UKC

I thought there would be more on here about it - how did it go? were there, in the end, any issues arising from local residents being cross about it?

In reply to Tall Clare:

My highlight was watching a skier backflip off the ramp at the snozone stand. awesome!

In reply to Tall Clare:

I went with a couple of friends and really enjoyed it.

The women's bouldering championships were really exciting (sadly I didn't get to see the men's), and the dyno competition saw the men's and women's world records broken!

I also enjoyed it from a bargain hunting point of view - I picked up a Marmot softshell for £50, which had been reduced from £180

Sadly I didn't do so well in the open pull-up competition, but I think I provided some fun for the spectators!!

In reply to Tall Clare:

Was good. Without the bouldering i dont think there was much of interest to the already hooked climber etc but their was loads of people and kids just trying stuff they'd never had a go at before. Only heard positive things from the people there. Real positive and fun atmosphere.

I know I'm asking alot but some sort of tiered watching for thre bouldering would have been awesome.

Best bit I think wass watching the kids having a go at the dyno. Even though they were consistently 3 ft short of making it they just kept going back again and again. The caving lot were super nice and enthusiastic to all the kids

In reply to Tall Clare:

We were there on Sat & have to admit to being well pleased with my daughter qualifying in 4th place for the final It was a lot bigger than I expected but everywhere we went peeps looked like they were having really good fun. I dont think the local residents would have had any grounds for complaint as the only noise there was came from the tannoy announcements, pity the beer tent was cancelled due to the locals fears. I think Idiotproof is right about having tiered seating for the comp as well, it would have made the spectating a lot better. A reporter for the local rag (The Star I think) thought it was fantastic & said she'd do a big write up but I checked today & havn't seen anything in yet!

In reply to Tall Clare:

Hi Clare,
We haven't had any feedback from the local residents (save those who attended who all seemed pleased enough!), but I am sure there will be a few who have something to say. If anybody lives locally, or visited from outside of the area, and can spare a few minutes to write an email to the Sheffield Star and / or Telegraph in support of the event it woudl be much appreciated.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/contactus.aspx

As always after an event I'm on the lookout for feedback. And as always I'm intersted in both good and bad. If you have any comments please, please email them to me or add them to this forum.

From our point of view the event went swimmingly well. There were aroiund 15,000 people over the two days (5 on Sat and 10 on Sun). I genuinely didnp't hear anybody at the event saying anything negative about what was going on. A few of the skateboarders got a little rowdy right at the last minute and started a snowball fight that necessitated security to step in, but otherwise it went great

MattH

In reply to Bill Davidson:

We're looking into raising the wall and mats half a metre or so as opposed to tiered seating. Hopefully next year...

Bill, I believe there is a great 2 page spread in the Sheffield Star today saying very positive things.

MattH

In reply to Tall Clare:
Was only there on Sunday afternoon and really regret not getting there earlier.

Much to my suprise I really enjoyed watching the bouldering comps. Agree that some sort of tiered seating would have helped - though that probably applies much more to anyone stood behind me! Also reckon thy could do with some sort of scoreboard, so you can see which of the competitors had completed the problems.

Only really got to see the climbing section - good to see both Adam Long and Nick Smith's photo exhibits - and wished we'd have had more chance to look over at the mountain bike area

Seemed to be a bit of a lack of food stalls, but otherwise it was really good and lets hope it can be run again next year. I don't know if it's a national thing, but NIMBY-ism seems rife in Sheffield at the moment

In reply to www.cliff-hanger.co.uk:
OK Matt, here's some quick feedback

A layout/plan of the site would have been really handy
Scoreboard for the bouldering comp
Better viewing for the bouldering comp
More food stalls
The "secure cycle parking" didn't seem particularly secure, but not sure if there is much that could be done about that

Other than that, thought is was really impressive, good to see so many people getting interested/enthused about the outdoors

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Thanks Chris,

Site Plan: yes, agreed, we'd planned to slip one into each programme on a piece of paper, but it slipped through the net. Next year I think we will include a rudimentaty one in the programme itself. The problem is that things change right up until the night before!

Scoreboard for the bouldering: agreed again. We're talking to the BMC about getting this sorted for next year. If anybody wants to volunteer their services on this front then please feel free

Better viewing: As mentionded in a previous thread we're looking into raising the wall and the mats by half a metre which shoudl make a massive difference.

