UKC

Depot Climbing continues its commitment to advancing indoor rock climbing in the UK by opening one of Europe's biggest mixed-use climbing centres in Wythenshawe, South Manchester.

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That's all well and good but what we all want to know is........ when does it open!

This Saturday, 21st, but they want you to book your arrival time. I'm leaving it for a bit to let it settle down, the Trafford Park Depot should be quieter than normal on Saturday.

Ever think of expanding to France? Maybe even Lyon?

Is it actually opening though? They've been pushing the date back like every week 😂 Absolute teases

Be patient, our generation had to wait 20 years for a decent wall.

How long are the lead walls?

Checked it out today. The lead wall is phenomenal due to the sheer scale of it, as well as the variety of holds and angles Grades from 6a to 9a (think there were some 5s on lead as well). Half a dozen auto belays, some top ropes, the rest is lead. It was quite busy but you could still get on routes easily. Apparently it’s 15m high but looks higher and would certainly feel it on the big overhang! Generally 10 or 11 clips including the lower off and that’s with the first one being at the same height as the second one at most other walls (which I think is a good idea). We didn’t actually try out the lead for random reasons, so I can’t comment on the setting but it looks good. If I lived locally I’d definitely go there for leading and I’d be keen to check it out if passing by some time.

Bouldering mostly relies on blobby comp style holds but is well set, so the problems climb well and don’t feel nails for the grade (compared to ‘normal’ Depots and unlike Armley). Once you tune into the style it’s good fun and whichever grades are easy / steady for you would still be fun to climb (which I find often isn’t the case elsewhere). There is also a smattering of fingery holds but rounded holds are the order of the day. I found that I got relatively less tired on them despite comp style not being my forte and I suspect these types of holds are better from an injury prevention perspective. Fantastic friction as well at the moment, though I guess that’s going to get worse with time. One potential downside is that the problems are quite spread out, so it’s not always possible to ‘rainbow’ up to work a section but the upside is that you often don’t have other holds or indeed people in the way. If I lived in MCR I’d go there some of the time for the different style and type of holds compared to the ‘old’ Depot.

Location wise, access off the M56 / M60 is very easy, with the M6 not far away, making this a feasible stop off for those on the way to / from North Wales or the Lakes / Scotland if going up / down the M6. I got the train from Sheffield, followed by the tram from Deansgate in MCR city centre. The tram took about half an hour as it’s actually a pretty long way (Deansgate to the tram stop near the ‘old’ Depot is much quicker). On the other hand, the tram stop is right next to the entrance to the industrial estate where the BIG Depot lives. Lots of car parking as well. Got a lift back and it was just over an hour to south west Sheffield on a clear run.

Overall, it’s a BIG and very impressive facility - could we please have one of these in Sheffield and Birmingham! Note that the training area hasn’t been built yet and the cafe doesn’t yet serve prepared food but looks very nice. Edit - more and slightly larger lockers would be useful but perhaps that’s already in the works. 

Thanks for the comprehensive write up. Fewer auto belays than the Foundry or AW Sheffield and a shortage of crimps doesn’t seem to be targeted at the solitary route trainer. Do they have some good circuit boards?

Couches, music and coffee?

I think i counted 15 auto belays. A lot more than half a dozen! 

Thanks Jim, that’s encouraging. I was just going by Misha’s post

There might have been a few more autobelays, may be more like 10? The press release says 25 - think that’s including the top rope lines. Wasn’t really counting as don’t like them.

Music wasn’t loud, not surprising given the size of the space.

No couches but quite a bit of hard seating in from of the comp wall so you can watch the 9a sends.

The press release mentions coworking areas, so suspect couches will arrive eventually.

Kitchen is WIP, so not sure they have a coffee machine yet.

Training area is WIP (just the metalwork at the moment so I guess needs another month or two).

I don’t think a shortage of crimps is an issue. There are plenty of crimpy problems and routes elsewhere. The rounded holds still require finger strength, just in a different way, which is less likely to injure you. I agree that training on some crimps are important (and the board is best for that) but I wouldn’t dismiss comp style routes as I think they are still useful, just wouldn’t want to climb in that style all the time (and I say that as primarily a trad climber). I suspect the lead wall is great for stamina / power endurance. 

Yeah, there are about 15 and with routes up to 7c. Pretty good for the solitary route climber. Hopefully some circuit boards soon too.

