UKC

I looked at this a few weeks ago, thought about attending but the distance meant a hotel and stuff so it would've cost a couple of hundred quid.

But I thought it must be a proper 'National Climbing Competition' (whatever that is, but advertised by The BMC etc), so not put off by the cost alone.

Today's post in the UKC Gear section suddenly made me wonder what it was all about.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4208

“Rock UK are Christians passionate about developing young people, bringing adventure into learning and using the outdoors to transform lives.”

The (new) WCC website is severly lacking in information (even contact info, apart from Rock) and the Rock UK website is dripping with Faith jus like a celebrity chef on steroids

Rock UK School of Adventure Training!

This new training scheme is a 24 month programme that combines our three key values;
1. Faith
2. Adventure
3. Learning

It represents the future for staff training within our organisation and beyond. It is a very exciting move for us and we look forward to developing the next generation of Christian Adventure Leaders.

The 24 month programme is delivered in the context of Rock UK values and Christian mission with the key aspects of the programme content as follows:

* Faith and social skill development through discipleship, mentoring and targeted teaching
* Valuable work experience with the opportunity to impact the lives of tens of thousands of young people while developing your skills in the outdoors
* Opportunity to get involved in mission and outreach, within Rock UK, the local community and specific projects with our delivery partners

Is it a bona fide competition (no pun intended) or more like a jamboree, which is an outreach opportunity with prayers and stuff?

Is there any continuity between this competition and the old one? The website carries the results from 2009, before Rock UK were involved so is it the same competition or a separate new one? Is it just an indoor wall promoting itself as the Welsh Climbing Championship or is it regarded as a National Competition for Wales?

In reply to winhill:

These Jesus freaks have got faith as their no 1 key value. Your choice.

In reply to winhill: Well the place has gone bust about 4 times. Finally its being used and kept open by a faith group who happen to have a business plan may actually work. What's your problem? You won't get bible bashed if you go. No one I know who has been recently has been!!

I'm afraid I don't know two much about the competition but I think its the one that circulates between the main walls in wales every year. As treharris is the biggest wall in wales it would seem to be a reasonable venue notwithstanding those serpents who are about to get their poisonous fangs into you!!

In reply to chris wyatt:
No problem with faith groups running facilities, I just wondered what the day would be like, given that today I found out that the group defines itself by it's outreach etc.

The website only links to RockUK and there is no other contact info, so it doesn't seem like there is a separate organisation from the wall, so it doesn't look like it would rotate anymore?

Hi you can find out more info about the championships at
http://www.thewelshclimbingchampionships.co.uk/

In reply to winhill:

I can confirm apart from a couple of leaflets on the table you would never know they are a Christian based company. The climbing wall itself is immense.

It is a proper event and has been running a couple of years. Either last year, or the year before it was ran at a different centre.

In reply to rachelsparky:

Yes, that's the website without any contact information. Doesn't answer any questions really, in fact the link to RockUk raises quite a few!.

Are you the Rachel that is quoted in the article?

Rachel Allen, Centre Director at Summit Centre, says, "We are delighted to be asked again to host the competition this year

So there is a separate organisation behind the event?

Who's organising it?

Hi

Yes I am Rachel, the Centre Director for Summit Centre.

Summit Centre is hosting the climbing championships but they are being run and organised by Makethenextmove.com they have run the championships since they started. A number of walls in Wales were approached about hosting the championships and it looks like we offered them the best package.

As for a bonafide climbing championships it has been advertised this year on the BMC website and they have been happy to endorse it.

It is the largest competition in Wales and well worth attending. I promise there will be no hymn singing or praying. Our faith is important to us and we try to life in out in how we run the centre but it is not force on anyone. The climbing championships are what we say they are, the best climbing competition in Wales.

Come and give it a go and then let us know what you think. You can ring me at Summit Centre if you want to know more

In reply to rachelsparky:

It's makethenextmove.co.uk (*not* .com) and the two guys behind that, Simon Rawlinson and Paul Walters are fairly well known in the South Wales scene, mainly as they both work at Dynamic Rock in some form. I think the reason that the 'Welsh Climbing Championship' is at Summit/WICC/Rock UK is because that's the biggest and steepest wall in the area.

I'm sure one or both will pop up soon enough to clarify things.

In reply to winhill:

Hi All

just to clarify a few points, Myself (Simon Rawlinson) and Paul Walters have been running the Welsh climbing championships for several years now as a stand alone event in Wales. the event is aimed at promoting competiton climbing in Wales and as such has had great success with around 80 competitors taking part in each of its previous years .

Summit centre is a very large climbing centre in South Wales and as such will be hosting the event this year - by this they are renting us the space for the day. in much the same way other events take place up and down the UK through out the year. In past years the event has run at a vareity of walls around wales ( at present all in the south, something that we would like to change in future years )

The centre was chosen this year based apon positive feedback from competitors from the previous year.

With regards to the Welsh climbing championships website, i take on board that it could be better and we will put time into improving the infomation availible on the website for future events. Feel free to contact me via UKC or the website which does indeed have a 'contact us' option. I do not leave my phone number on the website as i do not have time during my working day to field multiple questions that could be awnsered via email in a more time controlled manner.

I would honestly be interested to hear what more info would be useful to potential competitors - as this would help massivly in updating the site. At present all info required i belive is on the site, in a similar way to how it is found on the advert on this site and others we have used to promote the event.

The event would not be possible with out a wall Hosting the event, or the large army of voulanteers who make it possible. Plus today we have been fortunate to have Cotswold join us by supplying prizes for each catergorie.

any way hope this helps i oppologise for any spelling errors of which there are many its quite late and ive just finnished route setting for a bouldering comp.

see you all at the weekend
happy climbing
Simon

In reply to simon rawlinson:

sorry last point

the advertising for this event has been conducted by myself via some funding recieved from collabor8 whos interest is promoting torism within the region as such we were able to advertise upon this site and offers

the BMC were simply kind enough to help

simon

In reply to rachelsparky:

interesting things have happened to the summitcentre website.

In reply to simon rawlinson:

Thanks for replying Simon, I don't think an event like this needs time/money investing just to make a particularly exciting website. It's nearly all there. (check the myclimbingseries for a v basic but totally adequate site)

The single most important bit of info that's missing is who is organising it.

As it stands it looks like it's a Rock UK event, that is the only info available via the website, plus the WCC URL changed at the same time as Rock UK took over the Summit Centre and hosted the event for the first time.

Then in the UKC story, UKC have included the More Information part of the Rock UK press release, which I guess is aimed at the recipient not the audience (Climber didn't reproduce that part).

If you use the rockuk.org address (as in the release) you have to dig about a lot to find the WCC stuff, by which time your face has probably spasmed into WTF mode and you're wondering if you'll be able to dig out the tambourine you haven't seen since the school concert, when you were in Miss Whitehouse's Shake It! percussion section.

In reply to pffft:

RockUk are not in control of that domain name. When the last owners went bust they stopped paying attention to the website. The current summit centre have since tried to gain control but no such luck.

Any suggestions on how they can get it?