UKC

I got turned around by the Fire Brigade on my way to the wall on Wednesday. The big old building at the end of the road which the climbing wall is on, is still on fire, and may have to be demolished, so there's no wall access.

There is further info on Lancaster's Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/LancasterWall/

....

Update 08/12/23 10:50 – Waste Building no longer structurally sound. Demolition plans.

Most of December’s bookings have been refunded with all bookee’s having had attempts to contact. If you have a booking with us in December and you have not been contacted about a refund via phone or emai please contact manager@lancasterwall.co.uk to arrange a refund.

All instruction offerrings have been frozen until further notice.

A long term plan is being created by LCC at an emergency meeting on Tuesday the 12th of December to help our customers who cannot access climbing at our other walls, this should be released soon after. We are especially aware of those with memberships to our wall that cannot access our sister walls, please be assured we will be working to secure support for you.

Due to the risk of public health and interrupting operations to extinguish the fire we cannot open today and expect to be closed for at least two weeks.

We encourage you to visit KendalWall or PrestonWall, they’ll be very glad to help you get your climbing fix!

You can see updates directly from Lancashire Fire and Rescue here: https://www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk/commericial-building.../

We will attempt to get further updates.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

I could see the smoke from the building (easily identified by the big chimney) on Wednesday as I was walking along the riverside track at Glasson Dock. It must have been burning for a while as I heard about the fire earlier in the week.

Heard on the news this morning that it's still burning

Most odd. I would have thought that contacting all the bookees would be  a ten second task at most...

It’s compacted trash smouldering I think, kind of like an urban hell version of a moorland peat fire.

I really feel sorry for the wall and the other businesses around there, it could take a while to sort out. As Lancaster wall is closed, I went up to Kendal mid week, and a first trip to Preston at the weekend. I still can’t put my finger on the difference between the centres, as I think it’s all the same route setters. Lancaster bouldering is excellent, and although smaller, Preston turned out to be great too. Kendal isn’t bad, just not as good. Someone on another thread posed a theory that bouldering setting at joint boulder - lead centres was never as good as it could be. Who knows? Given the length of drive to Preston, Eden Rock has become an option, so that’s our home until the fire is out.

We went to the West View centre last sunday, we'd not been since LCC took it on, took the ropes but just ended up bouldering for 3/4 hrs. I really enjoyed it, they do have a lot of PU holds though which aren't quite as nice in my view but the setting was good.

The routes at Preston are great (IMO). Short, but really well set. Up to 8a. Which on a 10 metre wall is pretty punchy. I like them as they replicate the kind of intensity you get on a lot of UK limestone. 

New bouldering just announced at Kendal too. A whole separate unit just opposite. Good times. 

Awesome, yes good times

I don’t know what they’ll do with the existing bouldering area, but I hope they keep the big roof section with the four routes on it. 

Don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t keep it, but yes it will be interesting to see if they repurpose it in some way.

Personally, I’d love it if they turned it into more of a training facility. A decent weights section would be a real bonus for my routine.

It's just been on NW Tonight again. Sounds like a nightmare. Ten days burning and nearly half a million quid spent. It seems that the company were illegally piling rubbish inside the building and went into liquidation just before the balloon went up. The Environment Agency did nothing according to the local councillor interviewed by the BBC. I used to get my car MOT'd just round the corner. Local businesses must be affected as well as the Wall.

More details here: 

https://www.lep.co.uk/news/people/firefighters-clean-up-after-huge-blaze-at...

Why all the dislikes. It's a true fact. Contacting the bookers on the other hand would take a lot longer.