UKC

Having visited MCC on the weekend, I noticed that they are putting their prices up on 1st April from £6.50 to £7.00.
This seems to be getting a bit too expensive.
They say it is to keep up their high standards - so why don't the routes get changed regularly?

I personally think this is a stupid time of the year to change the admission price. As the days are getting longer, I will most certainly be climbing outside instead....

In reply to Tris:

Yeah 50p a go is quite a big rise.
I'll still get my moneys worth though. I temd to go for the whole day when I go

In reply to Tris: To pay for the year is a 7.7% increase, I only got 5% raise this year.....

In reply to Tris:

Damn! I can't do the "If I have the right change can I have a 50p discount" scam anymore

BTW price rise is on 1st April... Right!

In reply to Chris Tan Ver. XLIX: Yeah it is on the 1st April... My mate is a bit upset by that as her annual membership runs out on the 30th April... and I goes up from £325 to £350 for the year after that....

In reply to Chris Tan Ver. XLIX: Don't think you can do an April fools that early?

In reply to Mita: She could try paying early?

To Op: I get there about one a month and there are always new blodder problems to try. Lovely blue thing with a volume on the flat wall this time.

In reply to Richard Bradley: maybe the routes change regularly on the bouldering wall, but on the lead walls the routes haven't been changed for some time. Over last summer there was a time for about 6 months where nothing got changed. If I have to visit a wall then I much prefer Warrington...

In reply to Tris: Hi Tris

Is your eyesight ok as i think we reset 70 new routes on the run up to Xmas on the main walls.

Maybe make you self known to a member of staff and we will give you guided tour of the new routes.

John

In reply to MCC:
Hi john, personally i cant complain about your entrance prices, especially if it keeps the students away a bit more, i go 1 - 2 times a week with 3 of my mates and i can only think of 2 times since you opened when i have had trouble finding a new route for my grade (6b - 6c), maybe people should take a look at the amount of staff that are on, including security on the gate.
Top Tunes, And Lenkas cakes.

In reply to Tris: your joking arnt you, warrington is tons worse, i go about 4-5 times a year, the bouldering area(tiny) is very overcrowded with holds, the floor is stone, its dirty, there's no room to get ready, no safe place to leave your clothes/ shoes etc, the cafe is the reception, the viewing area does not allow children (even though my kid is a 12 year old 6a+ climber who is sensible.
and there are not enough places to park.
although the main lead walls are quite good.

In reply to kevin k: John, i think Kev is after some kind of super discount with the amount of sucking up he's doing there!

Kev, I don't think blaming students for the busy periods washes as i go every weds with my uni and there is less people there than you'd expect expecially in comparison to a tues or thursday night!! Its all you full time workers who hog all the lines!

In reply to anthonyecc:
Kev, I don't think blaming students for the busy periods washes as i go every weds with my uni and there is less people there than you'd expect expecially in comparison to a tues or thursday night!

wrong wrong wrong, its full (mainly on the boulder areas) on wednesday, i get there for about 4ish normally, and its full of lentil eating students(joke), but hey, it just proves its a good place to climb.
kev

In reply to MCC:

Yes my eyesight is fine thanks.

That was exactly my point - you haven't changed any routes since Xmas, that is 3 months ago!

At Warrington the routes get changed more regularly, usually weekly but at the very least monthly.

In reply to MCC:

As a member of MCC I think this response is insulting. Try being professional rather than querying somebody's eyesight. To do this is belittling and superior, a preferable way would be to explain your policy on route-setting rather than to poke insults at those who are upset about an above-inflation price rise.

M

In reply to MCC:
>i think we reset 70 new routes on the run up to Xmas

Some of the routes have been there so long that they have achieved 3* classic status Which is good, as you can keep on coming back to them. However, if you aint cracked it in 3 months you probably never will.

There are a lot of good new routes in the 6b/6c+ range and the downstairs boulder area is good and keeps getting better with weird volumes, new mats etc. The traverse area is another good idea, though that can get a bit jammed with traffic due to its popularity. Having said all that though, it was heaving last night, with few spaces on the non overhanging lead walls or hard top rope areas.

There was a board with a list of new routes on it, but that seems to have been discontinued. Any chance of converting the abseil tower into a multi pitch wall ?

I dont begrudge the 50p extra increase. Its light in the evenings, so for 6 months the traffic will reduce as people go outside. If you want extra value for money get there early and stay longer.

In reply to MCC: In my opinion this does come accross a little sarcastic - but then that's your prerogative.

