Christmas & New Year Opening Times

We've been having quite alot of phone calls about our opening times over the holiday periods so to make things easier here's when we're open over the festive period.

Sat 29th & Sun 30th Dec: 10am-8pm
New Years Eve: 10am-5pm
New Years Day: Closed
2nd Jan 2008: 12-10pm (Normal Opening Hours)

We've just stuck up a brand new red circuit (6b-7b+) so you can start burning off all those mince pies and turkey ready for the New Year.

Here's another Christmas present from The Works

The reset Volume wall will be ready for you all to try and work out what on earth is going on with Bishton's twisted mind on Christmas Eve. I know that it looks ready to climb on now, but we have textured the volumes and the goo we spread on them takes a good while to 'go off' - especially in the current cold temperatures! However, the central crack line looks set to be a 'classic'!

Brian (our new general manager, pictured on the right) is super excited as you can see about the new bits of wall we have built this week, so I hope you all come and try them over the next few weeks - if nothing else it'll help shift a few of those festive calories!

(Apologies to Brian - although he is super excited about new bits of wall, the rather unflattereing photo of him was taken surreptitiously at our birthday party - a 'do' which will surely become the stuff of legends.....)

To redress the balance, here is a picture of two idiots at the same party. Possibly slightly the worse for wear? You bet'cha!

New Walls, Circuits & Hard XS in stock

No slouching in The Climbing Works in the run-up to Christmas with a brand new wall built and painted in 2 days. It's a new steep wall which will be open by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. See the pics below for a preview:

By the weekend we should also have 2 new full circuits in place. The easy Green has been replaced and is already getting fresh rubber on it while the popular Reds have come down today and will be up again by Friday evening.

Today we received the highly anticipated Hard XS, the new film from the Slackjaw team behind Hard Grit and many others. Featuring just about every type of climbing to be found in the British Isles it's an absolute cracker and is a safe bet for a Christmas present. Also into the shop is the Underdeveloped DVD that showcases the trad and bouldering to be found in Ireland. Again, another cracker that will have you booking ferries for the Emerald Isle.

Early Christmas Present from The Works

Christmas is coming a little early to the works as we're currently updating some parts of the wall which will give all our members something new to play on.
In the middle room we've ripped up all the mats to do some work that will hopefully reduce the amount of chalk that they absorb, plus at the same time the volumes wall is going to get changed with Percy having something special in mind.

Not content with that we've also decided to change the stepped wall - we've made a small change as shown in the picture below but there's more to come. It should all be ready by the weekend for you to play on.

Also by the weekend there will be a full new green circuit and the red circuit will be coming off to be replaced hopefully before Christmas - and Santa thinks he's busy at this time of year ; )

Obviously all this work means a little disruption with the middle room and some other walls off limits till Friday but overall it means an even better place to train and climb in.

Comp Results, New Circuit & Psyche Screening

Sorry the results are a bit late but since our first birthday party celebrations last Friday night everything has been running that little bit slower in The Climbing Works.
Now on the website are the results of The Bouldering League R2 with Dave Barrans once again coming out on top though it was very close between the top 5. The £50 bonus problem wasn't climbed (it took another 4 days before anyone ticked it) so the next round will see a £100 bonus problem being set - should be nice & easy...

Also up on the website is a new topo with the new blue circuit which is an absolute cracker. Up to around Font 5, the 40 problems are no walkovers and are great for a warm up in this very cold weather. If you want a challenge, the whole circuit has been climbed in 9mins 30 secs by our own mini-picks. By the start of next week there will ANOTHER new circuit (greens) so there's loads to do...and before I forget - 30 new comp wall problems. 110 new problems, not bad for a weeks work.

On Sunday night, The Climbing Works will be hosting our second film night with a big screen showing of 'Psyche' which is the latest from the Posing Productions stable. Already an award winner the film highlights some of the stars of the British climbing scene including strong Steve Maclure, insane Ian Parnell & out of his tree Andy Kirkpatrick. Tickets are £5 concession and members / £6 everyone else - available on reception beforehand or on the night at the door. Having already seen it, I fully recommend coming down - there will also be beer available : ) If you are coming down make sure to bring some warm clothes as it's a little cold in here at night.

Swedish Granite

After a few months engrossed in the madness of the climbing works it was time to go on a much needed trip. Destination Sweden. Why?? Well a friend who lives there has been trying to get me out for the least few years to sample the granite bouldering of Kjugekull. Living only 15 mins away he knew the place inside out and so it was off to Denmark (it's closer to fly to Copenhagen than anywhere in Sweden) with a few friends from home.

After a month of perfect weather it was going to be good but the collective force of having 6 Irishmen together was too much and so the spell was broken. The arrival of rain and fog made our first few days a damp experience but exploring, brushes, towels and psyche managed to keep us climbing while vodka helped force a rest day. When the weather did improve the forest was superb with numerous dirty crimps to pull on and highballs that would put alot of grit routes to shame.

If you're looking for something different than the forest of Paris then then the forest of Kjugekull is definitely worth a look. Now i'm back in work it's time to get back on the campus board me'thinks

Keeping it real.....

After our first year, Sam, Graeme and I keep meeting people we haven't seen for ages who say things like, "When are you buying the house in Fontainebleau?", "When's the Porsche arriving?", "Have you been on holiday again?", etc, etc.

The truth of the matter is that we have spent our first year working like idiots to make sure The Climbing Works is a wall that we can be proud of, and that we would want to climb in. So far we have been pretty successful, but we know that when the nasty jobs need doing, its our business and we have to get our hands dirty. It's what some folks call 'keeping it real'. Sam was doing just this when we finally got to job No. 1746 on his list - clean the U-bends out in the men's urinals! Talk about grabbing the short straw....

1st Birthday Prize Draw results

As promised, we have had a prize draw of the first 50 members of the Climbing Works - the kind folks who trusted us with their money for a years membership before they had even seen the walls! Without wishing to name all the winners on this blog, I have listed the prize-winning membership numbers below - if your membership number is on the list, give us a ring or pop in to claim your prize.

Winning Member Numbers: 39, 24, 48, 52, 35, 16, 5, 26, 44 & 41

As promised, the old blue circuit has been taken down today, and the new blue circuit is half way through its creation. The old blue holds have been replaced by some lovely new EP ones - I hope you will all enjoy them!