Wij zekeren liever dan dat wij de klimwand beklimmen.

In this sentence, zekeren is climbing vocabulary. It means to belay — to manage the rope for the climber and keep them safe.

Outside climbing, zekeren can also mean to secure or to make safe, but here the climbing meaning is the natural one.

So this is not about being sure in the English sense of certain.

Because the second part is a full clause:

dan dat wij de klimwand beklimmen

That clause has its own subject (wij) and its own verb (beklimmen), so Dutch normally includes the subject again.

English sometimes also repeats the subject in similar structures:

We would rather belay than we climb the wall
—but English usually prefers a different structure, so this can feel unusual to an English speaker.

In Dutch, repeating wij here is normal.

This is a common Dutch pattern for saying rather ... than ... when the second part is a full clause.

Structure:

liever + main clause + dan dat + subordinate clause

So here:

Wij zekeren liever
= We prefer belaying

dan dat wij de klimwand beklimmen
= rather than that we climb the climbing wall

A more natural English rendering is simply We would rather belay than climb the climbing wall.

The important point is that Dutch often uses dan dat when the thing after than is a whole clause with its own subject and verb.

Because liever is a comparative form, and after comparatives Dutch uses dan.

Some common examples:

• groter dan = bigger than
• beter dan = better than
• liever dan = rather than / prefer ... to ...

Dutch uses als after equality, not comparison:

• even groot als = as big as
• net zo goed als = just as good as

So in this sentence, dan is the correct choice.

Because dat introduces a subordinate clause, and in Dutch subordinate clauses the conjugated verb usually goes to the end.

Compare:

• Main clause: Wij beklimmen de klimwand.
• Subordinate clause: dat wij de klimwand beklimmen

So after dan dat, the normal Dutch word order is:

dat + subject + object + verb

That is why beklimmen appears at the end.

This is an important one.

• klimmen = to climb in general
  This verb is usually intransitive, so it does not directly take an object.
• beklimmen = to climb something
  This verb is transitive, so it can take a direct object.

So:

• Wij klimmen. = We climb.
• Wij beklimmen de klimwand. = We climb the climbing wall.

English often uses climb both ways, but Dutch makes this distinction more clearly.

Because beklimmen has the inseparable prefix be-.

In Dutch, some verbs have separable prefixes, and some have inseparable ones.

• Separable example: opbellen
  Ik bel hem op.
• Inseparable example: beklimmen
  Wij beklimmen de klimwand.

So you do not split beklimmen in a normal sentence.

Also in the past participle, inseparable-prefix verbs usually do not get ge-:

• beklimmen → beklommen

Both wij and we mean we.

The difference is mostly style:

• we is more common in everyday spoken Dutch
• wij can sound a bit more careful, formal, or emphatic

So this sentence could also be:

We zekeren liever dan dat we de klimwand beklimmen.

That would sound very natural too.

In climbing context, the object can be left unstated if it is obvious.

So zekeren can function a bit like to belay in English, where the person being belayed is understood from the situation.

In a fuller version, Dutch could specify the object, but it often does not need to.

The sentence is basically saying:

We would rather be the ones belaying than be the ones climbing.

So the omitted object is understood from context.

Yes.

• de = the
• klimwand = climbing wall

klimwand is a compound noun:

• klim = climb / climbing
• wand = wall

Dutch makes compounds very freely, so putting nouns together like this is very normal.

Yes. The given sentence is grammatical and understandable, but Dutch often prefers shorter phrasing in everyday speech.

For example, speakers might say something like:

We zekeren liever dan zelf klimmen.

That means roughly:

We’d rather belay than climb ourselves.

So the original sentence is fine, but it is a bit fuller and more explicit than everyday casual Dutch often needs to be.