Clip 'n Climb

Clip 'n Climb

Kids rock climbing just became even more accessible, loads of fun and hands-off for parents!  Clip ‘n Climb is the perfect activity to burn off energy, take risks, climb new heights and use both sides of your brain. 

When:  School holidays Mon – Thurs 9am-9pm, Fri – Sun 9am-10pm.  Click here for other times.

Cost:  4 year and under $12.50, 5 years and older $18.50

Where:  144 Murphy Street, RICHMOND

Review

For this particular outing my brief to the kids before we arrived was short: “we’re going rock climbing” was all I told them.  So you can imaging when we walked through the door of Clip ‘n’ Climb the kids took one look at the climbing space and were busting to get into their harnesses.  I have a confession – they have never been to a professional rock climbing centre, mostly because Charlie has been too young (usually you have to be 8+) and the ones that do cater to younger kids require a car, GPS and a packed lunch to get to (please correct me if I am wrong).  We have however done rock climbing at a fair and as part of other activities (see Kids In Motion) so they did have some appreciation of what was going to be involved.

Before entering the climbing arena for the safety briefing we were harnessed up.  Josh, one of the supervisors, talked us through (and then demonstrated) how to use the carabiners and the auto-belay system.  He got us going by attaching the kids carabiners (the clips) the first couple of times and was on hand to give suggestions and encouragement throughout our hour of climbing.  All up each session is an hour and 15 minutes – this includes safety briefing and climbing time.

As you can see from the photographs the space is colourful and each climb is unique with different colours, textures, themes and materials – making it an exciting space to explore.  Some climbs are easier for little legs and some climbs are harder for longer legs – it’s a great mix of challenges so that both adults and kids can have as much fun as each other.  There is no age limit – just a minimum of 10kg.

There are 33 climbing challenges plus the two extra “amp it up” experiences – the Leap of Faith and Vertical Drop Slide (which are an extra charge).  And yes, I took a Leap of Faith (and once was enough!)

You don’t need to bring any special gear to participate – the harness is supplied and you wear your own sneakers and clothes that are easy to move in.

The auto-belay system means that parents don’t need to assist – you can enjoy the on site cafe or  join in on the fun too.  The kids quickly get the knack of the clip system – although smaller children (like Charlie 5) might need a little help with managing the carabiners as you do need to have a bit of size and strength in your fingers to manipulate the clip (although he did manage on his own most of the time).   And to get down from the top of a climb you merely need to let go and allow the auto-belay to gently lower you back to the ground, it’s a very strange sensation to begin with – but then quickly becomes half the fun of the climb.

The climbing arena has a limit of 35 climbers per session – given there are 35 ‘experiences’ in the space this means that it isn’t overly crowded and the wait time is really only limited by how the kids choose to use the space.

Clip ‘n Climb is a concept that is brand new to Australia – and Melbourne is of course a natural choice to launch such a fun concept.  We love that it’s located just near the corner of Bridge Rd and Burnley St – making it easy to access.

Thanks Clip ‘n Climb for inviting us to check out your amazing facility!