We are looking to get a portable climbing wall at our school. Does anyone in Illinois have any suggestions? I tried a Yahoo search but came up empty. I know I have heard of other schools that do this. Thanks!

Is this for the school to purchase or rent?

If for renting call your local places that rent jumpies, blow up slides, etc. A couple of our places also rent climbing walls w/ 2 attendents on duty. Prices average here (NM) $700.00/4hrs (includes attendents.)

Are you talking about BUYING one?

Not portable, so this may not work. But our PTO funded a climbing wall in the gym of our elementary school. It was ordered from a school supply catalog that specilizes in PE and sports equipment. It's a kit of the various "rocks" that are mounted into the cinderblock wall. Our school maintenance staff installed them.

We did it in stages, allocating Box Top funds. I think we spent a total of $700-$800. It goes more wide than tall for safety reasons and has standard gymn mats underneath. So it's not high enough to need the safety harnesses.

I found a few websites for you and there's one on sale on EBay right now. (Current bid $3000)

http://www.americanrockclimbing.com/
http://climbing.com/classifieds/market/
http://www.sansara.homestead.com/We_Build.html
http://www.epusa.com/walls/
http://www.extremeengineering.com/main_frame.htm
http://www.eldowalls.com/

Keep us posted on what you decide to do. This is interesting.

If you are talking about RENTING, there should be quite a few choices as these are pretty popular. Just check with the companies that rent the big inflatables. Word of mouth should get you to a source. In our area (not Illinois) these would be listed under "Party Planning" in the yellow pages.

Here's one Internet hit that covers your part of the country (but a local source would probably be cheaper).
http://www.verticaledgeentertainment.com/

[ 09-24-2004, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

We bought the small round climbing wall for our school (K-4) They split 5th grade off this year. We wanted a taller one, but then it was "too" tall for kindergarten. Keep that in mind when looking. It's totally round like a space ship and only about 6 feet high. The kids love it. They can climb on all sides. It's a huge hit!

Sorry I didn't get back sooner. We are looking into renting one. Not sure what kind of insurance issues we will be facing. I was hoping there are a company that handled all that paperwork.

Thanks for all you suggestions. I off to do some research. I'll let you know what we end up doing.