UKC

Anyone been? What's the story, do you just turn up with your axes, crampons and boots and go for it? I assume ropes are in situ?

Ta

In reply to scaramanga:

Its great and reasonable too - about £15 iirc! I went earlier this year. Ropes are in situ, you can use your own gear or hire boots, crampons and axes there. You'll need a helmet too. There are short and long walls and a mixed wall.

In reply to Tiggs:




And Tiggs loved every minute of it!!

In reply to scaramanga: i went on sunday and i thought it was great.

there were other groups booked that day, and there is a set amount allowed in at a time, so u might want to book.

all ropes are there, and they are good clean ropes (unlike lots of climbing centres).

different lengths of climb, and theres even a mixed wall, altho why u want to mess with thin ice and rock, when there is lovely pure ice i dont know.

we had it to ourselfs aswell

top place

In reply to scaramanga:

Was there last week. Ropes in situ, can either hire their equip (very good and incredibly cheap considering how expensive it is to buy)or take your own. Numbers allowed in the freezer restricted so you may want to book to avoid disappointment.

Absolutely fantatstic place, great ice, great walls as well which for an extra £2 you can also use. Very clean and not smelly and all the staff fantastic. They also do really nice food in the Cafe.

My only issue with it is that it is so far away from where I live as otherwise I'd be there every night. Can't rave about it enough

In reply to scaramanga:

Ditto above. I believe every other hour is bookable and the others are turn up and go. It's worth a phone call to check/book.

In reply to scaramanga: Have they repacked the Ice? I was last there in march and it was getting pretty thin all over. Still good fun though. You'll need to book but you can spend ages on the climbing walls aswell while you wait your turn.

In reply to graeme jackson:

Think they must have re-packed it since you were there as it was good last week. Great aerated stuff lower down and challenging water-ice once you reach about 15 feet up.

In reply to tb:

Forgot to add "which I mostly fell off" at the end of this.

In reply to tb: as did i, i like the nice stuff on the bottom two thirds that ure axes bite into lovely.

the pure ice was also a "challenge" by which i mean i would hack at it with big chunks falling off and going down my shirt, and then me falling off it.

In reply to jimtheape:

Sounds very familiar! I was OK until my feet got up to the water ice. Seemed to be do-able with the axes (large chunks down top aside) but the moment my feet got onto it I seemed to come flying off. Made my wife (belaying and much better at it than me) laugh a lot though!

In reply to jimtheape:



Cos any wazzock (apart from the english school-kids who were there when I was) can tw@ there way up pure neve, but the challenge is when you get shitnon-existent ice, torques etc.