UKC

We used to climb a lot at old Warwick, and it was great.

Great routes and great setting, when the new wall opened they seemed to cater mostly for the competition wall, and the rest was "fill in" we found the routes boring and tedious. we stopped going and ended up at Northampton, which is great.

A friend has asked if we could try Warwick as it's closer to where they live.

Has it improved since the first few years of opening?

Is it busy?

Definitely better than it was in the very early days - there are some decent routes now, and not just on the overhang. Counter-intuitively, as a fellow fan of the old wall, the stuff on the textured panels is not so good - I tend to stick to the flat-panel sections. It does get fairly busy on the evenings I go (usually mon/tue and thurs), and they are still operating a limit on numbers so best to book a slot in advance to avoid disappointment.

Its very warm and can be sweaty, something to do with the glass altrium leading into the facility. The airconditioning system just doe not work very well.

Go there when visitng my student daughter who climbs there a few times a week. its a well recognised issue at the wall.

other than that its ok.

Yes, frustratingly the routes on the brown textured wall get reset quite infrequently because the texture means that many  holds don't sit well and tend to spin.

Cheers everyone.

It's such a shame, this could have been a fantastic wall. We tried for a year or so after they moved from the old wall, but it was just SOOOooo boring.

Also, all the glass could have been more climbing wall!

The comp wall's no good for me, as it fooks my shoulders up, so I'm left with what's remaining of the space.

With you on the textured wall, which while it was sharp seemed slippy at the same time, very strange.

Thanks for the tip on booking I'll check that out. ta.

yes you're right it is far too warm - I guess because it's all part of the atrium/foyer/cafe area, and they want it to be a comfortable temp for people lounging around doing nothing. Which is far from being the same as a comfortable temp for climbing. And yes, there's a ton of wasted space

All the glass, and therefore less climbing wall area, was one of the biggest gripes when the  "consultation" about the new building took place. It was clear that it was conceived as a statement piece as people approached the building....but then they put smoked glass in! Anyway, too late now.

Despite everything, I have gradually warmed to the place. It helps that I live nearby....I'm not sure how far I would travel for what is on offer. 

I remember the old, old wall. Fond memories of that, was a great facility then. 

Seems to be the thing with new uni walls big statement at the expense of actual climbing, indifferent, infrequent setting and far too hot. The latter being really unforgivable. Textured faux rock walls seem popular with installers but are generally the least used bit (well least used after the useless glass curtain of show-offness).

Which one? Do you mean the old old old one in the sports hall with the big concrete mantle shelf pre 1994 or something?

Do you still have to pay for parking?

Can't remember the big mantle shelf, but it was the last one before the new one, I'd only ever climbed at this one in Warwick, so you may be talking of an earlier wall.

I started climbing around 2001.

You have to pay for:

A registration fee £6 - I'd not been there since 2019 so didn't know about this.

Parking 4 hours was around £4.80, the machine was fooked (network issues) so we couldn't pay.

Then the normal fee for the wall £9.50

So for two of us it would have cost us £35.80, but was only £31.00 since the car park machine weren't working.

To go to Big Rock Bond, would have cost us £21!

Nearly all the routes were soft touches by at least half a grade, probably more.

Route setting was a bit strange too, with a hard / lungey move at the last hold on quite a few routes. The setting was better than it was in 2019, when it seemed to be going up the wall easily or going up the wall hard, with very little "flowing" moves, at least there were a few, memorable routes.

Leaving out the comp. wall which my dodgy shoulders won't let me climb, we'd done most routes between 5+ and 6b+ (and half a dozen bouldering routes) within the three and a half hours we climbed.

We had hassle getting in, because we couldn't book online, they were busy so we nearly never got in at all, because we needed to have a belay assessment done.

The forms we filled in beforehand didn't seem to count for much. It took us about 20 minutes to actually get to the wall from entering the building.

The staff were lovely, and the lady on the desk tried her best to male sure we could at least get in, she knew about the problem with the online booking, and sympathised, looks like that might be a long standing issue.

Oh! and it's very very hot, as people above have mentioned. They did open a few windows at one point though, which help a bit.

Thanks for everyone who chipped in on the thread.

It's such a shame the went for style over substance with this wall.

yes, thats the one i was thinking of!  that bouldering wall was ok but the comp wall behind it was great. 

Do you remember the old cave with the big pockets in the roof.. was a great setup.  I climb Wednesday evening and sometimes Sunday lunch (when kids at club)