UKC

Hi, I'm moving to Sheffield in a few months and was wondering which of the many walls would be the best for training. I mainly train on the board, but value a good free weights area. 

Cheers. 

In reply to mattsparksy:

You're going to be spoilt as all the walls in Sheffield have great boards, training Areas and gym areas. For me The Depot just beats the others as it has the best circuit boards, the weight area has a little more space and it opens at 6am. It also has two woodies and a Moon board.

In reply to mattsparksy:

Second vote for the space and facilities at the Depot, particularly the circuit boards. The other walls are great too

In reply to mattsparksy:

Another Depot vote. The other walls are good too but the Depot has just got everything right.

In reply to mattsparksy:

Depends on your level, what you want to train for, and how much money you have...

- Quite a few people use a combination of the School (24/7 access) and other walls.. but if your logbook is reflective of your level I doubt the School would suit that well 

- Comp climbers seem to use Unit E and Depot a lot

- The wave at the Foundry is still the best individual section of wall around IMO if you want to train for sport climbing in the 7c-8c zone

In reply to mattsparksy:

The closest one.

In reply to mattsparksy:

You are spoiled for choice in Sheffield, yes some are slightly better than others (no one mentioned the climbing hanger which is also awesome) but it will really boil down to ease of access for the time of day/days you want to use it, and how you intend to travel to and from it, and is it from work or home?

Also if you are a student then the climbing social scene doesn’t strictly align with best training (or climbing) venue..

In reply to mattsparksy:

You will probably get all your training needs from any of them but they all have a different feel, different atmosphere so maybe visit several and see which you prefer.  For me though, it's the depot  , can train for routes on the curcuit boards etc, just depends if you like doing routes indoors,  maybe use a mix of different walls? Depends I guess if you are looking to take a membership out. In which case I'd still say depot as you can then use it at all their venues.  On a personal note, I used to go to the works , good location for me to get to and generally good atmosphere,  then I went to the depot on the last open day before lock down, and I've never been in the works since,  the depot is further for me to get to but so much better in my opinion,  better climbing,  better atmosphere,  better environment and better value

In reply to abarro81:

I completely forgot to say that the Wave at the Foundry is the best section of bouldering wall. Anywhere.

In reply to mattsparksy:

It really is. I think people reading these comments think it's out of nostalgia but the style and features for feet are the closest style I have come to sport climbing outside. 
 

Fantastic piece of wall and most setters excel on it. 

In reply to mattsparksy:

Notice that no-one has mentioned Awesome Walls. That's because it is only any good for routes. There is a large section devoted to bouldering, but it is no good. 

Given the Works, the Depot and the Hangar have all had strong recommendations, I imagine you will at least try them all, and maybe the foundry also, so you will make your own mind up. 

You mention boards, but I'm not sure whether you mean Moon (System?) Board type things, or circuit boards. In terms of circuit boards, the Hangar has none, which is a big omission in my opinion. The works is had a good board, but the Depot has two. For the powerful bouldering boards, the Depot, again has the best to offer, with three, I think.

But, for me, distance from my house is a major factor. If an extra 10 minutes each way will mean I sometimes choose not to go, that is the wrong wall for me.

In reply to Cake:

Does The Hangar have air con.? It defo feels cooler in there. If one of the walls had proper air con I'd be prepared to pay a premium. I just can't use indoor walls through the summer.

In reply to deacondeacon:

The foundry does have huge fans,  and you can just point one at you.

In reply to Cake:

Agree re Awesome. With good lead/autobelay route setting how can they make the bouldering so bad? If they used some of the bouldering surface to make a decent circuit board I’d be tempted to get a season pass.

Like many other posters have said the Depot is my favourite; it’s circuit boards are ideal for route training 

In reply to Cake:

I think the awesome walls training area seems very good.They have a woody,a kilter board,moon boards and a circuit board .I train mainly at Citibloc in Leeds as I live up here and they have an excellent similar set up.I am  an upper middle grade climber and find the set ups at the depot walls to prescriptive and can't adapt them to my goals by and large.

In reply to mattsparksy:

Just one thing about the walls in Sheffield wrt the actual bouldering rather than the training facilities, my personal very biased views.

