Hi Shiny Disco Balls,
Thanks for the feedback. We are always interested to find out what our customers feel could be done to improve the climbing in the arena. I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling to find routes to try on the middle section of our main lead wall during busy periods. Sadly, setting easier climbs (4's and 5's) up the steep middle sections of the main wall is a fairly tough proposition.
- Firstly, it is very hard to set anything below the grade of 6a on this area of climbing wall, due to the angle & sustained nature of the climbing. I recently set the pink route up the least steep section of the main wall middle area & even though I used all of the biggest holds we own, it still weighs in at 6a.
- Secondly, this section of wall lends itself better to higher grade routes, as the angle is closer to the terrain found on these grades outdoors. There are very few routes outdoors below the grade of 6b that overhang to this degree. I accept that there are exceptions, but we try hard to simulate the outdoors as much as possible with our indoor routes. We feel that this results in a better training facility and a more interesting climbing experience if grades of route are generally put on walls of relevant angles.
You are spot on with your observation regarding the bulk of our customers climbing in the middle grade range. We currently have 38 full length lead climbs below 6b in the arena, 31 of which are on the main wall. We also have 22 half height lead routes on the main wall below 6b. We only have 21 routes in the 7's and 2 routes of 8a or above on the main wall. We feel that this spread reflects the levels of our users very well. A possible solution could be to start attempting some of the harder routes to half height. This would offer more variety in terms of the style of climb you include in your training sessions and would also develop other fitness components, such as strength endurance when leading. There are also some 5-6b routes tucked round the back of the Sardinian Pillar on the main wall that are worth checking out.
We are also in the the process of of re-setting the old competition wall. Because of range of corners, slabs, grooves and aretes, this wall is generally better suited to easy/mid grade routes than the middle of the main wall. There will be lots of new routes between the grades of 5+ & 6b getting set in the next two weeks. So check them out!
I hope this was of some help.
Neil McGeachy
EICA: Ratho (Route setter/ instructor)
P.s. Awesome user name by the way! :
