great new problems

Andy, Percy and co have come up with the goods again. Part way through our complete refit, we've already got some fantastic problems. Andy brought several of the volumes used at Cliffhanger last week, and these are giving some interesting moves, particularly the big tufas.

spring freshness

A bit late I know, but our shoe cleansing machine has finally arrived! It seems to be doing the job and the rock shoes are taking on a more pleasant fragrance.

prize giving, new problems

We are holding the prizegiving for the spring aggregate on Thursday evening at 7.30- the wall will be open as usual, and we'll publish a full list of winners.
After that, the resetting of routes starts on Monday, and will be finished by Tuesday. Lots more new problems to have a go at, with hopefully some volumes. Interestingly, we have four out of the five routesetters at the weekend's British Bouldering Championships setting the new problems. (we would have had all five, but Jamie Cassidy can't make it- he's keen to come and set some problems in future though, as he helped build the wall in the first place.)

First NICAS certificates issued

Well done to James and Tehya for being the first to achieve a NICAS award from our centre. We'll be running more training and assessment sessions both during Childrens Club and on Friday evenings for older candidates.

Complete re-set

Once the aggregate has finished, we'll leave the problems up for a couple of weeks until Andy and co. arrive to completely re-set everything, including the orange traverse I've spent the last three months trying (and failing) to do.
We have an all-star cast of routesetters this time, including Andy Long (chief routesetter for BRYCS), Jason Pickles, Percy Bishton (part-owner of Climbing Works, NEC skymaster routesetter) and Ian Vickers
One of the most positive responses we have had since opening is to the quality of the routesetting, so we intend to maintain this by changing problems regularly.
A whole new set of screw-on holds has been ordered, so there is the potential for even more variety during the next route-set.

Last Day of Aggregate comp!

Today is the last chance to tick off those remaining aggregate problems- the competition closes at 10pm tonight. It has been frantic the last few days, with all emotions from delight to disappointment. I think we already have a winner in one or two categories, but it is wide open for 2nd and 3rd place.
Prizes are winging their way to us from various suppliers- we will hold a prize-giving some time next week depending on how soon the prizes arrive. There will be hundreds of pounds worth of prizes given away!
I will let people know of the exact time and date via the blog or some other means.

Aggregate- last few days

With the aggregate finishing in a bit over a week's time, there has been a flurry of activity, with the leads in the various categories changing on a regular basis. Once the aggregate is finished we may leave the problems up for a bit longer, but it won't count towards the competition, unfortunately!