes and the Open Hours schedule.
Practice Schedule (see OA website for map of where the wall is)
Monday: 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Tuesday: 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Thursday: 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Saturday: 9:30am – 11:30am
*Practice times can change, so please subscribe to the list-serv for the most up-to-date schedule