UKC

Hi folks.
Im a newbie to this climbing up stuff. Always wanted to try since i was young but me and a work mate went to Benham sports centre in northants last week for a lesson. We'll be going again this week. starting small and we will hopefully work our way up to a mountain side one day. Any advice for us. Have any of you been to Pinnacle in northants?
We live in Market Harborough.

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated

In reply to J8mesb:

Join a club with experienced members, be friendly. Done much walking/camping/navigation? These skills are useful in the mountains. Learn to tie a fig 8, a bowline, a clove hitch and an Italian half hitch (Google them) and learn what they're used for.
Get the libby Peters book.
Go for a walk up snowdon when the weather is nicer.

In reply to J8mesb:

Hi. I've done Snowdon twice. Camped a lot here and in Europe and im fairly good at map reading.
I'll find a club and go from there. I need to find a belay partner I can trust too lol

In reply to J8mesb:
Early on I used a lot of the Glenmore lodge Youtube how to vids to get those simple safe basics into my head. Youtube is great but watch out what you take as safe on there as theres bad as well as good advice. Mike Barter is another good one, especially for the more complex stuff.

In reply to J8mesb:

Slawston Bridge

Is worth knowing about as a nice place to go on a sunny evening.

In reply to J8mesb:

Market Harborough is surrounded by climbing walls. None are particularly close and they each take the same amount of time to get to.

Leicester: The Tower Climbing Centre: friendly with good routes; not huge but more climbing than you can actually manage; good for routes (shorter wall is equipped with about 13 top ropes, taller wall equipped with 4 top ropes plus about 15 leading sections); bouldering area is small but good. Not too expensive and no membership charge.

Coventry: Bear Rock at Warwick University: good for routes, both top rope and lead (though the lines are very close to each other so can sometimes feel sketchy or claustrophobic when it's busy); small bouldering room. A little more expensive and no membership charge.

Pinnacle: bigger and newer facility but very commercially-minded (I feel like I'm seen as a walking wallet rather than part of a climbing community), so loved by some and disliked by others. The most expensive plus annual membership fee.


There are also lots of local clubs. Check out the BMC Find a Club page https://www.thebmc.co.uk/find-a-club
Nb. The club-finder map tells you where the club is registered, not where they actually meet. Searching on Google might be more help.

Good luck!

In reply to J8mesb:

Just been to check out slawston. Ten mins from me. I need to buy some equipment and I'll get back there. Bid a little climb to a safe height lol. I will give the tower a go soon too.
Thanks

In reply to J8mesb:

There's also The Climbing Station in Loughborough which is good for bouldering plus has a few roped climbs.

In reply to J8mesb:

Slawston is great for traversing, getting your finger strength up, Tower is also a great place and cheep!

In reply to J8mesb:

Well we did our second lesson tonight and got signed off safety wise. We get 3 free goes back at Benham so we'll be going and getting plenty more practice in before we take on something bigger. Struggled with arm pump a bit. Will start to build up some equipment now