UKC

Has anyone been there? Any good? Worth the money?

Hope to hear

I was hearing good things from trustworthy people who had (at the BMC office). 

Brilliant wall. So great to see a small local wall offer the services of the big multi centres. Great training facilities and the hold selection is superb! Not just your usual boring selection that you see everywhere, they really have gone overboard with the holds on offer!!! Great shapes on the build, Andy Long has done an outstanding job with the space provided and it isn't just overhang central! Loads of slabs and vert as well. Pizzas and coffee are decent too!! My one moan is that when I went there was little kids running everywhere, I kept looking around for their parents but couldn't find them. Parental education is key! It's not a playground!! Other than that, excellent facility.

Yes. Excellent bouldering facility. Good selection and well thought out problems. A good mix of steep, vertical and slabby with features etc. Friendly staff and a cafe.

Well worth the visit if localish or passing through. 

Sounds good - I’ll give it a try.

Thanks all - I'll pay a visit soon (seems a bit expensive tho)

Just to echo what others have said, it's really very good. The setting and hold selection are really good and there's a really good grade range. Plus it's pretty big, a proper centre not just a local wall. 

OK. I live in Macc too. I'll give it a go (if I dare with my new hip)

I have been and I would say it's the best bouldering wall I have been to.

Excellent array of holds and well thought out problems.

Ben West and Cailean Harker were involved so credit to their excellent work

Sounds like it’s better than the one that use to be in Mac sports centre in the 80’s!

Better than? Very different, I'm sure, but I used the old leisure centre wall a great deal. They had plans for an up to date wall at one time, but bottled out. Sad

it was rubbish though looking back. .........Altrincham was far better. ......

But is it better than Sid’s...............

A £5 a year membership gets you in at £8, without that it's £10. This is identical to The Depot.

How much would not seem a bit expensive to you?

I'm not sure that I expected someone to "dislike" my post, but there you go. For the benefit of the person who did that and the guy who thinks eight quid is a bit expensive, there are things you probably didn't know. That money gets you in for the whole day, not just 30 minutes. It repays for the investment they made, as well as paying for more obvious things like wages, insurance, tax, utilities, rates, national insurance contributions, maintenance, computer systems, subscriptions to software and probably a few other things too. Perhaps only a pound of your entry fee is profit. Once you know those things, you'll hopefully appreciate that £8 is pretty good value.

Maybe the yearly membership thing.

I hope not - if they consider 42p a month "a bit expensive" then they're even more detached from (commercial) reality than I thought!

On a positive note, it's a really good wall and beats the 2hr+ return drive to the Depot.

42p a month? Wow that is cheap. Was that supposed to be £42 per month? 

I think it is £400 for an annual pass, so £33 a month which is a competitive price. I can only think of 2 NW walls with lower annual prices, and the Depot is a fair bit more.

I have been twice with my kids (who weren't running around!) and will be back regularly. It is definitely a quality mid sized bouldering venue, with great setting and superb pizzas. 

Hello. No, it was supposed to be 42p a month because we were on about the annual membership @ £5 a year. This gives a £2 discount on entry for the year.

The annual pass is very good value if you go every month, although I'd only ever go for a few months in the winter, but for those who are committed indoor boulderers it's certainly a good deal at £400.

Had a session there this morning and it looks snd feels like a fab set up. Bigger walls, up to 4 meters and a training area downstairs, smaller wall upstairs, looks like this area is aimed at kids. 

As previously stated, lots of diffrent holds and really fab problems which get u working both physically and mentally.  

From what I've read, run by climbers for climbers. 

Looks like it might be my new go to place fir bouldering. 

Just got back from a bumbling couple of hours there.  It's a really nice venue with very good use of space and varied surfaces.   Did all the yellows, most of the pinks, tried some reds and got a few depite being tired, and  ditto for a few greens (only got one).   Feels quite high downstairs.. they say upto 4.5m ... and the mats are still a bit hard so I wouldn't fancy falling off the top...spotters advised  for hard moves up high. The green and purple easy circuit looked a bit ladder like (the Depot whites are better set) but otherwise the setting was excellent on a good range of interesting holds. Grading wise it's the usual problems with V grades but the colour ranges seem to work. None of the yellows (V1 to V2) was harder than V0 (people climbing these will get a shock outdoors when using Over the Moors problems in the V1 to V2 range) and the red range seemed to me to stretch from V1 to a good bit harder than I can climb. Greens and Pinks overlapped a bit more than indicated. Pink numbers were not really in order of difficulty, eg  9 was quite tough and 23 pretty easy.

The signing-in video was the best I have ever seen in terms of a responsible safety introduction to a facility.  If only everyone paid attention to such information. I joined for the year figuring at least 3 vists was likely. As with all top facilities I see the entry cost as very good value.

Thanks for the replies, except that I don't need a lesson in basic arithmetic thank-you from the arrogant dogman. If I wished to spend all day there, then I would see it as good value indeed, but I can't boulder for long without getting bored, and anyway my interest was somewhat hypothetical since I have a  one-year-old replacement hip and I'm not sure it's the right place to go at the moment.  But being a climber I don't always do what's best  and I'll probably check it out anyway (if my hip allows) 

I liked that wall!! In the days before climbing walls....I especially liked the 3 concrete slabs which to be fair had some tricky moves!!

There were some proper hard eliminates to be had at that old wall, I have fond memories of the place.

This new place sounds good, I'll be back visiting in the new year so will probably take the kids for a play.

I'm not arrogant, I'm just bored of people complaining about things being "expensive" when they have no concept of the costs involved. It wasn't a lesson in basic maths, it was an explanation of the challenges in turning a profit for an independent business. This just happened to scotch your claim of it being "a bit expensive"...

Yes it's good. Go on, treat yourself!

Hi John - I've no doubt now that it is worth it - just worried that hip-replacement and bouldering go together well! Soloing's OK of course - if you fall there are many other bodyparts to damage!

Just don't climb up anything you can't reverse.

Hmm, it's a bit high, and the mats are a bit hard... I've not yet been upstairs to check out the small wall but there may be better traversing possibilities up there...