It's All About Hydration

One of the key things for performance sports, whether that's bouldering or cycling, is making sure you're hydrated. This is pretty common knowledge of course but that doesn't stop most climbers being rubbish at actually doing it.

We've just started stocking Nuun hydration tablets in The Climbing Works and for the next few weeks we're doing a special offer on them to help introduce them to our customers. Buy a tub of Nuun (£5) and get a FREE Climbing Works water bottle with it (worth £2.50). 

What is Nuun?

For those who know nothing about Nuun, here's the basic rundown: 

- It comes in little tablet form with one tablet turning one 1/2 litre bottle of water into a complex electrolyte drink that recharges your salts. It also tastes refreshing and is more efficiently absorbed than water alone or most sports drinks on the market.

- It doesn't have sugar, carbs or artificial colouring. It does have sodium, potassium, magnesium & calcium.

- The Cheese's have been using it with Percy on his bike, Sam on his intense training regime for the Frankenjura and me (Bri) out on the crag on warm sunny days. We all like it and rate it highly. I had it with me on Gogarth on a glorious sunny day and both my partner and I both noticed that we drank our water slower and felt better than we thought we would on such a beautiful day.

You can read all the technical info and more reasons why Nuun works at Nuun's website here but it does work so why not buy some, get a free water bottle and be converted.

New Yellow Purple Circuit

A new week and a change in the weather. The last few weeks of beautiful sunshine has broken here in Sheffield and today we're back to April showers.

To combat that wet feeling we've got a new yellow purple spotty circuit set by Percy. There's 41 problems all around the Font 6a range. You can see the latest up to date topo on the website.

We've also announced some partial wall closures to happen this Summer in June and August. You can read all about them too on the news section of the website.

Lots of Comp videos

The IFSC has just set up a Facebook group with lots and lots of photos and videos from international comps.

Have a look here if you are interested - you might even spot some of our reception staff competing

Yellow Spots

Percy is currently finishing off the new circuit as I write. That gives you 40 new problems around the Font 6a grade range to enjoy over the weekend.

Percy and Graeme working hard cleaning the holds. Ahh the joy of Benky grip wash. Sun baked holds anyone???

Some other news and dates for your diary is a planned closure of part of the walls from 15th - 20th June. The walls closed will be the kids boulders and the room which has the bean bag in it. They're being closed for some wall maintenance and something new for you all to enjoy.

Read more on the news section of climbingworks.com>>

A Kind of Magic

Percy has spent the morning stripping the walls of all the spotty yellow holds bringing them to the miracle that is Benky Grip Wash. 

Before this 'black magic' arrived, routesetters and their trusted apprentices would don waterproof clothing and powerwash all the holds taking many hours, lots of water and alot of scrubbing. Now, Percy drops them into the vat, leaves them for 5-10mins (checks UKB) and then places them in a different bucket to rinse. Easy.

A hold fresh off the wall

All this means for you is that by tomorrow evening you will have a new 4o problem circuit (c.font 6a) to enjoy over the coming weekend.

New Problems on the Comp Wall

Percy has set some more new problems on the comp wall to add to the already set 25 last week. We'll update the topo in the next few days to reflect the new additions. He's set some longer ones for those now thinking of peak district limestone and long, continious, hard moves.

Also happening this week is the stripping and setting of a new yellow spotty circuit. This will happen Thursday / Friday with the grade staying the same, around Font 6a.

With the sun still shining in Sheffield (it's been glorious here for the last few days) we thought we'd share with you another video, this time a climbing one. It's from Neil Hart of Maisonbleau Gite, based in Fontainebleau, and it's a great way one for getting psyched to go bouldering. Enjoy

March dose of Font from neil hart on Vimeo.

Stuff for a sunny Monday afternoon

Its a beautiful afternoon, and I've just finished setting a couple more problems on the comp wall so now I'm out of here for an hour or two to ride my bike around the Peak. Which reminds me that Bubba at UKBouldering.com posted a great mountain biking film up on the site this morning, which I've cheekily copied onto here to share with you lot. Check out this guys amazing skills - just what you need to occupy your time at work on a sunny Monday!

(edited Tues. - seems like the video proved too popular for the guy on vimeo and our original 'linked to' video was deleted. No worries as we've tracked down another. Enjoy!)



