Two climbers in helmets working their way up a red sandstone cliff

Gifts For Outdoor Instructors: None Of Their Kit Is Theirs

Here is something people miss about outdoor instructors. They spend all day surrounded by thousands of pounds of rope, harnesses, helmets and hardware, and almost none of it belongs to them.

It is the centre's. It gets logged, inspected, signed out and signed back in. They look after it better than their own car and then they hand it back at the end of the shift.

So when you buy an instructor a bit of gear, you are usually buying them a duplicate of something they already use for free. Buy them something that is theirs instead.

What an instructor actually lacks

Not equipment. Time, mostly, and dry socks. But in gift terms: something personal, something that fits only them, and something that is not on an inspection log.

That is the gap. Everything they touch at work is standard issue, sized to whoever turns up, and shared. A thing cut to their measurements is the opposite of their whole working life.

Whose kit is it, reallyThe centre'sRopes and hardwareHarnesses and helmetsOn an inspection logHanded back at 5pmTheirsBelt cut to their waistBracelet to their wristTheir own keysGoes home with them

Six gifts for outdoor instructors

Rope belt, £28 or £33. Cut to their exact waist, 22 to 50 inches, which makes it the most personal thing on this list. Goes on over work trousers every single day. Recycled climbing rope belts.

Cup cosy and can cooler, £30. The one instructors nod at. Hot drink at a wet lunch stop, cold one at the end of a long day.

Rope bracelet, £10. Made to their wrist. Low profile enough to wear on shift. Rope bracelets.

Carabiner keychain, £15. Not for work. For the minibus keys, the store keys, and the set of keys to a shed somewhere.

Keychains, £3 to £4. Cheap and good. See the range.

Gift card, from £10. When you know they are particular. Forma gift card.

The one that beats all of them

If their centre has retired rope sitting in a store cupboard, and most of them do, get a length of it to me and I will make them a belt out of the rope they have taught on.

That one is not a gift you can buy. It is a gift you have to organise, and it is the reason I keep doing this job. Here is how to send me the rope.

Something that is actually theirs

Cut to size by hand in Aberdeen. Order the made-to-measure stuff early.

Shop gifts for climbers

Stay classy and remember,
Make Waste Useful.

George

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