I do go to MCC and generally find it good, the music is great and the general atmosphere is friendly. Leading is pretty damn good although the bouldering could be a little more extensive - but it's more than made up with the overall facilities.
Comments about the price rise are valid enough, but let's be honest, from £6.50, it's hardly going to be put up to £6.73 which would be a 3.5% increase, that would be ridiculous! £7.50 is just logical - the question is, is it going up next year too?

In reply to dread-i:
Oh and before I forget regarding route setting...

If there is a route near an arete could you put on the card if you are allowed to use the arete or even 2 different grades with and without the use of the arete.

I mention this as the 6c+ one is easy (6b?) with the arete and the 6a+ on the same wall is harder (6b+?) without its use. (I've done both routes both ways, just to get value for money)

In reply to Rampikino.

Your right the response was not helpful.

Our policy on new route changes are as follows.
We change all routes 4 times per year so every quarter.
Some route last longer because customers request them to stay up and some are taken down if there not popular.
We could change them more often but the cost of this would drive the prices even higher as route setting is not cheap it's a skilled job.
I think the cycle of change works well.

In terms of the price increases we have not increased our prices in two years.

We have just added a new traverse area,new matting 2,000 new holds an abseil tower.
We have also acquired the land opposite the church to develop into a new 200 vehicle car park to end the issue of street parking.

How many walls offer secure parking,showers,lockers,cafe shop ,courses etc etc.
This forum does not solve customer issues it only inflames them .
If you have issue with MCC please driop us an e-mail or call in for a chat.

John Dunne

Managing Director

Manchester Climbing Centre Ltd

In reply to MCC:

Lead routes featuring finger cracks, tufas and small crimps would be nice.

In reply to MCC: Everything you say makes sense to me there, the facilities are excellent and it's good that the parking issue will hopefully be resolved,

In reply to Tris:


Compared to what? A cup of coffee from Starbucks?

Are you familiar with the economics of climbing walls. I don't think anyone is getting rich here. Further if it wasn't for instruction and large group visits, and students, I fear we would be paying more like £20 for our sessions down at our local climbing walls.

I'm sure constructive criticism is welcomed and taken on board as regards new routes etc but I think we get a great deal at most climbing walls in the UK.

Luckily it is still free to climb outdoors, how long that will last I'm not sure.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Spot on.

In reply to Tris: I think it's excellent value for money - compare it to gym membership for instance. They are a bit of a victim of their own success popularity wise and I have trouble avoiding peak times but if training is the goal (we seem to get too hung up on waiting for particular routes, which is a bit daft indoors) I've never found it too crowded for bouldering. Oh, and the girls in the cafe are lovely

In reply to MCC:
Why not put up a "new routes" board at the entrance, like a specials board at a cafe, ten people would know whats new. (Also it might highlight if its just routes above grade X that tend to get changed).






And make the writing smaller as you go down, then a four eyed git like me can use it as a cheap eye test

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Spot on Mick.

Most climbing centres charge roughly the same price these days and MCC is far superior that some.

There are plenty of routes at all grades. Is the OP saying he has done all the routes upto his grade?

In reply to MCC: People always moan when they dont like something.

Keep up the good work. I have never been disapointed at MCC.

Loads of good routes, Excellant bouldering, Friendly staff, Great hot chocolate.

In reply to MCC: As i've said before, its very good, and i never have a bad day there,
having said that, i have thought of a couple of ideas.

Singles night (there are some lurvley girls there)?
some more screw on only climbs in addition to the holds that are there?
the use of the abseil tower?
twin grades with or without arete?
AND please please , could you have someone grade the features (grey screw ons) in the corner next to the porthole window???

Thanks Kev

In reply to kevin k:

"the bouldering area(tiny) is very overcrowded with holds" - I am constantly frustrated by some walls bouldering areas with very few holds...

I personally find the bouldering at Warrington to be very good because of the amount of holds...

This is the best way to have a good bouldering wall because it allows you to make your own routes up over time...

Finally comes out that your an inside monkey kev after trying to get Wilton bolted...

In reply to MCC: Well said,couldn't agree more.As a training facility I think it's excellent,attending about twice a week.Starting to feel the benefits already.

In reply to Tris:
If you want to see some *really* outrageous price hikes, ask your local wall how much their insurance premiums have been jacked up over the last couple of years!

In reply to MCC: Both myself and my boyfriend think that MCC is a really nice place to climb at... "Mostly" friendly staff (esp. the new ones!), nice atmosphere, and great facilities. Hence we won't moan about paying an extra 50p... HOWEVER:

It would be nice to have...