The Wave at the Foundry is pretty well unique and is worth the entry money alone. AW bouldering had a makeover and still blows (a consensus opinion), The Depot bouldering seems to be very ‘burly’ and suits ‘bros’😂. Seriously, it’s spacious, well maintained, regular resets and it’s good to do that kind of climbing to keep strong. I really like The Hangar, but the novelty has worn off a bit. It can get a bit cramped, but the route setting is good, and it’s the one with a proper cafe.
Finally, The Works. Every time I go back, I’m knocked out by the quality of the route setting which is consistently outstanding. However, it’s often way overcrowded, and has a bit of a tired feel about it. I think that may be part of its charm. 
if you end up living in Sheffield’s west side, then the Works is most convenient. It’s a 17 mile round trip for me to the Works, but we often take the hit and make the longer journey to the Depot.

In reply to deacondeacon:

Shame they have gotten rid of the usual circuit board any replaced it with the wooden holds with lights! I think the idea is to set your own routes but it just doesn't work I think.

In reply to mattsparksy:

The Works has a couple of great training boards (truly unequalled imo) and a small but usually empty weights area behind the back of unit E. It also has the best setting of any bouldering wall I've ever been to.

In reply to Michael Morrell:

Lat time i went they still had one of the rein  circuit boards left. Has that now gone too?

In reply to kevin stephens: resin

In reply to kevin stephens:

They currently have one resin an one wooden. I actually really like the wooden one as I can still train when my skins buggered. It'll get better when more routes are set on it.

In reply to Andrew Wells:

Lol not sure why anyone would downvote this

In reply to deacondeacon:

The plan is to have both of them as wooden circuits as they plan to change the other one. 

In reply to Michael Morrell: yes i heard that. Madness, a real Ratners decision but walls don’t seem to listen to their customers

In reply to kevin stephens:

Yes, a shame. The system they had going before was ace, simple, and set well to make link-ups with routes. I don't want to pay £36 a month to have some routes set by the public. :')

In reply to Michael Morrell:

Avoid ALL the indoor walls for the next week i think

Sheffield has 2 universities,  and i think every single student in both are currently at the indoor walls!

In reply to Andrew Wells:

1 - Who cares

2 - Probably because they don't agree with you (I'm not one of them though, as I've turned off the buttons). FWIW I don't like the Works. It's suffering from it's age - dusty, cramped and I always feel on the edge of injury whenever I climb there, which I don't generally get in any other wall. But then my fingers do seem to be made of glass so maybe that says more about me than the wall.

In reply to Michael Morrell:

Got to disagree there, I think the wooden circuit board at Manchester is brilliant, lots of flexibility for all sorts of circuits (not just going round in circles, lots of hold style options), good on the skin, lots of circuits set by lots of people, not all great but plenty decent.   The one at Sheffield seems to have a decent hold set though some smaller footholds as an option would be nice.  It's not like the resin boards were reset with any regularity and you also had the problem of limited options given you only had half a dozen circuits covering all the grades. 

In reply to Ian Patterson:

I think its brilliant,  such a good training tool

In reply to Ian Patterson:

I really like the resin circuit boards Ian, but i’m happy to lose one for the new wooden board for greater training options. The good thing about the resin board not being reset too often is that it’s great for projecting. Working out moves, then sequences then eventually putting the whole thing together for that “redpoint” tick. I’ve even been known to panic over the possibility of an eventual reset before the eventual “send” . I find this great for motivation and effective training

In reply to kevin stephens:

I think having one resin, one wooden is the best of both worlds. 

In reply to deacondeacon: the Depot have just confirmed they are keeping the remaining resin board for the foreseeable future so we have the best of both worlds and no excuses to stay weak   

In reply to kevin stephens:

Good stuff 🙂

In reply to kevin stephens:

Enough to put a smile on my face 🙂

In reply to deacondeacon:

I will train with you in Sheffield.

I did my first indoor lead at The Foundry.

Sav 

In reply to deacondeacon:

DMd you dude!

In reply to mattsparksy:

I'm lovin the Depot at the moment.