Coronavirus Update - 29/3/2020

As we all stay home and do our bit to help in these challenging times, we wanted to update you about what action we have already taken and what plans we have here at Volume 1.

Firstly, it has been amazing to see how proactive the climbing industry has been during this situation; it seemed like we were always one step ahead of the government!

As soon as it was announced on 16 March to avoid unnecessary social contact, climbing walls around the country started closing or putting in place heavy restrictions. We were not told to do this, it came through a collective social responsibility to do what we can to help with social distancing. Many other leisure facilities continued to remain open including gyms and swimming pools but we were confident that it was the right thing to do to protect our staff and customers.

By the time the government announced a compulsory closure of leisure facilities on 20 March we were already well into our closure and working out how we would get through this period.

During this time, some climbers decided to venture outside to go climbing. This caused some controversy in the climbing community with many thinking that this is not right, especially as any injuries sustained would put additional strain on the health service. This led the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) to announce on 23 March that it was closing access to many UK crags and asked all climbers to stay away from outside climbing. That night the government also tightened up restrictions and placed us in lockdown, so once again the climbing community were one step ahead.

So why was the climbing industry ahead of the curve? We think this is mainly down to us being an actual community that has an emotional connection with our sport and each other. Many other leisure facilities have a very transactional relationship with their customers and don’t share the same passions and values. This has been truly highlighted to us by the way everyone has come together on social media and we have been overwhelmed by the amount of positive comments and support that we have received.

Here at Volume 1 we are doing everything we can to come back stronger than before and hope to be able to complete various refurbishment tasks before we open, as well as make sure we have lots of fun new routes for you. However, work has slowed significantly as we have told all of our staff to stay at home currently, to ensure we are doing everything we can as a business to help stop the spread of the virus.

Many people have also asked us how they can support us during this time, and being such a new business we are so grateful for these messages. For those that are in a position to help then we have set up a webpage with some special offers for our prepay climbs, and you can also purchase gift vouchers that can be redeemed anywhere in the centre once we are back open. These purchases will help us get through these very uncertain times. A massive thank you to everyone that has already purchased one of these.

Lastly, whilst we are limited in what we can do now, it doesn’t stop us planning for the future and we have already begun preparation for our grand Reopening Party – more details coming soon!