Rock climbing certification in South Africa: an explorative descriptive study

Abstract

Outdoor adventure activities have shown a tremendous growth over the past few years. The risk related to outdoor adventure activities is inevitable and should therefore be managed properly. Rock climbing is considered to be a high-risk sporting activity and statistics indicate that the sport is related to severe injuries and even death. Due to the increase in adventure activities, tourists are in need of trained and qualified guides to present risk-related adventure activities. Simultaneously, it can be argued that recreational rock climbers are in need of obtaining a form of training to be safe while climbing. There are two rock climbing training opportunities available in South Africa: the MDT certification and SAQA qualification. Due to limited research conducted regarding rock climbing training, the first objective of the study utilised the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a theoretical framework to analyse the perceptions of rock climbers over the certification process. Interviews were conducted with a total of 28 rock climbers in SA from whom five participants are SAQA qualified, 11 participants are MDT certified and 12 participants with no climbing training. The Theory of Planned behaviour was successfully employed as attitudes, perceived social pressures and control over certification were investigated. Results indicate that participants are in favour of rock climbing training but only for guiding purposes. All participants were opposed to training for recreational rock climbers and mentioned that the barriers to obtaining certification are difficult to overcome. However, results also show that the perceptions of certification might be misplaced as participants have the wrong information. Many participants are of the perception that the MDT certification would allow legal guiding, which is not the case. Only the SAQA qualification can allow a person to guide legally in SA. It was indicated that social pressure does not motivate rock climbers to obtain a certification as the rock climbing community are of meaning that only guides should obtain a qualification. Consequently, rock climbers in SA are reluctant to obtain training for recreational purposes.

Furthermore, the paper focused on the perceptions of SAQA qualified rock climbers regarding the qualification process. Due to the limited number of qualified rock climbing guides in SA, a total of five participants were interviewed. It was evident that there is friction caused by the differences in the SAQA qualification and MDT certification. Participants declared that the technical aspects of the MDT certification and the SAQA qualification are identical. However, it was confirmed that the SAQA qualification is the only training programme that will provide access to legal guiding in SA. Therefore, it became clear that the MDT certification has a different aim and focus on the training of recreational leadership and participation of rock climbers, which fulfils an important role in the rock climbing industry in SA. It was discovered that rock climbing training in SA is not adequately monitored or regulated to the desired potential. The establishment of a governing body could ultimately change the perception of rock climbing guiding in SA. Such a body could potentially ensure that a rock climbing guiding qualification could be viewed as a professional career path which is well managed.