The newly formed Northland Climbing Club has a bold vision for the future of climbing in the region. Realising their first goal of being able to operate the McKay Stadium Climbing Wall last month with an open night that saw around 60 people turn up. Keen climbers came along to learn how to join the club and had a go on the wall.

Northland Climbing Club Chair Emma Campbell who was there for the open night was overwhelmed by the response from the community. “We are grateful to Sport Northland for working with Northland Climbing to help make this happen” said Campbell.

Project Co-ordinator at Sport Northlands McKay Stadium Hayley Overton said, “it is a fabulous asset we have here and after four years of no use it is great to have the wall operating again.”

Northland Climbing Club was formed to take over the operation of climbing wall at McKay Stadium and has been working with Sport Northland to get the wall operational. The wall ceased operating in 2014 when Northtec’s Sport and Recreation department were no longer able to staff its operation. Prior to Northtec the wall, which was constructed in the late 1990s, was operated by Sport Northland under its Northland Outdoors umbrella. Along with opening the climbing wall to the public and groups Northland Outdoors also offered abseiling, caving and team building activities.

One of the biggest hurdles for Northland Outdoors was being able to retain appropriately qualified staff, this is where an opportunity presented with Northtec taking ownership of the wall and training students to operate it. When Northtec handed ownership back to Sport Northland in 2019, Overton began looking for a way to get it open.  Overton said “after several failed attempts to put systems and staff in place to get the wall operational again it was obvious that a new direction was needed”. She went on to say “after engaging with our very passionate climbing community here in Northland we have managed to work together and found a way forward”.

The sport of climbing in growing, it is now offered as part of the AIMS Games, a five-day national sports tournament held for 11-13 year olds; within schools and was recently included as part of the Tokyo Olympic Games. As well as offering opportunities for sport, climbing is a great recreational activity for a wide range of ages and demographics. It teaches a range of physical and mental skills that provide a mix of health benefits.

Northland Climbing Club will initially open for club members only, this is to allow time for the club to build their capability. In the future the club would like to expand to open for groups and offer a range of opportunities for climbing right around Northland.

For Northland Climbing Club enquires email emma_campbell@xtra.co.nz