More food stalls: agreed - we messed up there. Sorry if you waited. At least the food was good...

Bike park: something else that slipped through the net at the last minute. Was a bit of a catch22 situation in that not too many people brought their bikes so it didn't seem logical to use man-power on marshalling it. I think that those people who did use it locked their bikes to the fence at least. We'll work on this for next year.

Thanks,
MattH

In reply to www.cliff-hanger.co.uk:

Cheers Matt, Just found this as well & it is really positive http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/As-events-go-this-one.4284912.jp

The reporter was really enjoying watching the bouldering & I think it has come across in her write up. It was worth the walk to the other end of the park to get the cheap, but exceedingly good, coffee

Excellent day though & I believe the seniors had the best of the weather on the sunday

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I was there on the Saturday afternoon, and my impression was that is was great for kids and families. My favourite bits were eating a burger and playing with a 1 year old on the swings. So not really anything specifically cliffhanger related.... I didn't have any desire to go back on the Sunday, and I probably wouldn't go back next year, but that's just my opinion and I'm sure many other people felt differently.

I watched a bit of the bouldering but didn't really get too interested, maybe if I'd been able to see better this might have been different. I saw some of the snow slope stuff but to be fair it's not really my kind of thing anyway so I probably didn't appreciate it.

A plan would have been really good, then I would have been able to go to the bits I wanted to see instead of wandering round and not finding the Go Outdoors bit until I was on the way out. Where was the reverse bungee? Missed that completely. It would also have given people an idea of what food was available where.

We entered from the station direction on foot, so we walked through what looked like a local village fete with random stalls of random stuff like jam and candle holders. This probably coloured my impression of the whole thing, as it was not what I was expecting and put me off slightly.

I loved the photo exhibition - more of this would be great. A couple of the gear stands were good as well - my other half got a great Alpkit down sleeping bag and I picked up a pair of running shoes from accelerateuk.com, who were really helpful and spent a lot of time trying to find the right pair for me (hence got a sale when I'd had no intention of buying any fell running shoes!)

In reply to gobsmacker:


so what was the format for this comp? was it how many you could do in one push? also how many won it in the end? what was the prize?

In reply to adderz:

As many as you could do in a minute.

Free to enter, £50 prize (I think) for best in the weekend, plus free prize draw to all who had a go.

Let's just say I'm pretty sure I'm not in the top ten....

In reply to adderz:

I'm not sure who won it in the end, but I saw some guys getting well into the 20s when I was there on the Saturday (good effort!)

I managed 14...

In reply to gobsmacker:

My intention was to try it palms forward & then try it again later on palms up (usually a bit easier) but I didn't read the small print I think a foreign guy beat me by about five Im sure there would have been loads more on the Sunay tho!

Great that you guys are putting on this event. A couple of feedback things:

Food- not enough places so waiting was a pain

Beer- or lack of it!

Stage- as you said another metre would make all the difference

Music- better than last year but still terrible

MC- This spoiled the whole climbing comp for me. Apart from giving away clues to the competitors the monotone of Ian Smith(?) was terrible. If you went to the Skate stuff their guy was ripping it up. Get someone who is 20 years younger and knows what is going on. I've been to comps where the MC interacted with the crowd and it made for a great event (WC's, CCC etc).

Price- £5! Maybe a reduced price if you just came to watch the comp?

In reply to www.cliff-hanger.co.uk:

I attended on the saturday and left with a pretty good impression. Enjoyed the bouldering and dyno competitions very much and also particularly liked Steve McClures talk - very inspiring indeed.

For me the only real criticism is that it didn't seem at all well signposted. Normally I would expect a bit of help because I'm not familiar with Sheffield but I didn't see any signs or adverts along the roadside until I'd already come across the event (purely by chance)!!

Oh come on!

In reply to Anonymous:

Good point about the beer - it would be great with a proper ale festival, and I'd go further and say I think it could really work as a full-on weekender, with camping and maybe a bit of live music on Saturday night...

