HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS RELATED QUESTIONS
HEALTH RISKS. Our staff may ask you to leave the gym if they consider your health status to be a risk to others. If you postpone your reservation because of your health condition or because of isolation, there will be no cancellation fee.
WHY CAN’T I USE LOOSE CHALK? Our understanding of how COVID-19 spreads is constantly evolving, but airborne transmission is believed to be the primary way the virus is spread. By eliminating loose chalk, we are trying to limit airborne dust. Chalk socks can be used, but not preferred. We recommend using Liquid chalk as it contains alcohol and limits dust. Liquid chalk will be available for purchase.
IS LIQUID CHALK A GOOD DISINFECTANT OR VIRICIDE?
We can only quote what CDC or other health authorities recommend.
CDC recommends 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol as the minimal active ingredients when it comes to hand sanitizers so we infer its the same with liquid chalk.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/hand-hygiene.html
Our own understanding is that liquid chalk reduces particulate in the air which makes breathing easier for everyone and reduces the chance of viruses themselves travelling on particulate.
HOW DO YOU CLEAN? DO YOU CLEAN THE CLIMBING WALLS TOO?
Depending on the surface we use different chemicals ranging from bleach to hydrogen peroxide to alcohol.
On non-climbing, high touch surfaces like desks, faucets, handles, railings, etc we use virucides continually on both and ad-hoc and scheduled basis. Staff are continually wiping down surfaces and are scheduled to do a thorough wipe down every 2 hours between time slots.
Some surfaces (eg ropes or plastics) can be damaged by certain chemicals so we follow manufacturers instructions. (Note to the reader: Please make sure to check with the manufacturer too when cleaning your own harnesses, ropes etc!)
In some cases we cannot rely on cleaning solutions and need to rely on handwashing or liquid chalk. For example, we can not clean ropes or climbing holds or climbing walls as doing so will not be feasible. Climbing gyms generally cannot clean climbing holds or walls because the holds would be touched between cleanings and it would be prohibitive to climb up each route each time. (Some routes are well over 40 feet high) Fogging takes 24 to 72 hours to settle and is not appropriate for daily cleanings as we are concerned about members inhaling the gas.
Summary: We rely on a combination of measures in addition to cleaning: screening of participants, hand washing, hand sanitizers, capacity restrictions, social distancing, no loose chalk and drawing in lots of fresh, clean air.
ARE RENTALS AVAILABLE?
Rentals are available, but we strongly encourage you to bring your own gear. Liquid chalk will also be available for rent or purchase. (we will have bins to quarantine it for 3 days)
Chalk rental is suspended for the duration of the pandemic.
TELL ME ABOUT VENTILATION.
The current data about Covid-19 transmission shows no clear evidence to date of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with HVAC (aka Central Air) systems in hospitals or health care facilities, although there is a mechanistic possibility of this occurring.
Practical recommendations for non-hospital public settings include, but are not limited to, increasing air supply and exhaust ventilation for extended operation times, supply as much outside air as reasonably possible and avoid air turbulence.
Moreover, since air supply fresh air is key we are doing the following:
Maximize fresh air intake on our HVAC systems. These provide 20-25% fresh air. By keeping our HVAC fans (not rotating ceiling fans!) on at all times we are replacing the air in the entire facility consistently.
Our systems are designed to handle the high ceilings (24 to 49 feet) and thus allow a huge volume of fresh air intake
We are strongly avoiding turbulence of indoor air so that any droplets are most likely to settle on the ground without being spread into an aerosol. This means NO use of ceiling fans, or anything else that creates unnecessary turbulence of air.
The front and garage doors being open may provide a little extra amount of fresh air flow and may be opened at times if they do not create turbulence but in general, we are relying on mechanical methods of forcing in a consistent, higher volume of fresh air.
We are fortunate that we have high ceiling height, large cubic volume of spaces and multiple HVAC (central air) units in each building to allow us to mechanically and consistently provide fresh air.