Was going off memory from a quick look, I just remembered there were more than I’d seen before (which is two). I don’t like and hardly ever use them and generally consider them to be a bit of a waste of space! Appreciate that some people like them. 

I was there on Sunday morning....there are currently 20 auto belays setup (yes I counted!).

Lots of leading from 5s up to 9a! I'm not in great form currently and even if I am then I'm still a long way short of the high level that lots on here seem to operate at. However, up to 6a+, the setting was absolutely amazing, really great routes,and definitely felt longer than 15m. Like I say, I'm not in top form currently but I thought stuff was fairly tough for the grade. Certainly not soft touch anyway! 

Didn't try the bouldering, will give it a whirl when I'm next there. Overall it's a great facility, I wonder if they'll try for a lead WC there at one point?

Wow, my half a dozen really was wide of the mark! The fact that they had so many auto belays, plus top ropes, and yet there were still so many lead lines, says something about the size of the place!

Hi Kev, 

I've been a couple of times now (routes only) and it's great.  There's lots of different types of holds including plenty of modern looking big holds and volumes but this doesn't seem to generally translate to massively new school climbing.  Most of the routes I've done have been really well set and while there's lots of different styles it seems very applicable to training for outdoor routes climbing.  Theres plenty of endurance crimping alongside the steep and burley, rounded pinching, weirdly technical etc etc. 

There's also a really good selection of angles including the big comp wall which being less steep than e.g the big roof at Awesome Sheffield ( probably around 45-50 degrees on the main section) still felt relatively applicable to outdoor climbing (though more European than UK obvs).   I was climbing up to mid 7s, daughter up to high 6s and other climbing partner up to 8a and everybody was super impressed by venue and routes.

Fairly sure that there are 100 'lines' in total for top rope , auto belay and lead. Each with at least 2 routes per line....they seem nicely spread out too.

Yeah it really is huge!

Good to hear that English walls are finally catching up with what we've had in Scotland for twenty years now. Though 15m still sounds a bit on the small side.

Maybe less chance of getting hit by fallen ice at this one, catering for the soft sassenachs.

Lets hope that the Big Depot doesn't go bust 4 months after opening like Ratho did

The falling ice is good. Keeps the crowds away in winter when you can often have the international standard comp wall to yourself (some Scottish seem to be soft too).

4x4s on autobelays are one of my regular sessions, definitely not a waste of space for me.

I think of it more as a gift from RBS back to the people of Scotland....

Back when money was cheap and credit was loose. You'd never imagine it happened in the run up to the big crash in 2007 eh? 

Yes, and now we get our climbing subsidised by the council with gym membership thrown in cheap. It's been win win.

At the risk of tangentially derailing the thread: is a 15m route a bit long for 4x4s?

Some endurance training advise seems to involve climbing for 10 mins or longer, so I would imagine 4x15m would take less than 10 mins.

No, in my experience 4x15m would typically take longer than 10min.

2x22m at Ratho or 4x12m at Glasgow typically would take me about 12min.

ARC is climbing at low intensity, I thought 4x4s were a proper beasting?

I was talking about me!

I just see 4x4 as a catchy title, usually applied to boulder problems, for power endurance. But climbing a route 4 times could be anything, depending on how hard the route is and how fast you climb.

I do it for aerobic endurance. It was described to me as 'taking your arms for a jog' level of effort

Anything more intense and I'll tend to do 2 laps or 3 lives depending on how I'm feeling

I’ve never really thought about it like that! We’re off to Mallorca for a sport trip in about 8 weeks, and long 4x4s have always got me match fit for trips. My wife and I talked about this recently and came to the conclusion that even our bouldering trips were more successful when we had been regularly including 4x4 autobelays in sessions before the trips. Obvs wouldn’t recommend for everyone.

Is that 1 minute on then 1 minute off 4 times? How many minutes res between eack block of 4?

i have used 10 x10 with a minute on each one.  Found it effective.  

No rest between climbs (not sure how long it takes to climb 15 metres) 2 mins between each block of 4. Each block harder than the last, if you fall off, start again…

Having been to both, no it is not as big as Ratho (I note that Depot rolled back on the "Biggest in the UK" claim fairly early). It unfortunately does not have its own weather system, and I was able to comfortably belay in January without a waterproof and down jacket.

I did find it quite amusing the number of wildly inaccurate guesses on the number of autobelays, and only one person had bothered to actually count them (there are 20).

So ideally about a minute on  each quarter so to speak. 

Tbf I think that 7 were out of use yesterday!