UKC

Just popped in to the Reading Climbing Centre whilst out on my bike and a very kind man called John let me in to have a look round - even though they were clearly very, very busy!!

The pictures on their facebook page do not do it justice, loads of lead lines, couple of jamming cracks, loads of variation in positive/negative surface to give variation on lead routes and the beam that crosses the top at one end looks like it will give some excellent end of route moves...

Bouldering area is massive but they had not started setting it, lead area was nearly all set and there were masses of routes.

Saw a load of lockers at one end waiting to be put in and they told me their in-house cafe is going to be provided by Picnic an independent company who have cafe in Reading town centre.

It looks great and I can't wait to climb there.

He did say the opening is now likely to be Thursday 23rd September.

It looks more than worth the wait.

Wicked, this is some goooooooooooooooooooooooood news... I have been counting the days down till this opens, its all coming together.

In reply to 98%monkey:

I've got to add that the coffee is excellent and so is the chocolate and orange cake!

The bouldering wall is far from complete. The main wall is accessible and fully useable. All routes are being grade verified by staff and punters. The staff are friendly an couteous. Only things missing are lights in the toilets and bike racks. But apparently these are being fixed.

In reply to 98%monkey:
Spent all day today climbing there and first impressions are that it's a really good centre.
There are around 75 lines set at the moment, although very few were graded so we spent most of the day making a list of what we thought the grades might be.

The route setting was good and not a single spinner!
At the moment, only a few top ropes are set (about 20?) so bring a lead rope or come with someone that can lead. I'm sure more top-ropes will appear in due course, this was probably a temporary thing. We had no trouble finding climbs within our grades (5-6c)and there were plenty more harder grades. Plenty of choice for all and a few low easy walls for beginners.

The walls are a lot more angular than those at Craggy, much more like the Castle but there are no sculpted / spray on features walls. Also a roof section with some wicked grades on it and some mean overhangs for the muscle hustlers.
Very friendly staff, and had an interesting chat with John D himself who was keen for feedback.
The bouldering are looks like it will be very extensive as well, but not yet equipped.
Very spacious in there, with natural light (!) and it looks like there is plenty of room for expansion as time goes on.
Good food in the caff, and real coffee.
Decent changing rooms (with shower), and no problem with parking.
All in all, a great new climbing wall and I'm sure it will become extremely popular.

Thumbs up!