The route setters name on the route (this would not only advertise who set the route, as you do have some well known route setters, but also help the climber to choose another route which is similar in style)
The hand dryers in the toilets are worse than useless... This can't be good for hygiene, as people can't dry their hands.
Most of the staff as noted are "friendly", however there are certain members of the staff that are elitist about climbing, and are not very approachable!

Personally we don't think the routes are changed often enough... It has come to a point where we are now going to other climbing centres to try out their routes... Which is a shame (since as noted above we do like MCC!) and my boyfriend has bought an annual membership at MCC. Perhaps it would be an idea to not only put the route setters name for that route, but also the date that it went up... Not only would that be a reminder to the centre as to when to change it but it would also remove any arguments as to how often the routes are changed.

Dunno how regularly you all actually go to MCC but do you have any idea how hard it would be to change EVERY route monthly? Any ideas of the man power it would need? Well I'll tell you, it requires about a day per person to do maybe 2 lines, 3 lines tops since every line has 3 routes. Now take into account that the route setter is not only thinking of a new problem but also shunting up and down all day stripping the old routes and tweaking the new.

Every week a minimum of about 3-4 lines (about 12 new routes sometimes more) somewhere in the centre are reset, and I also notice that when the resetting takes place, people not unlike the propriator of this thread are moaning about the area around those walls being closed...

SO aside from that let me see, oh yeah they've spent 11 grand on new matting for the bouldering, re painted and cuvarred the main bouldering area, and on top of that they've set over 200 bouldering problems using several grands worth of new holds and thats just in the last 2 weeks. I also understand that over the next 2 weeks they intend to go on a massive route set in the main hall now that the bouldering setting has been done.

In reply to Butterfly with a Bomb: There are about 4 main route setters on the MCC staff that I know of... ...thats Mike Borg-Costanzi, Dave Barrans, Aidie Gill, and Andy Jack. Now the entire of the top ropes around the back were set by Aidie and barely any of them are the same style. I think that route cards will only end up cluttered with unneccesary info if they were to add setters names too.
Finally regarding the staff at MCC, I cannot think of one of them that could be seen as 'unapproachable,' I personally have always been treated equally and with respect, and any questions I have asked have certainly not been met with disdain. I would suggest that even if a member of staff 'seems' unapproachable, go out of your way to approach them, ask a question and see for yourself.

In reply to ThePimpOfCrimp: "I think that route cards will only end up cluttered with unnecessary info if they were to add setters names too."

That's a fair enough comment, we were just giving suggestions on how it could be improved, in our point of view (that's not to say everyone will agree with it!). We have climbed at places such as WestWay and more recently Rope Race and found it was nice to see who set the route we just climbed on, e.g. Gaz Parry at Rope Race. Personally we didn't feel that the cards were too cluttered (some centres put grade, route setter and date all down on the same card), however that's not to say that everyone should follow suit, we were only trying to give some ideas on how as customers we think MCC could be improved.

"Finally regarding the staff at MCC, I cannot think of one of them that could be seen as 'unapproachable,' I personally have always been treated equally and with respect, and any questions I have asked have certainly not been met with disdain. I would suggest that even if a member of staff 'seems' unapproachable, go out of your way to approach them, ask a question and see for yourself."

Again, that is how you view the staff, we are merely saying that past (and present) confrontation with some of the staff has usually ended with abrupt rude answers. Perhaps they were having an off day that day? We don't know, but being customers who pay to use MCC, we would expect the staff to act in a professional manner, and respect any comments made by customers (whether we are right or wrong!) However I do think your comment is slightly biased, as we both know you work for MCC, hence of course being a staff member you are more likely to get on well with your colleagues!


We can only speak for ourselves but I agree it would be impossible to change EVERY route monthly… However some routes have been up since October, and other customers at MCC have noted this. I think the point of this thread is to draw the fact that we as customers at MCC would like some routes changed more frequently (perhaps not every month fair enough!). UkClimbing is one way of voicing our opinion to the centre, since MCC and Mr John Dunne do check UkClimbing. If MCC and John Dunne choose not to listen to our comments and reply in an unprofessional manner i.e.

“Is your eyesight ok as i think we reset 70 new routes on the run up to Xmas on the main walls.”

That is their choice (and loss!), but it also proves that the staff at MCC can be unwilling to listen and can be some what rude with their customers!

In reply to datoon:


What??? i have never even been to wilton, never mind wanting to bolt it, i prefer Trad to sport, even though im going to mallorca for a week of sport(s) climbing