Having said that, I understand where the event was at with regards to opposition from local residents. Maybe the ale festival could make an appearance in the future, given that there were no major problems this year

I was disappointed at the lack of morris dancers and working sheepdogs, but I was pleased to come 2nd in the knobbly knees contest.

In reply to gobsmacker:

Hmmmm, Could maybe have hired one of the Decathlon tents for the Sat night!

Hope they're there next year!

In reply:
Good event in general. I think the commentator needs changing for the comp, someone who is a bit more enthusiastic and has a little more to say on the climbers etc. Someone with a bit more psych might get the event rolling a little more especially when people flash there problems and there is no one on the wall for 6 mins.
I know this is always contentious but the music selection could be a bit different as well.

In reply to Tall Clare:

We enjoyed our visit... and picked up some bargains too!

What was good? A selection of interests catered for, the cavers were really into it, the "have a go" climbing wall was also getting some good interest.
The comps tent was great.
What wasn't so great? Well... you could try signposting the event next year... Sheffield is dreadful for signs at the best of times though!!
More outdoor stalls, along the lines of the bike show... make it a point of pilgramage for all the outdoorsy types by getting more vendors with bargains on board. (I was gutted Go outdoors ran out of rope!)

Many thanks for an event to look forward to though, I will be supporting it next year.

In reply to adamskib:

Sorry about the lack of signs. Something else to work on for next year. In about 5 years time, when we're hosting the climbing world championships (that's the plan) it should be perfect . Keep the comments coming - without them it's all the more difficult to improve.

BTW, thanks to UCK for facilitating this - it's a great service

MattH

In reply to www.cliff-hanger.co.uk:

Forewent my lunch at home as I thought 'I'll grab a dirtburger when I get to Cliffhanger'. Rumbly tummy all afternoon as the only food vans had massive queues!

Disappointed no bungy crane. Some bushcraft stuff would have fitted in well too.

Enjoyed the bouldering. Good spectacle and congrats to all involved. Tiered seating, or a big screen, would have been useful. Live scores would have made it much more involving too, knowing what was at stake for which competitor.
The MC giving away beta was understandable in the circumstances, but very unprofessional- I'm surprised there hasn't been more said about that.
You need somebody with a bit more knowledge and energy on the mic- Sam Whittaker maybe?!

In reply to Tall Clare:


See above for psoitive commenets post.. other things I think

the food thing was definately an issue... felt like a 'real' festival having to queue for 3o mins for food.

Also the movie/speaker tent was too light (maybe not a white marque) and also better info about what was on/when.... maybe just a chalkboard outside.

But still a top event

In reply to Tall Clare: Great event, really enjoyed it and stayed the whole day Sunday, cycling in from Walkley was less of a mission than last year too The outdoor retailers were good (CragX, Embers Merino, Alpkit, PlanetFear and the like) and I'd miss them if they weren't there. The exhibition tent was cool, perhaps more to it next year?

Most of the big issues have been done to death above and on the Sheffield Forum so I'll not expand overly here. Better signage and a map included would have been good, especially factoring in the 'split' nature of the site.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned putting the bouldering in front of a hill somewhere, although pitching a marquee on a slope is probably easier said than done. It depends of course whether you're in the same park next year.

Overall a good event, well done Matt and co. for putting it on. No-one I've spoken to has had a bad word to say, I just hope the police attendance at the end hasn't caused a problem for the future.

In reply to bencarpenter:

(sorry for the long post)
Lots of stuff to keep the kiddies happy, screaming and running around like headless chickens, they were wasted at the end of the day – brilliant

Well organised; water features, free-climbing walls, assisted-climbing, shaded open access tents – were there any face painting stalls?

Excellent venue, lots of places to sit and rest/watch, good roads to and from, local knowledge offered me good parking, perhaps the same could be passed on for next year. Secure motor/bike park would be a winner (fuels only going to go up, people will bike).

Kiddy play area with snow – genius, back-flipping skiers - WOW

Perhaps the favoured food-stall holders could increase their sizes/numbers or improve their preparation times (pre-prepare foods?) remind them of this years queues – it’ll be a winner all-round.

Orange T-shirted support staff, fairly visible - nice, perhaps give them orange trousers as well.

Climbing comp MC, probably knew his stuff, but the fella on the snozone was whipping the crowd up – good crack.

