I had a day off today and felt like a climb so headed down to my local climbing wall, which just happens to be the Brixton climbing wall. The area has a traverse wall, 5 top ropes and an auto belay. It’s essentially a small gym without any bouldering and as I had no belay partner I was committed to a solo mini session in a mini gym.
The sun streamed through the open skylight as I approached the garish colourful wall squeezed into a corner of the building. The only folk using the wall were staff so I had the place to myself, after a stretch on the cold floor I booted up and jumped on the traverse wall, it’s by no means huge though does have a sufficient range of problems to give you a good stretch and a further warm up.
I’d given the climbing wall itself a good eyeball and liked some of the placements that were on offer but with no partner I passed the five top ropes and figured the 4-5 routes by the auto belay would keep me busy for a while. I inspected the robo-belay with due suspicion and whilst slurping some water one of the staff cheerily asked if I’d like a belay, rather than ask her to do my own ‘tying-in induction’ I figured I could trust her since she had the word STAFF stamped on her back. As she was ‘ruining’ my solo session I decided I wasn’t going to offer her a belay as she was getting paid to be here. Having not been on a top rope for sometime I enthusiastically and selfishly climbed all over the wall enjoying the easy and the harder routes and treated it as a stamina crank. At one point my foot slipped and my fall was of little consequence, caught by my cheery staff belayer.
Whilst on another breather I watched as some dark clouds rolled in and rained down on the skylight. It was time for the auto belay, I clipped in, checked it, said a prayer and checked it again. ‘take’ I muttered to myself as I reached a height of about two meters and threw myself back from the wall. Everything seemed to be working, so I tested it at 3 metres, still working. With confidence in my robo-belay I climbed until I found a few problems that were testing me as well as soaking me in sweat. Some of the smaller holds were quite slippery due I suspect to the air in the community centre (at this indoor altitude) its warm and this kind of humidity isn’t an ideal climbing condition.
Brixton’s wall has a chimney hidden in the corner, a small overhang and a crack on the far right over 6 active routes. I did find three spinners in less than two hours but maybe that is normal with new walls. It’s certainly not as big as it gets out North, East or West of central London but I have seen photographic evidence that the Brixton wall can support the weight of a whole climbing club, so it can’t be all that bad if you don’t fancy a lead climb or any bouldering.
The price however does not reflect what is on offer. If you walk in off the street an actual session will cost you £10 which isn’t all that attractive, if you pay £7 quid a year you get access to a range of walls all over London and a session will then cost you £6.
All in all I had an enjoyable session, perhaps I could have done with a mat to stretch on and a drinking fountain but as I live in Brixton I’m glad there is again a climbing facility nearby.
Steven Love