Inspired. Danny MacAskill from dave on Vimeo.

Climbing up rocks!

Thats what I've been doing today, and it was great to be out and about on the crag. Now we all know how unforgiving the rock can be on your body and your skin, so to remind you of quite how hard the grit can sometimes be, here's my photo of the day......



Next time some bright spark tells you to slap for a sharp edge, just be careful! Its not my finger in the photo (it belongs to Mike Lea), but if you look closely you can see a small piece of Mike's finger tape stuck on the hold (along with a little of his blood)! Click on the photo if you need a closer inspection of the carnage! Good job The Works sells finger tape - I reckon Mike needs a little bit more to close that split up! Be careful out there.....

Even more new stuff.

Yep - there's a comp wall full of new problems to try down at The Works. After last months horror-show problems that were left on after the CWIF and the BUCS competitions, normal service has been resumed. There are currently 25 problems from Font 4 to 7c with some more being added next week (particularly to fill the current 7b+ shaped hole on the wall!) Meanwhile our work experience lad, Ian, is experiencing the wonderful glamourous world of climbing wall work as he has landed the dusting duty (poor guy)!

Berghaus Competition Wall Reset

Fresh from a new blue and purple circuit last week, Percy & Sam got to work on the competition wall on Easter Monday.

The last comp wall was the remains of the CWIF with some added extras and was nicknamed 'Operation Shutdown', and that's exactly what it did. We noticed it wasn't getting as much attention so this reset is a little bit more amenable with 25 problems across the grade range.

If you're feeling a little 'heavy' after Easter and all those chocolate eggs then you've got little excuse not to get climbing. Since the start of April we've set a new 'kid & beginner friendly' purple, a new steady blue, a tricky purple spotty and a new nails red circuit. With the new competition wall reset, that's well over 120 problems. Nearly forgot, the kids boulder has also been reset meaning your little ones have something more to do.

The new circuit topo and comp wall is available on the website here>>

Here it is - the KUNG FU KHAZI!

Craig has done it again - this time the men have something new to look at when they're 'using our facilities'! The new blue cicuit is also finished. Comp wall reset on Monday. Happy Easter!

Easter Opening Hours

As we've been getting a few phone calls regarding if, and what times, we're open this weekend, we thought we should publicize it a bit more...

Good Friday: 12 - 10pm

Saturday: 10am - 8pm

Easter Sunday: 10am - 8pm

Easter Monday: 12 - 10pm

As you can see it's normal opening hours across the weekend. With the weather forecast looking iffy & 2 new circuits, The Climbing Works is the place to be this Easter.

It's all going off!

We thought we'd take advantage of the traditional lull in climbing wall activity over the Easter holidays to do a load of work in The Works. However, our plans haven't quite worked out as the wall was rammed this afternoon! Oh well, musn't grumble!

Anyway, there is now a new red circuit courtesy of myself and Leah Crane. All the really hard problems are Leah's - honest! The grade range is from Font 6b+ to 7b, and its all rather dirty to say the least.......enjoy!

Meanwhile, there is a strange man all covered in paint wearing a mask and a pair of rubber gloves who is lurking in the mens toilets. Obviously to protect the public we have had to temporarily close the mens loo's whilst we sort this problem out! Hopefully this situation should by rectified by tomorrow - when our main man will have finished the amazing new murals in the mens toilets - apparently there is a Japanese theme........ can't wait (to see the murals, not for the loo...)!

Also, Sam has been busy stripping the Blue circuit and is currently mid reset, so there should be another new Blue circuit up by tomorrow evening. Grade-wise it should all be pretty steady (I hope!)

Finally, fuelled by a heavy weekend stuffing Easter eggs, Sam and I will be resetting the comp wall on Monday so there will be even more new stuff for everybody to play on.

Vote for Rab

Attention BMC members

As you will have seen from the most recent issue of Summit there will be a rarity at the forthcoming AGM, a contested election for President.

We at The Climbing Works think it is important that you use your vote, either in person or by nominating a proxy to vote on your behalf. The proxy form is in Summit or can be downloaded from the BMC website here. We suggest that you nominate Iain Mckenzie as your proxy. Iain is manager of the Tower Climbing Centre in Leicester and Chair of the BMC’s Competition Committee so he shares our interests.