A shoppers paradise – bargains galore

How much info could be web-based? Maps, routes, parking, venue guides, and updatable right up to the last minute.

I didn’t see where the numpties were parking that caused difficulties, perhaps that style of parking location could be fenced off prior to the day/morning – alternatively just let the Police fetch the idiots motor away and cube it.

Sorry you lost your World record…(must try harder)

NIMBY’s – no problem, they all stayed in their own back yard….(cut your nose, despite your face?)

Water fountains please? Yeah I know, the vendors may lose out…tricky one

Parkour – on telly it seems vaguely unreal (from the possibility of special effects), in the flesh…………Blimey Charley.

One word sum-up

Winner

In reply to joe pubic:

When exactly did Ian give away beta. I heard someone say that he had mentioned the holds around the arete on women's problem 5 in the final but from what I remember he only said anything after Audrey had seen the holds herself.

In reply to The Foolgene:
Climbing MC vs Snozone MC:

If the climbing MC had been yelling away like the snozone MC "Come on Sheffield, make some noise, can you believe that, a triple decker 720 double whammy blah blah blah" then I'm sure one of the competitors would have turned round and decked him. And he'd have been at the head of a long queue. Very differant sports requiring very differant approaches (mind you I still can't stand it in snow sports either!).

Climbing MC did do pretty well at getting the crowd going when the climber needed it - i.e. right on the final moves, but I guess you have to be careful that you don't distract other climbers when they are just starting on the problems - at that point you generally need to concentrate and having people yelling at you will put you off.

In reply to all those asking for tiered seating for the comp - at least (unlike last year) the tent itself didn't obscure the top of the wall.

In reply to Chris the Tall:
Totally agree there Chris. Ian did a good job and does know his stuff having MC'd climbing comps for years including big World cup events. Perhaps the only addition would be some well known guest climbers to mix it up with Ian, which has happened in the past and worked well.
Different sports need different things.

In reply to David Simmonite:

Agreed, Ian does a lot of homework before each comp so that he's clued up on the competitors. I think that Dave is right, the best bet would be to have some guest climbers sharing the job with Ian - something I am sure he would welcome given that it's a pretty full on job!

MattH

In reply to www.cliff-hanger.co.uk: just had an e-mail from James (my son) saying that he and his Girfriend, and Nicky (my Daughter) and her boyfriend entered the dyno comp, "but we didnt do very well", hardly surprising as he has hardly even climbed for about two years, and I did point out to him that the world record was broken

In reply to Tall Clare:
I think a 'chill-out' area with some relaxed music, no amped-up rock or techno, but jazz or acoustic, would be nice. We spent all day there and from time to time we just wanted to sit down and relax, not watching or doing anything. To have an area, perhaps with tables and chairs, where we could sit and have a cuppa and listen to some gentle live music would have been nice, in my opinion. Something like that wouldn't have intruded on the residents.

We went both days. Saturday was spoiled only by the cold! Can you believe how cold it felt for July?! I mightn't be surprised on top of Cross Fell but in a sheltered valley in Sheffield? Brr! Still, has to be an improvement on last year's weather!

On Sunday, Mr Heason's delivery of sunshine arrived and it was like a proper summer's day. Lovely and warm.

I thought the park was ace and perfect for the event. We had no problem finding anything and I can't understand how anyone could; it's a straight line from one end of the park to the other! You just followed the paths until you reached the perimeter fence, when you knew you'd come to the end of the site.

My own favourite event was the trials biking. We watched most of their displays and chatted to the lads, Danny and Ben, two world-class trials riders whose names I recognised from past issues of MBUK. My only gripe there was that their single-speaker PA struggled to cope with the mic as well as the music. A separate amp/speaker for the mic would be better, as the commentary wasn't always clear. Superb show though lads, this from a keen mountain biker who can't even do a wheelie!

I thought the bouldering and dyno comps communicated a lot of excitement, although I'm not a big fan of watching climbing comps personally. I'd suggest placing the film/lecture tent further away from the comp tent next time, as the noise on Sunday definitely interfered with the audibility of the lectures and films. Also, if possible, a bigger screen than the plasma TV would be better, and a mic for the lectures!

Another idea would be an outdoor gear 'car boot' sale, where people could flog or swap unwanted kit.

