Indoor climbing

Ha.
Weight isn't my problem, just the ability to hang on. Training board sessions are progressing well at least. Chinups, deadhangs and walking the hands around the board ftw...

Oh, and trad means investing in nuts and more shiny tat than I can afford. At least for sport I just need quickdraws and anchor bits.

core strength, yoga, and powerball work outs are just as important

I've got shedloads of old tat you can use, some of it with quasi amusing anecdotes attached

Haven't done yoga seriously in over a year since I was last climbing regularly, will be sure to get back on it. Work climbing generally takes care of my core but will try and train myself up a bit for a long weekend of bricking it up a cliff.
Cool you've got the tat, 'and here is the skyhook that popped back in '93, causing me to widdle in my neon spandex...' that kinda anecdote?

Hopefully a weekend will be long enough to get a taste for trad(bearing in mind I've only climbed outdoors on real rock a handfull of times previously).
Looks like you've talked me back round to grit(assuming you and another traddist or two are coming!)

Settled on Weymouth/Portland for climbing trip (sorry Rive but the allure of sunny beaches and nice secure bolts is too much).
Come one, come all, it should be a laugh..
Thread

Sheeitt, i'll need to lose 5st pdq...

.

You'll be fine, few more miles on the bike and a bit less cake and you'll be well in.
Or just beast yourself up regardless.
Or just spend the weekend abseiling off all the fixed bolts therefore requiring no weightloss...

has anyone recovered from dislocated fingers, specifically middle joints on fingers and returned to full capability?

i dislocated 2 fingers in the middle joint approx 2 months ago, i'm doing hand physio and currently about 60% in terms of making a fist, i've lost approx 20% muscle mass on this hand and really want to go back to some climbing but currently have little grip.. any advice, strengthening tips aside the normal?

Get over to ukb diet, training & injury forum, plenty of solid advice to aid recovery

On the subject of injury, I tweaked my elbow on sat sessioning the fingerboard for longer than I should. Luckily I've got an easy week ahead at work so rest and ice should do the job. Ta for posting that link, will have a look tonight, in my case I probably just need to lay off the board for a few days.

Annoying website, but does anyone on here do buildering? Had previously considered having a play around town. Presumably it's like skating where you get kicked off the good spots regularly. Found it after reading about the Cambridge night climbers.

Anyone on here go to Arch climbing wall at the biscuit factory, Bermondsey?

^ I do its great fun.

I've been going for about 5 months, got as far as being able to do most of the reds, and a few Hendrix. Got a recurring shoulder problem though which slows my progress somewhat.

Wierdly I realised the other day that I had met Fred, who runs it, in Italy 11 years ago and we went Kayaking and diving for clams.

What do you ride? I'll keep and eye on the bike racks and say hi if I see you next time :)

brooklyn or an on one. I just started but its great, need to get my own shoes - yeah say hi, what do you ride?

An anonymous black langster partly held together with white tape. Or a red Basso Astra, but I rarely take that out if I have to lock up.

yo.

I was taken climbing at the UEA wall in Norwich recently - first time I'd done it, and really enjoyed it. Really keen to get started but don't really know where to begin.

Memberships look terribly expensive?
Can you go to a wall on your own? or do you always need a buddy? (who belays?)
Do most places charge for the use of a harness etc?

Any advise is greatly appreciated. Also, I live in Brixton, worth joining up there? I've been in and the wall looks really bad, but don't know if I've seen it all...

Thanks!

Membership always stops me climbing. It's way more expensive than any other sport :(
You can go to a wall on your own, but you will need someone to belay. That said, some places will match you with others (The Castle) and a lot will have someone who might just help out (if it's not busy, and you know them).
Yes, everywhere charges for use of equipment.

It's been a while since I climbed in London, but I've heard good stuff about the new climbing walls from the Arch people in South London.

You can boulder on your own. And then make friends who can belay. Some places have small bouldering areas though. Arch climbing is bouldering only and is pretty huge. And they sell snacks.

If you're south, there's the Arch for bouldering, but if you want some proper walls I'd highly recommend the Reach in Woolwich. Loadsa walls, pretty big bouldering area too, good cafe. Getting there is easy enough with a bike, or Charlton station is pretty close. They also have one night a week where you can go and climb with a load of other people who can't find a climbing partner so you can get a belayer, can't remember which day though...

Arch is great, really varied problems on all the grades, most addictive bouldering place I've been to. And Fred who runs it is a really nice guy, very freindly athmosphere.

yo.
Memberships look terribly expensive?
Can you go to a wall on your own? or do you always need a buddy? (who belays?)
Do most places charge for the use of a harness etc?

Membership generally only works out cheaper than paying for single sessions if you are going to go more than once a week.

As others have said, you can go bouldering on your own, most walls have an induction process where you get show around the wall and show the dos and don'ts - this looks like the Arch's version http://archclimbingwall.com/lessons/introduction/

The Arch in Bermondsey is one of the best bouldering walls in the country and is quite handy form Brixton.

thanks for all the advice guys, I think I will rope a novice friend in with me to start off with so that I have someone to be shit with! and also for belay-benefits.

I suppose my reservations about bouldering are that, although its great to be able to go solo and you don't need equipment other than shoes, I think to have loads of fun bouldering, you have to get pretty good at it, build up core strength, flexibility etc. Walls, on the other hand, you can be a total novice and go up the easiest route, and its still super fun, because your high up and whatnot.

Definitely looking forward to sessioning both, but for these reasons I am reluctant to join a place (at vast expense!) that is exclusively on or the other.

it's such a shame that brixton isn't a very good wall! However there is a group I've found called BrxitonClimbers (any members on here?) that meet there to climb socially at 7pm every wednesday, and if you're down with them its a fiver, no membership needed. So might do this weekly, and then join mile end with a friend a boulder/climb once a week there too.

Sound like a plan?

Of course in typical forum fashion I decided to try climbing yesterday and today I'm meeting someone to pick up some climbing shoes and someone else to pick up a chalk bag!

Nick, I think your approach to climbing might limit your enjoyment and progression a bit. The idea that it is fun to be high up is a bit of a red herring, really. If you just want to be high up, you might as well use a ladder. As someone who often works at height for my work, I'd far sooner be closer to the ground and challenge my skill, and my brain. Climbing is about planning, it's like a game of chess. I have spent hours working on the same 15ft problem, and found it far more rewarding than being 30ft up tied to a rope. Besides, 15ft on a bouldering wall can seem a long way up when your next move involves jumping across a 5ft gap holding on with just 3 fingers...

The other thing is, all the kit and equipment of roped climbing involves alot of faffing about, with bouldering you just turn up and get on with it. Don't want to seem like I'm telling you what to do, just don't want you to miss out on the fun :)

Aside from the cave roof thingy at the Castle which is rad, bouldering bores the shit out of me. I too work at height all day but would always choose the potential for a rad whippy fall on lead over falling 3ft onto a mat and twisting my ankle erry day.
Different strokes...

Different strokes...

Yep, very different obviously! Overhang is for me the most pointless aspect of bouldering, it focuses too much on upper body strength, rather than balance. And regarding twisted ankles, part of the discipline is knowing how to fall. One of the problems I always had with roped climbing is you don't have to find your own way down, seems a bit of a cop out.