UKC

How often does your climbing wall change routes? I know there's a line between keeping routes up long enough for people to practice and complete but my regular wall doesn't seem to have changed any routes, either in the climbing or bouldering rooms since January and some since before Christmas.

In reply to ivebittenoffmorethanicanstu:

The Westway is really good at changing their bouldering and routes frequently. They change the 2 bouldering areas more than once a month (but they've started leaving a 'board' area unchanged for longer, which I'm relieved about as it takes longer than this for me to tick some projects).

They stagger changes to the lead walls, refreshing different segments as they move around. There are always new lines to try. I think each segment changes about once every 2-3 months?

You haven't been to Northampton then. Some of the walls get changed every now and again (read as very very infrequently). one wall in particular hasn't been changed since i been climbing there over a year or so.

The bouldering room seems to get changed loads.

Rope race on the other hand is always changing the routes which is good as this makes it like a new centre every time we go.

In reply to RockSteady: I'm guessing about 6 weeks to 2 months (Redpoint, Brum). This appears a nice compromise between being so short you never get to tick a project before its replaced and so long you get bored...

In reply to ivebittenoffmorethanicanstu:

The Climbing Hangar in Liverpool (bouldering only) does a 'zone' each Friday. A zone generally covers about 4 problems for each grade range. So the oldest problems tend to be 8 weeks old, but this increases if there's tournaments or the traverse area is set.

The traverse walls they only do every other time around so they are unfortunately the same for months on end.

In reply to ivebittenoffmorethanicanstu:

The Leeds Wall, up until recently, had some routes pushing 12 months+. The bouldering gets changed probably just over once a month though.

City Bloc (bouldering) get changed every 3 to 4 weeks, keeps it nice and fresh.

In reply to ivebittenoffmorethanicanstu:

MCC got dreadful, some were up 6 months or more, a few people complained and I suspect they lost custom (we, a group of 6 - 8, stopped going for nearly a year) but they have got much better, regularly changing routes every 2months or so, more frequently on the popular lead walls. We have returned and are finding it changed regularly enough to keep us goin back.

In reply to jenniwat001:

Awesome in Stockport seem to have ot a bit sluggish on changing the top roped routes over the last year or so. Seemed to be changed 2-3 times last winter but this winter some seemed to be up from October to March.

They seem keener on the lead and bouldering walls

In reply to idiotproof (Buxton MC):


I agree, they were leaving things up a bit long (~6 months). For a centre the size of Stockport I suggest a maximum of 4 months max, in a rolling program of changing a quarter of the routes each month so that there is always new-ish stuff.

At a smaller centre (where you do a larger fraction of the routes on each visit), every 2 or 3 months would be good. (For roped routes that is, perhaps every six weeks for bouldering.)

In reply to Awesome Walls Stockport comments:

Hi Guys,

We try to change the lead routes every three months, top rope routes every four months and the bouldering every 4-6 weeks.

Sometimes we're slightly ahead and sometimes we're slightly behind, there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we need to take into consideration like when the route setters are available or if any competitions are coming up. AWCC is one of the largest climbing centres in the country and we try very hard to keep it up to speed with good setting and good offers.

We have a dedicated Facebook page where all the setting gets updated as and when it happens for all our centres- https://www.facebook.com/AwesomeRoutes?ref=hl

This page will then be shared with the Stockport Facebook site- https://www.facebook.com/AwesomeWallsStockport

Just before reception we have a notice board that keeps you posted of what's just happened and what's about to happen- closures, resets, new routes etc.

We're always more than happy to take suggestions on board whether it's on here or emailed direct to https://stockport@awesomewalls.co.uk

Thanks for your input,

Dave Douglas
Awesome Walls Climbing Centres Ltd
Liverpool/Stockport/Stoke-on-Trent/Dublin/Sheffield
http://www.awesomewalls.co.uk

In reply to ivebittenoffmorethanicanstu:

TCA Glasgow change their problems really regularly (few route sets are ever up for longer than 8-12 weeks) but the way I see it, if you're really keen and want to make projects then you'll go often enough to ensure you give yourself the most attempts at them. If you're sporadic in your training then I imagine it'd be good to know you'll have new climbs every time you go.

In reply to sbattams:
In Northampton I set a load of new top ropes and some new lead climbs at the end of April. I'm back in on the 28th and 29th may to set more top ropes.
Alex

In reply to Dave Douglas: Awesome Walls:

I'd agree with the posters above that it did get a little stale over winter, but on a positive note, we went last night and there are some really nice new routes. Particularly like the green 6b up the arete by the entrance, and the new sand 6a with the "crack" holds opposite it.
The routes on the big triple overhang wall were set by a complete sadist though.

MCC has also been good over the last couple of months at sticking new routes up, nice one guys.