UKC

Milton Keynes Climbing Needs You!

© Jack Geldard
Steve Mayers of the Beacon Climbing Centre relaxing at Gogarth, North Wales  © Jack Geldard
Steve Mayers of the Beacon Climbing Centre relaxing at Gogarth, North Wales
© Jack Geldard

A new climbing wall proposed for Milton Keynes needs your help:

Big Rock Climbing Centre is a collaboration between Beacon Climbing in North Wales and some local climbers from Milton Keynes.

Steve Mayers from The Beacon explained:

"The aim is to build a climbing centre of national importance and create a friendly, professionally run centre with some fantastic indoor climbing. Terms have been agreed on a 1,500sqm unit in Kingston - that's conveniently opposite the giant Tescos and not far from the M1 for those that know the area."

However the final planning has yet to be agreed. Steve is looking for support:

"The project is currently at the planning stage and if you'd like to lend us your support, which could be crucial, then you can do it on line by following the link below."

The centre will feature:

• 1200sqm of climbing initially and more to follow
• Several roped climbing areas with routes up to 11m long
• Huge bouldering area including some large freestanding boulders
• Dedicated group areas with a mini caving system & high ropes course
• Café, shop & meeting area
• Separate kid's climbing area

Do you have any suggestions for the design? What do local climbers want? The Beacon are interested:

"We are currently working on some exciting designs for the various sections of climbing wall and we'd really welcome your suggestions for the design process either through the UKC forum or by e-mail to steve [@] beaconclimbing.com. We are also keen to hear from local climbers who feel they might have something to offer whether you have building skills, instructor qualifications or you'd just like to get involved then please feel free to get in touch."

The centre is due to open in May/June 2010. The team hope to have a website up & running soon and will post updates on the project as well as plans and images of the wall designs on this UKC Permier Post.


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27 Nov, 2009
woo hoo go for it boys, i for one hope it works out
28 Nov, 2009
Brilliant news! I would like something with some good leading lines, preferably featured walls. :-)
28 Nov, 2009
This would bloody brilliant. I live in MK and we have no hills for miles around so a good wall would be great. Only thing that could make it better would be an indoor ice wall like the ice factor near glencoe. To be able to practice 'rock' and 'ice' a few miles from home in practice for the Alps would get my vote....
First of all thanks everybody for all the support & encouragement, we've had a load of e-mails as well as support through the forums. Lets hope the councils web site is getting bombarded by support for the project! It's also good to have suggestions & there have been some good ones. Ice climbing: I'm afraid for a privately funded project this one isn't really viable, it would cost a small fortune - much more money than we have available. Coincidentally we have some dry tooling workshops going on at the Beacon this weekend and these have really opened my eyes to what is possible with minimum outlay and a bit of imagination. Having climbed indoor ice I can say that artificial dry tooling is far more interesting & definitely just as good training! DWS: Well (money permitting) we are planning to build a large 'pit' in the unit to accommodate some decent length lead routes but, I can't say that filling it with water for DWS will be in the first round of developments. Maybe something for the future... The overhanging tunnel is a great idea, I've seen something like this on the web site of a US wall but can't remember the link. I will definitely be having another look at the plans with this in mind. However, we do already have some steep bouldering planned with potential for some fairly direct problems up to 10m long! Colours: Point noted although our web site is a bit out of date and I would say we've probably toned things down over the last few years. Pretty subjective though and you'll never get agreement over this - good design is most important and we do want to put everything we've learnt over the years into practice and come up with something special. Featured walls: Well most of the wall will initially be plywood because we can give you a lot more wall than if we used fibreglass. We will, however be creating lots of varied shapes with plenty of multifaceted wall to give a 3-dimensional feel. I'll hopefully start to post up a few images with 'tasters' of what we are planning soon. Thanks again for all the positive comments. Steve
28 Nov, 2009
I will send out a mail to all the members in Milton keynes Mountaineering Club. We at the moment drive to Bear Rock in the week and london/birmingham at the weekends. Good luck guys! Gary
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