Indoor climbing

The Biscuit Factory was pleasingly quiet last night, I think a lot of climbers were at the new place round the corner. Anyone been there yet? What's it like?

Just spent a few hours playing around at Fairlop Boulders. Nice to climb outside on more realistic problems.
Freezing cold and a lot of the cracks were soaking wet and overgrown with moss and the big jugs were full of gravel and water. Got a day off tomorrow so might go back with a brush and have a go at cleaning a bit of it up.
Climbed 99% of the routes in the official guide and just annotated my paper copy with some of the extra routes on the ukc database.
A great change from the Castle and a nice chance to practice topping out and mantling.

Sounds like fun! Looks like a few of us are going back to Font in May... Cant bloody wait. I just have to get through the next few months without injuring myself.
The January rush of new years resolutioners at the castle has finally started to wind down a bit. Its been utter carnage there on weekday evenings lately and is a real pain having been able to go there in the middle of the day for the past year when its empty.

Starting to get back up to a reasonable standard now too - I don't fancy climbing on real stuff until I'm doing V5s on slabs. Overhanging stuff is generally fine but slabs and topping-out are my weak point, mostly because I'm a wuss.

Yeah the evening scrum at the Castle has been pretty long. Luckily leading down in the wells area is consistantly empty throughout the week.
V5 seems a long way off at the moment, V2 at Fairlop seemed enough of a challenge today. Don't think I've ever really got past V3ish at the Castle despite leading harder routes there. Hopefully a good scrubbing at Fairlop will bring the tougher routes back into use as they're completely choked with moss in places. The guide only has a few f5+ routes across the big roof which seem way tougher than they should..

Anyone tried the 'new?' Vauxhall wall? Desperate to get back into the flow of things but I'm really not a fan of competitive/overcrowded hours. As @edmundro put it, I checked out a weekday evening and immediately walked out.

Yes. It quietens down from about 9 onwards on a weekday. They don't reset often enough, though, and they re-set by wall, rather than by colour/circuit. It's a bit 'corporate', not as good as the Biscuit, but it's okay. It's also well served for post-climb pints.

Ah, the crowds at the castle made me back away as opposed to Vauxhall. Good to know it quietens down.
I wish I'd lived closer to the Biscuit, but at this point, despite it's shiny branding, anything that's within 10 miles I'll be happy with.
Unless there's somewhere within NW London that's decent.

There's Urban Ascent in Parsons Green, but it's pretty small and their grading can be quite harsh. Does tend to be pretty quiet of an evening, though.

I just passed my IRATA 1 roped access technician qualification with a 100% pass mark. Overjoyed beyond belief.
Hoping to leave the tree surgery game for good and make a career out of dangling around on ropes properly instead of surrounded by scumbag treemen all my life.
Hoping to get into geotechnical rock stabilisation work or renewable energies(wind turbine maintenence), but failing that I'm happy to be a window cleaner in the city looking in at the hoi polloi from the other side.

If I wasn't so fucking knackered and sore from my weeks training I'd go climbing right now to celebrate..

congrats, ed :)

Thanks Rive,
Would have kicked myself if I'd failed for any reason(I got pulled up for rushing and having a questionable approach to my own safety but good practical and rope handling skills during the week) but to smash it like that was a very pleasant surprise.
It's a competitive job market for level 1's, especially as I don't really have much trade experience(or even a valid CSCS card at the moment) but hopefully with enough door knocking, cv sending and ear bending someone will take me on. Need to write my cv for the first time in 7yrs and make a LinkedIn profile. Time for the real world again.

There are certainly worse ways to pay the rent and I can't think of many better...

In case anyone is remotely interested I took my level 1 course at Heightec at Staples Corner. Great week and a fantastic instructor.

Any other castle members get a weird cryptic email about a late night lock in this Sunday?

Had a week off from bouldering 3-4 times a week. Now my finger tendons are feeling a bit sensitive. Its weird how these things work - I'm just going to keep an eye on it but they were fine before the break so it might just be some tightness or binding.

Anyhoo... Anyone going to the castle later? would be good to meet some forumgers in meatspace.

Alas I'm resting up for a trip down to Swanage tomorrow, Winspit to be precise, should be a nice day for it...

Since my thumb injury ive not been for 2 months now, likely another 2 before I'm back and itll take an age to get strength back. Im probably going to miss a large part of the outdoor season too.

Very jealous of those who are climbing.

Heal up fast.
I'm only just over tweaking my elbows learning to Jumar properly on my Irata course last month. Ended up doing waay too many one arm lockoffs til I got it right.
Been feeling better indoors and back on course with my pull-ups but will see how I get on outside tomorrow.
Aim is to see how far along the Apprenticeship list I can get. Failing that I'll just try and cleanly lead everything up to 5c

The Arch Climbing wall are opening a new centre in Burnt Oak in the next few months, I'm going to help build it. Making some volumes next week while they sort out power in the building, will update.

I used to Boulder at the biscuit factory and have just moved about 10 mins from the castle. Just looked on their website, is it really £12 a session? That's loads

think the biscuit is £7, the castle is probably more because they have roped climbing as well.

Had a very, very good session at the castle last night. Spent a good few hours there and was just crushing stuff that I'd been struggling with in the V4-V6 range.
Still getting stuck on some things though...

Well done dude, glad you had a good un.
Almost embarrassed about my climbing today. Nailed all the 4+'s at winspit, only managed 4 5+ cleanly and got completely shut down on a 6a+ only a few clips up. Got told by a local that he'd never managed to pass that bit either despite climbing tons of higher grades there.
Nice weather though...

Hi folks, entirely new to this but went along to the castle with a colleague and really enjoyed it, so will be adding to the crowd on a regular basis I'm afraid. Just wondered if anybody here knew how the wall at Mile End compares to the castle, as that's a fair bit closer for me.

Thanks

Anyone want to buy a GriGri2 in blue?
Bought one ages ago, used it 2 or 3 times max indoors, simply didn't get on with it. 1 or 2 tiny nicks to the anodising near the carabiner hole. Prob still got the info sheet somewhere if req but all info on petzl site.
£40 cash monies collected from the Castle or Liverpool St during office hours.

Will stick up a pic shortly.

just bear this in mind, ed