UKC

hi everyone,

im going to the ice factor in Kinlochleven in the summer and was wondering wat it was like??

nick

In reply to nickm:
Very very good. See http://www.ice-factor.com/.

In reply to At work estivator: thanks. is there access for wheel chairs

In reply to nickm: good access for wheel chairs inside and out

In reply to nickm:

Nick,

Yep! Been a couple of times and its excellent!!! Seem to remember a couple of wheelchairs! Although they were empty!!!
P

In reply to nickm:

It's good fun for half a day's killing time if the weather's bad. The wall is fine and the ice bit, though smaller than it looks on the web, is good. It's also reasonably priced I think, with a nice area for food and chilling out.

In reply to nickm:

Went on Saturday morning before my 8 hour drive home to sunny Hertfordshire

It's an excellent venue and I think very good value for money. £12 for a two session (each) plus an extra couple of quid for joining and any kit you need. When you first go in it does feel quite small but once you're up on the routes you forget about it. From my perspective it was my first time on steep ice and some routes even overhang. There was about 12-16 people in it whilst we were there which seemed about right. As far as booking in advance they do not release all the slots to pre-booked climbers so you can in theory turn up on the day and still have a chance to climb.

Truly an excellent venue and well worth the visit as part of a trip or as a poor weather venue.

In reply to nickm: It is fab.
I'd never ice climbed before, and it got me used to using axes and crampons properly and gave me loads of confidence for the real thing. Plus it was really good fun- but totally knackering! two hours is really all you need.Considering the investment involved in setting it up, quite good value as well, especially when it's pissing it down outside.

However- one or two safety niggles. I think goggles are pretty much essential. It's very easy to pull out an axe a bit too forcefully, expecially as as beginner and whack your face with the adze or hammer. Not nice. Also lots of shards of ice coming off all the time. I was the only person wearing goggles and I thought it was a necessity. I think they should enforce this, if only for their own insurance costs.

Also, I think the staff there should be a bit more vigilant to the standard of belaying.
I saw extremely sloppy and actually downright dangerous belaying at the climbing wall there and no staff appeared to be taking any notice at all. The blokes left before i plucked up the courage to say anything (and they looked quite hard) but it could have been nasty. Another person I know (instructor)who went saw v.dangerous climbing and belaying in the ice bit which would have resulted in lovely cramponed faces.

Perhaps someone could be keeping more of an eye?

Overall though, a fabulous facility and great fun.

In reply to Nicola Seal:

Hi Nicola.
Thanks for the feedback on the centre, always interested to hear what customers think.

In answer to your safety points:
In general (as you will see if you read the forums here regularily) a large number of climbers respond negatively to what they see as 'interference', 'molly coddling' and generally wall staff teaching them to suck eggs. Having said that floorwalking is a major part of our safety policy and we try to have someone take a walk past the climbing areas as regularily as possible. Then the centre employee in question has to make a judgement on what they see; is this a competent belayer who is being a little sloppy or is this an accident about to happen. Next they have to approach the climber(s) involved in a tactful manner and ensure they address the situation appropriately. This is all quite a skill in itself. It also does not mean we will see every incident that could possibly be dangerous, or that we will intervene instantly when best practise is not being adhered to, that is why we ask that users of the centre be happy that they are competent in various aspects of climbing and aware of the risks and hazards involved. Climbing is still essentially about personal responsibility (that's why many of us do it) and were we to watch all climbers in a hawklike fashion and insist on adherence to 'the one true way' much of this would be lost.
So there is a balance to be struck between watchfulness and over-protectiveness and that can be hard to strike. We welcome comments from climbers like yourself and if you ever see a situation you are concerned about please come and mention it to a staff member, it will be taken seriously.

Regarding goggles: we do encourage their use and do not charge for them. As we are trying to simulate ice climbing in an indoor environment we are also trying to apply appropriate safety measures comparable with those we all use in an outdoor environment. Most ice climbers do not make a practise of always wearing face protection (although helmet visors are becoming more popular) as yet. We also ask that users be aware of the risks involved in the activity and take responsibility for this decision themnselves. If they are not sufficiently experienced to do this they are the guest of a member who is, or under instruction by an instructor who will make that decision based upon the activity undertaken, consistency of the ice, the route attempted, skill level of the client, tools in use (we only rent hammers as we believe a popping hemmer is likely to be less damaging than an adze) etc.

In short we do try to oversee the use of the centre, we advise, educate and correct as we can to prevent accidents but we also hold the belief that a key element of climbing is personal responsibility and are keen to avoid appearing over-perscriptive. If you feel we are getting the balance wrong, as I say, thanks for the feedback, we will continue to try to maintain a high standard centre as best we can.

Lastly, GLAD YOU ENJOYED YOUR SESSION - HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN SOON.

AL.

In reply to Nicola Seal:

I was there at the weekend and I have to say the one thing that struck me was the safety aspect which seemed a trifle lax. The staff need to be up and about keeping an eye on some of the things going on in there - though obviously without being too officious about it. It's a fine line to draw but these days climbing wall staff can't afford not to be on the ball.

In reply to Alnotloggedin: Cheers for replying.

I understand the need to avoid mollycoddliing at climbing walls, totally. I would be annoyed if I was at a wall and someone was being overly officious and making me belay in a certain way etc.

However, what I saw- bloke taking beginner up wall, slack actually touching floor all the time, letting go of live rope, dropping it on floor and picking it back up again- downright dangerous. The bloke on the sharp end clearly was beginner and so couldn't really assess the danger. If they had carried on climbing like this for longer, i would have told staff members and would do next time.

Since your ice wall has increased risks for climbers over a normal climbing wall due to there being lots of sharp pointy things everywhere, I would expect safety to be more rigid than a normal climbing wall. granted, you do enforce use of helmets, but these do not protect the face- something goggles do.

I can see it is only a matter of time before someone gets hit in the face, puts in a claim 'I wasn't warned, I was only a beginner, the dangers were not clearly stated etc' and your insurance skyrockets.

This kind of thing is unfortunately endemic now , and although i think people should take personal responsibility for their own safety, if I were you, i would want to cover my back.

anyway, that said, i'll be back - wearing goggles of course!