The art section was great. Nice to meet Adam Long, whose photography was stunning. It's not fair that someone who has the good looks of Chris Sharma, obviously climbs hard in all aspects of the sport, from bouldering to greater ranges mountaineering, and is obviously a really nice bloke, should be a flippin' talented photographer as well!

Only joking of course.

It was great to see the bushcraft displays from the Sheffield Parks and Countryside Rangers. I'd love to see more of that, in fact. Lovely blokes too. They're the ones I'd want to hook up with when armageddon comes. Shame the iron smelting didn't happen; I fancied seeing that done. I'd also like to see some charcoal-making, as I know that there are some small-scale producers in the region, and it's a bit of a cult activity, and perhaps more achievable than iron-smelting.

Maybe it would be better to have the market stalls somewhere in the middle of it all, rather than at one end, as on the Saturday at least, many people weren't going down that end of the park, and I suspect takings were slow. Being central would mean a lot more people passing by between events. Maybe a few signs would help too, or a small map of the site given on entry?

With regard to the water sports, it was ace to see the boating lake being used for the kayaking, which seemed very popular. Maybe if the Sheaf had enough water, there could be some rafting next year! Probably not though.
One question. Why was the boating lake water so blue? It looked like the stuff you get in chemical toilets!

The SCUBA tank was doing a roaring trade, which was great, and a brilliant idea.

Loved the snowslope too, and whoever had the idea of piling the excess snow up for the kids deserves a pint for the idea!

I noticed that behind the snowslope was something which looked like part of the old lido, which wasn't being used. Next time, maybe that could be brought into it and used for parkour, bmx or skating demos? Lots of ledges, walls and slopes there.

Also, it would be good to have some bike skills demos or tuition. I'm a mountain biker, and took my bike on the Sunday, and it would have been great if there'd been somewhere/someone where I could have received a few hints and tips on, say, doing and maintaining a trackstand, or doing a manual or bunnyhop, none of which I can do properly. Get Steve Peat on the job!

As for transport, we live in Norton Lees. Saturday we walked down and back, Sunday we cycled, and it was no problem at all. I didn't see any traffic congestion, and it seems the fears on that score were largely unfounded, which is great.

Oh, and it was great to meet Sloper and his lovely wife and bairn. Not seen him since the Almscliff picnic in 2002 when he belayed me on GW!

Thanks Matt and bring on next year, bigger and better!

What did people think of the caving area?

I still have bruises from the Speleolymmpics! I spent most of Saturday afternoon dressed in yellow PVC (too warm) encouraging kids through the sqeeze machine and a fair few parents too.

In reply to bridget143:

Ye'd have spent more than an afternoon there if I'd tried to squeeze thro!!!

In reply to bridget143: I didn't have a go, but I did have a good look and watched the videos on the little telly. It made me want to take up caving again, which I keep threatening to do.

In reply to Tall Clare: I went to both the Cliffhangers the 1st one at Graves park was great and they definately tried to make it bigger and better this year.

The guys on the trials bikes were excellent definately worth watching.
The inclusion of the mini ski run was really well presented and really gave some personality to the event something that was lacking elsewhere around the park.
I loved the revolving wall at the army guys stand.

Some disappointments though: No Beer festival as was advertised,
No white knuckle rides (unless you include the roller coaster for under 7's!!!)
The kayaking great for kids but would have been nice if the young at heart could have joined in and had a go.
there was also a lack of food and drink.
there also wasn't anywhere near as many freebies or competitions as last year and there didn't seem to be as many good bargains.
It also seemed very quiet and the hosts seemed to be a little stand offish (Mountain Junky and Kadirs tree houses exceptions these were really friendly and we are gonna book trips with both as result along with Challenge cancer who were all really enthusiastic)maybe as it was the second of a very long day or maybe because the park seemed to really stretch things out instead of being grouped together.
would also have liked to have seen a few more have a go things aimed at adults like the dyno.

Saying all of this still doesn't take away from the fact that it was an excellent day out and being able to see some masters at work in the bouldering and dyno comp was incredible and very inspiring.
We will definitely be returning next year with more mates. Would definitely recommend to others.

Some videos I took of the Men's final can be seen here:

http://qik.com/groups/113