OMFG OMFG SQUEE
Dec. 4th, 2010 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wong posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
disobey_gravityMy favourite climbing wall, the Arch near London Bridge, has expanded into the railway arch next door; they opened the new section today. I promised juliet a write-up, so here goes.
Cut because this is probably not going to be of interest to anyone outside London, unless they're particularly entertained by hearing about my adventures.
I turned up at 11am; I left at 4, and only then because it was getting too crowded for me. In my defense, I did take half an hour off to eat lunch, top up my caffeine and chocolate levels, and put fresh tape on my fingers.
My toes hurt, my knuckles are bloody, there's a hole in the toe of my newish shoes, I have a blister on my little finger (I've never managed that before), my shoulders are so overworked I had trouble crossing my arms to get my sports bra off, I'm massively overloaded, and did I mention the espresso? This report may be a little incoherent as I haven't stopped vibrating yet.
The short version: it's really fucking awesome.
The expansion basically doubles the space, and turns the Arch from a small but perfectly-formed bouldering wall into a medium-sized but perfectly-formed bouldering wall with some unique features.
The new section is divided into three rooms, and (like the old section) has a central mezzanine overlooking everything. I like the mezzanine a lot; it seems to encourage people to pause and watch and chat, even if they don't know each other.
There's a large bouldering room with all sorts of interesting walls -- a vertical wall with a horizontal curve, a 5-degree slab (more slab! slab love!), and various types and shapes of overhang, with various interesting angles and corners between them.
Several of the walls have scary rounded barrel top-outs onto the mezzanine; I can already tell that the harder ones are going to give me cold sweats.
Then there's a ridiculously long traverse wall (with a shorter and more friendly mini-traverse round the corner). The "easy" traverse has easy moves -- it's just very, very long. I got to the end of it and found that my forearms were suddenly not working so well any more. The "medium" traverse is reachy and nails-hard; I eventually did all the moves, in about five or six chunks, but am nowhere near linking it. I didn't even look at the "hard".
I suspect I'm going to (have to) start developing some endurance.
Finally, there's the pride and joy of the Arch gang, The Roof.
The Roof is 18 metres long; it slopes up with the mats sloping up underneath it, so you're never more than a couple of metres above the mats. You start on the ground floor and exit onto the mezzanine, like an inverted slide (more than one person commented that the whole place looked like a giant playground for grown-ups).
Because the problems on the roof are 14-18 metres long, they've decided to treat them as routes and give them French sport grades rather than bouldering grades (which gives me yet another grading system to juggle in my head, but makes sense because they demand so much stamina, they're not really comparable with much shorter problems; you're making a hell of a lot more more moves of a given level of technical difficulty).
I flashed the 6b, and have the possibly delusional hope that I may get the 6c linked next time (I'm a boulderer! I don't have stamina!).
Most of the holds seem to be new, so they have that fresh-out-of-the-box abrasiveness, as does the friction paint on the walls; obviously that will settle down with a bit of wear.
The route-setting is as tricksy and fiendish as the Arch route-setting usually is; they've got a bunch of stars in to guest-set in the new section, including Gaz Parry, Steve MacClure and the setters from Climb Newcastle, but as per usual Yann has been bringing the evil. There's at least one V2 that has people who are climbing V4s staring at it in bafflement and horror.
I did notice something of a skew towards the harder grades on the new walls, but there are also a good number of problems in the V0 to V2 range; I don't think anyone's going to feel left out.
And fundamentally, the point is -- SHAPES! New shapes and structures and spaces! It's so clear that so much thought has gone into this, into using the new space with as much imagination as possible, folding walls like origami to fit them into the brick arch.
There was a really good vibe today: Fred (Arch founder) and co. were shining with pride and happiness in their creation, and everyone there was rushing around literally bouncing off the walls and squeeing over the new toys.
And there was much rejoicing.
I didn't have a camera, but other people did; there are a few photos here, and I'm sure there will be more over the next few days.
(ETA: Look more pictures.)
Now I fall down go boom.
juliet a write-up, so here goes.Cut because this is probably not going to be of interest to anyone outside London, unless they're particularly entertained by hearing about my adventures.
I turned up at 11am; I left at 4, and only then because it was getting too crowded for me. In my defense, I did take half an hour off to eat lunch, top up my caffeine and chocolate levels, and put fresh tape on my fingers.
My toes hurt, my knuckles are bloody, there's a hole in the toe of my newish shoes, I have a blister on my little finger (I've never managed that before), my shoulders are so overworked I had trouble crossing my arms to get my sports bra off, I'm massively overloaded, and did I mention the espresso? This report may be a little incoherent as I haven't stopped vibrating yet.
The short version: it's really fucking awesome.
The expansion basically doubles the space, and turns the Arch from a small but perfectly-formed bouldering wall into a medium-sized but perfectly-formed bouldering wall with some unique features.
The new section is divided into three rooms, and (like the old section) has a central mezzanine overlooking everything. I like the mezzanine a lot; it seems to encourage people to pause and watch and chat, even if they don't know each other.
There's a large bouldering room with all sorts of interesting walls -- a vertical wall with a horizontal curve, a 5-degree slab (more slab! slab love!), and various types and shapes of overhang, with various interesting angles and corners between them.
Several of the walls have scary rounded barrel top-outs onto the mezzanine; I can already tell that the harder ones are going to give me cold sweats.
Then there's a ridiculously long traverse wall (with a shorter and more friendly mini-traverse round the corner). The "easy" traverse has easy moves -- it's just very, very long. I got to the end of it and found that my forearms were suddenly not working so well any more. The "medium" traverse is reachy and nails-hard; I eventually did all the moves, in about five or six chunks, but am nowhere near linking it. I didn't even look at the "hard".
