Castle Climbing Wall London

A review of the the Castle Climbing center in London.

Being a keen climber and living in London are fairly unlikely bedfellows. The nearest crags are realistically an hour or so away from the center, with good traffic, but more on that in a future post. However a number of good quality walls exist and the Castle is certainly one of the best.

Spread over 2 floors,plus a mezzanine area, in a, you guessed it, castle, the wall boasts 450 routes and 250 marked boulder problems covering the full span of grades. The Castle despite it's rather impressive appearance is actually victorian and certainly makes for an atmospheric climbing center.

Bouldering
The ground floor hosts a typically vertical bouldering wall of about 25 m width as well as a variety of training facilities, campus boards, finger boards, system boards etc. so is certainly a good place for the training obsessive. There is also a short 20ft or so traversing wall and a smaller bouldering cubby hole esque area near the reception. They certainly pack the routes in everywhere they can!!

The mezzanine floor is purely bouldering and the best all round area offering a range of problems from slabby to step to some fun roof pulling.

The upper floor holds a sprayed concrete style featured wall, with additional bolt ons.

Route setting is of a high standard with a good range to suit all. It's nice to find a wall with some really tenous delicate stuff as well as ovehanging power fests. As with any grading there will always be some soft touches and some desperate problems but that's the nature of the beast. Grades are typically shown in the V grade system with sometimes a UK tech grade.

One of the particular strong points of the Castle is how often the routes are reset. Given the range of bouldering areas there always seems some new problems to go at every couple of weeks. You certainly won't get bored or stand a chance of completing everything before there are new challenges.

Routes
There are a huge array of routes on offer at the Castle. The largest quantity of these can be found downstairs although the upstairs routes are bigger, downstairs ones being fairly short, this is indoors though. As with the bouldering there is a good range of routes including slabs and some sustained steep walls. Given the fact the wall is in London there seems perhaps a disproportionate number of top ropes as opposed to lead walls but this makes commercial sense given the large quantity of relative beginners who frequent the wall. Very understandable in London and given the rising popularity of the sport.

Prices
See the Castle website for up to date prices. One off visiting climbers will find it pricey to turn up and climb but regulars have a range of passes on offer. Currently I am using a quarterly pass at £115 and this is very reasonable if you are going once or twice a week.

Criticisms
It's hard to find fault and would probably go so far to say this is probably the most "complete" climbing wall I have visited, although do not consider myself an indoor climber by preference. Being London, and being good, the wall can get a bit packed which isn't ideal for shrinking violets but better a vibrant busy wall then a bankrupt closed one!!

Some beginnery friends have found the shop staff a bit surly on occasion but have generally found the staff to be pleasant and helpful. Given the large quantity of inexperienced climbers the floor staff can seem slightly over zealous to the experienced climber being ticked off for not using a fairly unnecessary stop knot on a fig 8 but this seems necessary in todays litigous society so no complaints from me there.

Summary
All in all a great wall with a great choice of routes and lively atmosphere. Ok so it's a bit busy some times but a quality wall in London will always be.

Icepeak Mauno Soft Shell Review

An unknown brand to me spotted a cheap Icepeak Mauno soft shell in the Gelert shop in North Wales and thought would give it a go.

Icepeak is a small Finnish outdoor clothing manufacturer who recently seem to have appeared more in UK shops and offer attractively styled garments for very reasonable prices. As with anything outdoorsy you often get what you pay for but decided to give it a go. I was after a cheap, not overly warm jacket for a bit of english cragging and spring/autumn wear.

Pros
Being of fairly slim build, 5' 11" and around 11 stone, the jacket fits well.
It has a fairly slim cut and has a standard soft shell finish.
It has proved pretty windproof and shower resistant
Pockets are well laid out and a chest pocket is always useful when wearing a harness.
Stretchy enough not to limit movement negatively.
Nice bright colours and reflective detailing.

Cons
The zips are not great. A little bit rough feeling in use and could benefit from an upgrade to YKKs or somesuch.
Not the most breathable softshell can get a little warm.

For the price I think these are fair value. Yes they are not quite as high quality of the premium brands but for those on a budget provide a reasonable buy. Just be careful with the zips.