We would like to suggest that you vote for Rab Carrington for President for the following reasons

1. Since we started using a new hold cleaning system we have had to lay Rab off from his part time job as hold cleaner extraordinaire. So he’s got nothing to do and we want to keep him busy

2. Rab is not only a regular visitor to The Climbing Works he is also one of those rare things, a true all round climber. Despite the fact he has a beard and does indeed wear socks in his rock boots he is not a bumbly mountaineer. He climbed his first route 8a at the age of 59 and regularly climbs all over the world. He is forward thinking and supports indoor climbing and competitions.

Vote for Rab

Stump Cream Back in Stock!!

Those of you who use anti-hydral cream will be glad to know that we have it back in stock. And because we have now a new supppier that is cheaper we have passed on the cost saving to you. So stump cream is now only £12 instead of £15.

New Shop Goodies

New in the shop are some new shoes from FiveTen and a new DVD - Pure.

Pure is all about Bouldering and includes some amazing footage from around the World. The storyline and feel is similar to Memento in that it looks at why the climbers boulder and what it means to them. A beautifully shot movie, it's now available at climbingworks.com.

The new shoes from FiveTen include the classic Mocassym slipper, the D'Aescent (a climbing / approach shoe), and the Freerunner in Alien Glow. These shoes will all be on the website within the next few days. 

New circuits.. and northumberland

Sam despatching the Crack at Bowden doors ( 7c+ /8a)

Michelle and Ian have re-set the Kids boulders with new mini circuits and up problems to keep all them youngsters busy over Easter.
Lucinda and I had a great couple of days in lovely Northumberland, check out Sam's Scarpa blog for more info and photo's.

Lucinda despatching Purely Belter her first font 8a.

New problems this week.

Rather like painting the Forth Road Bridge, the job of routesetting at The Works is one that is never finished. This weeks list of jobs includes setting a new Blue circuit to replace the rather inconsistant BUSA problems - Sam will be doing this Thursday and Friday this week. The new circuit will be nice and easy - the level being around Font 3 to 5.

At the other end of the difficulty spectrum I will be resetting the Red circuit this Thursday. This circuit will not be nice and easy, but will almost certainly be the living end seeing as I will be setting it with Leah Crane - well known for her strength and flexibility, (and infamous for her hold matching skills!) The level for the new red circuit will be 6c to 7b.

Finally, next Monday Sam and I will be resetting the competition wall and restoring the balance of easy and hard problems on there. The result of having 2 major competitions on this part of the wall in March has meant that there are very few 'easy' problems on there at the moment, so we will be aiming to restore the balance a little with a nice new set of things to try.

So there we have it - our next week laid out for all to see. 115 new problems set in a week. We are often imitated, but never equalled for our commitment to keeping things fresh!

It fell off the back of a lorry, Officer...!

Last weekend I was working at the Skymasters event in the NEC, Birmingham. 4 days of work with Steve McClure setting the routes for the event, which was a great success.

The view of the crowds for the Skymasters.

A competitor racing for the finish of one of the routes.

The upshot of the whole thing was that when the show ended, the organisers suddenly realised that they hadn't thought of what to do with the massive climbing wall that they had commissioned! Bishton to the rescue once again, and Tuesday morning saw a huge articulated lorry roll up outside the Works filled with climbing wall for us to look after for a bit. All I can say was I didn't realise how big (or heavy) the whole contraption was when I was hanging around on it, but we've eventually managed to stash it all away, but not before a couple of days of heavy lifting and extreme manoveurs with the forklift truck (kindly lent by Gav and the boys at Eurosafe - cheers Gav! Graeme owes you a beer!) Maybe I can pesuade Brian to post some heavy lifting photos at some point.....

Meanwhile its been business as usual. The new purple and pink spotted circuit set earlier in the week has proved super popular as normal, and has provided everybody with some thought-provoking (ie: desperate!) climbing.

The other shots just show how busy the last month has been for me. I've had to endure several hours of snowboarding through dense trees with Graeme, and I've also been finding new storage solutions for our staff.

Alderson about to quest off-piste



Michelle hiding from Brian