UKC

Hey all,
This is my first post here. shame it has to be a mopey one. I've been enjoying climbing for 2+ years and started off indoor bouldering, training 3 times a week alone. When I met my partner last March, he really took to climbing and we ended up taking a few courses and progressing to outdoor trad. This has all been very enjoyable and quite unexpected. I never imagined I would move outdoors but I've developed a fierce addiction to all kinds of climbing. I have other friends that climb, but my partner and I have always been just that - climbing partners. Due to unforeseen circumstances we have decided to separate which alone in itself is very hurtful. But I have come to realise I will also be losing my regular climbing partner. I desperately want to get outdoors and climbing has always been my therapy, but it is a reminder of the fun we used to have together and I am having difficulty finding a new partner. I like the idea of being very close and able to trust a climbing partner and I believe I might find it hard to just go climbing with total strangers. Have any of you experienced this double whammy before? Are there any Bristol based climbing clubs of people that don't yet have regular partners? Thanks for your time.

In reply to UpWear:

Join a club
Climb with loads of different partners - old, young, male and female
Don't look for a relationship in your climbing partnership

This way you will avoid any feelings of rejection, desolation, mopiness or anything else when your partner moves, drops out, gets injured, has a baby or all the other things that make folk stop climbing sometimes

In reply to UpWear:

Falling out with the guy I used to climb with was probably one of the best things that happened to me in recent years. As he became more and more politically correct, I took him less and less seriously, and since he was someone who took himself very seriously indeed, at some stage on that journey, the relationship became doomed.

After he had a hissy fit over something or other and didn't want to accept my apology, I did a quick check on what it was that he brought to my life that no-one else had, and the answer was 'climbing'. So I joined a club, started climbing with lots of different people and in the course of that, I learned to do it 'properly' or at any rate, to branch out on my own and to be a lot more adventurous. It went from being something I did every now and then to something that has really changed my life. So I would really endorse the advice you've had above.

I usually climb in the Peak District, so if you fancy a trip up there, feel free to ask, and I wouldn't mind exploring the Mendips at some stage either. There might well be other people who I climb with who'd come along too so you'd probably meet a few more people as well as me and if you apply that principle more widely, you'll end up with a choice of partners to go out with.

In reply to UpWear:

Hi, if you are in Bristol and looking to join a club, there is the Avon Mountaineering Club. I joined just over a year ago and it's a great active club with friendly people and lots of trips (weekly meetups in / near Bristol in the summer and usually one or two trips each month further afield). I have met a lot of good climbing partners there. If you are worried about climbing with strangers, you can go to the pub meets and chat to people to get an idea of what it is like (there is one tonight actually in the Pump House).

There are also Facebook groups like the Bristol Climbing Scene and Bristol Climbing Friends where you can post looking for partners, though I haven't used them quite as much. Hope this helps.

In reply to UpWear:

My ex was my main climbing partner and I thought it might effect my climbing, but I probably climb more now than I did then. There's tons of people out there to climb with who are super cool and you'll have a great time with.

I don't don't of what clubs there are round Brizzle but there must be a FB group

In reply to UpWear:


As Rob Mentioned there is the Avon Mountaineering club which is an active climbing/mountaineering club which has members who climb at most grades. In the summer they have two weekend trips away per month, which reduces to around one per month in the winter. There is also a monthly pub meet where you can get to know members.

In reply to UpWear:

Thank you all so much for your replies, I will join the Avon club as suggested, and have made two new climbing friends at the wall. I't's amazing how many new people you meet when you go climbing alone. I may have to find a new wall for a bit though, turns out my ex and I are on the same schedule and he turned up at the wall when i did!

Once again thank you all for your support. I would never be able to give up the sport I hold dear.
Best wishes,
Lydian

In reply to UpWear:

There's also 4 points https://www.facebook.com/groups/806368246048872/ for the whole south west. Also at the end of the month there's the BMC Cornish festival: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/www.thebmc.co.uk/bmc-cornish-climbing-walking-fest...