I suspect I'm going to (have to) start developing some endurance.
Finally, there's the pride and joy of the Arch gang, The Roof.
The Roof is 18 metres long; it slopes up with the mats sloping up underneath it, so you're never more than a couple of metres above the mats. You start on the ground floor and exit onto the mezzanine, like an inverted slide (more than one person commented that the whole place looked like a giant playground for grown-ups).
Because the problems on the roof are 14-18 metres long, they've decided to treat them as routes and give them French sport grades rather than bouldering grades (which gives me yet another grading system to juggle in my head, but makes sense because they demand so much stamina, they're not really comparable with much shorter problems; you're making a hell of a lot more more moves of a given level of technical difficulty).
I flashed the 6b, and have the possibly delusional hope that I may get the 6c linked next time (I'm a boulderer! I don't have stamina!).
Most of the holds seem to be new, so they have that fresh-out-of-the-box abrasiveness, as does the friction paint on the walls; obviously that will settle down with a bit of wear.
The route-setting is as tricksy and fiendish as the Arch route-setting usually is; they've got a bunch of stars in to guest-set in the new section, including Gaz Parry, Steve MacClure and the setters from Climb Newcastle, but as per usual Yann has been bringing the evil. There's at least one V2 that has people who are climbing V4s staring at it in bafflement and horror.
I did notice something of a skew towards the harder grades on the new walls, but there are also a good number of problems in the V0 to V2 range; I don't think anyone's going to feel left out.
And fundamentally, the point is -- SHAPES! New shapes and structures and spaces! It's so clear that so much thought has gone into this, into using the new space with as much imagination as possible, folding walls like origami to fit them into the brick arch.
There was a really good vibe today: Fred (Arch founder) and co. were shining with pride and happiness in their creation, and everyone there was rushing around literally bouncing off the walls and squeeing over the new toys.
And there was much rejoicing.
I didn't have a camera, but other people did; there are a few photos here, and I'm sure there will be more over the next few days.
(ETA: Look more pictures.)
Now I fall down go boom.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-04 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-05 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-04 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-05 10:25 am (UTC)One thing I think I didn't communicate in this write-up is what a relaxed and low-pressure and friendly place it is. Back when I was just starting out (and was really, really terrible) I had some of the most hardcore climbers in the place cheering me on as I struggled with V0s.
There's just a really nice and chilled-out atmosphere, and hopefully the expansion won't change that.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-05 02:41 pm (UTC)Kind of sad that I missed out on the atmosphere bit of the opening, but yesterday just didn't end up with any gaps in it :-/
I'm really pleased all the staff seemed happy - they've put so much effort&love into it!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-05 02:49 pm (UTC)But you get to play on everything when it's quiet, which I won't do until Tuesday!
I'm really pleased all the staff seemed happy - they've put so much effort&love into it!
Yeah, and I got the sense that they'd been waiting in painful suspense to see how people would react to it and whether people would feel it lived up to the hype -- and it really, really did.
It's so ambitious and imaginative and they deserve to do really well out of it.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 04:49 pm (UTC)I love the topping-out finishes. And the traverse is clearly good for the endurance -- like you, I hopped happily round the easy one thinking "hah, I can do this no bother!" & then got weary arms with a quarter still to go... (I made it though!). Didn't look at the medium one (another time...).
There were another couple of women there this morning who were also I think exploring for the first time. "It's just like being a kid," one of them said, halfway up one of the overhanging V3s. "Yeah, I don't want to go to work now," the other one said. "I just want to stay here & play!". HELL YES.
in summary: WHEEEEEE! more climbing plz :)
[0] Actually this is entirely possible; I went 4 times the week before, & was clearly a bit weary and had a twingy knee so gave it a rest last week, and it may actually have paid off.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 09:36 pm (UTC)It's wonderful, isn't it? I feel a bit verklempt about it -- THEY MADE ALL THIS FOR US!
like you, I hopped happily round the easy one thinking "hah, I can do this no bother!" & then got weary arms with a quarter still to go...
On Saturday, there was this steady stream of people coming out of the traverse corridor clutching their forearms and flapping their hands; it was hilarious (at least for those of us who'd already had the experience).
Actually this is entirely possible; I went 4 times the week before, & was clearly a bit weary and had a twingy knee so gave it a rest last week, and it may actually have paid off.
I bet it did. I've found I can't really manage more than 3 sessions a week, and can't do consecutive days. If I don't get enough rest, the twinges start piling up. And sometimes a rest allows things to coalesce in my brain a bit, and my skills take a jump forwards.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 12:54 pm (UTC)Well, *something* has certainly happened, because I got up another 2 V2s today, & very nearly a V3 in the new bit. AM BAFFLED.
(Also the yellow 6b, all the way up this time. Was going to try one of the 7a ones but someone else was busy falling off in the Cave :) )
Also I have suddenly got even more of an itch to CLIMB THINGS GODDAMIT WHEN CAN I GO BACK HMMMM? :)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 03:12 pm (UTC)I'm still failing ignominiously on the 6c, though I've managed it in two halves. Give me stamina or give me death!
Or cake.Btw, if you haven't already discovered them, I've found the Rockfax grade conversion charts very useful when I have to keep translating between grading systems (it's guessing when F means French and when it means Font that hurts my brain):
http://www.rockfax.com/publications/grades.html
http://www.rockfax.com/publications/bgrades.html
no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 08:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 09:19 am (UTC)If you haven't climbed before, they do a good induction course teaching the basics of bouldering. And as I was saying to