UKC

23 years after first visiting Groningen, Alan James makes a return visit and discovers that the scrappy local wall he climbed on in the 1980s has been replaced by the World's tallest free-standing climbing wall.

On the visit in 1986 he says, "It was a curious feeling when compared to back in Sheffield where I was just another E3/4 leader amongst a lot of much better climbers; in Groningen I was suddenly a ground-breaking visionary first ascensionist!"

The return 23 years later led to a meeting with an old friend and an insight into why Holland may now be leading the World in terms of climbing centre development.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1827

In reply to UKC Articles:

Jeez, that is something else. Very impressive.

In reply to the crabbit man: Quite a piece of architecture.

In reply to UKC Articles:
hmmm... i am reminded of an old pokketz cartoon in OTE about the next generation of top climbers being dutch and a wall that was not entirely dissimilar to that amazing place...

In reply to UKC Articles: Awesome looking structure. Looks to be nearly as good as Broughton

In reply to UKC Articles: Amazing looking! Cor the Dutch don't do things by half!

In reply to Dom Whillans:

The vision of Alan James.

In reply to Mark Reeves:

The wall weighs 11 tonnes but it is embedded in 500 tonnes of concrete.

There is a photo set of the making of the wall on the Bjoeks site here - http://www.bjoeks.nl/gallery.htm#fotos

Click on the top right photo that is captioned "Foto's van de bouw van de toren".

Cartoon is here - http://www.rockfax.com/publications/pdfs/kylie-moon.pdf

Alan

In reply to UKC Articles:

Is it bad that I am now considering Holland over a Holiday to Font?

In reply to UKC Articles:

Now why can't we have something like that ie iconic,aesthetic and challenging' here?

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Because it rains all the time?

In reply to Alan James - UKC: Ha ha, I love those old cartoons.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Awesome. And, drat - I was in Holland with a hire car and four hours spare ten days ago. That would have saved me a lot of windmill and tulip photography !

Alan, you need to get along to Redpoint in Brum. The route setting there is two cuts above most other places I've climbed in the UK, which lately includes Westway, Amersham, Creation, Altar Rock, Nottingham.

And then, spread the word.

Y

In reply to UKC Articles:

what an excellent looking wall. Having only been to one Dutch wall it's good to see there are better options out there in Holland. The one in Rotterdam i went to was top rope only for some bizarre reason even though it was 15m tall. The bouldering was also crap....loads of crap holds which hadn't been changed in years which spun this way and that, above some very dodgy matting.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Thanks for that Alan, a real nice article to read.

I am half Dutch and visit the country quite regularly. Looks like a new place to investigate when I'm next across.

Good stuff.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Of course, all of you are invited to come to Groningen anytime, and have a look for yourself!

The Bjoeks Boulder Experience is a great chance to do so. It will be held next month on saturday 27 and 28 of june. It is the oldest Dutch Boulder Competetion, but it is not only for top-climbers, we try to make it fun for climbers at any level, with lots of boulders in all grades. There's a barbecue and party saturdaynight, and it is possible to camp on the field next to Bjoeks.
If you join on saturday, you can climb on sunday for free, and try a route at the tower for example... http://www.bjoeksboulderexperience.nl/

Wilma
Klimcentrum Bjoeks

In reply to UKC Articles:

So exactly how tall is that thing? And do you have to multipitch it?? it certainly looks big enough!

In reply to Mckenzie:

To quote the article:

At 37m tall it is the tallest free-standing climbing wall in the World


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

god dam i read the entire article and i swear it didnt say that... cheers anyway.