First Part of Cave Overhall

The first part to the new cave improvements is complete. The walls have been painted and touched up in time for the new mat to arrive later this week. The new set of problems will be set in the next two weeks. It's looking good.

The Big Rev Set.

Its been a while since Ive had a chance to update the blog as most of my time has been taken up with the centre as the Winter draws in and climbers are forced more and more into the indoor environment. In order to keep everyone psyched for when the warm weather returns Revolution has started a big clean of all the holds in the centre, over 3000 of them. Each individual hold is being pressure washed and all the walls are being re set with the clean holds.

Ive tried many different methods of cleaning holds over the last five years but by far the pressure washer doe's the job the best. So far we have cleaned and re set the whole of the 9m walls plus the huge five meter roof and cave area. The rest is due to be completed over the next week or two.

Not only this but the roof has seen a brand new set of problems being put up by both myself and Rob Hutton, our resident route setter. These range from the jug fest yellow route which although big will be sure to pump you out to our very technical Blue route. The routes across the ceiling range from 5c through to 7c so there really is something for everyone to go at. Not only this but the higher 9m walls have also been re set with grades from 3a through to 6c.

Ill update the blog as and when we the other walls are re set with our nice and shiny holds. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the problems and if you've got any idea's regarding what routes you'd like to see then feel free to either speak to me at the centre or drop me an email sam@revolutionclimbingcentre.co.uk

So, i know we live i one of the flattest areas in the whole of UK but here at Revolution, were make sure your still in good shape for when the warmer weather returns.

No excuses now, get down and crank hard!!

Revolution Climbers Hit Portland

Over the week beginning 19th July 2010, four climbers who frequently climb at revolution visited the sport climbing crags in and around Portland. Kieran, Dave and Jack headed down on the Monday into Portland itself and started out by visiting The Cuttings to get their first taste of UK sport climbing. Wisely they picked a great crag to start on, with it small easy buttress coming into view first as you approach, with grades for all climbers.

The guys spent the next few days climbing on different crags in the area as well as visting some of the brilliant bouldering areas that Portland has to offer. By thursday Rob Hutton, another local climber and route setter at Revolution appeared on the scene. The boys then stepped it and started to hit some of the harder routes with multiple ascents of The Sod 6a at The Cuttings as well as nearly everyone getting on the classic easy route of Slingshot 4b.

With the boys not wanting to stop climbing some days the bouldering sessions lasted late into the night with headtorch sessions becoming the normally way to end the day. Kiaren and Jack also wanted to find out what Portland had to offer in the way of DWS so on hot day the boys headed over to the sea and tried a few of the V1 classics on the old Dock.



With the boys now running out of time they headed for a bit more bouldering with Rob taking away the top prize finally getting all the tough moves on an unnamed V5. With this being their first visit to portland they were unsure of what to expect but judging by the tales and the smiles when they came back, i reckon its safe to say they had a great time and it wont be long till they go back!

Revolution Climbers Perform Well at BMC Youth Final.

On Saturday 2nd June 2010 the BMC Youth Climbing Series Final took place at the awesome Ratho Climbing Centre. Two of Revolutions climbers had won the right to take part. Ellie Bacimester had a brilliant series by winning all of the qualifying rounds held throughout the South East to ensure her place at the final. Not bad for her first ever BMC competition!
Our other regular climber Izzy Cooke had also won her right to attend the final by finishing 3rd overall in her qualifying rounds.

The final sees a different setup with competitors now working in there areas team, with both Ellie and Izzy helping out the South East Team. The Girls spent all afternoon battling it out against the best youth climbers in Britain with Izzy flashing all three of her boulder problems to score full marks. On her rope attempts she managed to flash the first of the problem and getting a score of 94 on the second problem. The third problem was the hardest yet with Izzy managing a very respectable half height before peeling off.

Ellie had a similar good run on the boulder problems and being older had to lead all of her routes wheres as Izzy had the benefit of a top rope. Ellie managed a Flash on her first route and gaining very respectable points on her last two problems. The South East on the whole performed well with many team members placing high in the final results.

At the end of the day ellie had scored the highest team place for her group with a respectable 21st place. Izzy, who had already attended previous BMC finals for the last few years used her experience to good effect finishing in 9th place.

You can view the full results and the BMC take on the event here: http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=3743

With the South East scoring high it looked promising for the team to place high and at just after 6 the scores were announced with London and South East winning just beating the Peak team.

Well done to the whole team with special congratulations to Izzy and Ellie.

Round 3 in Kalymnos

Its been under 24 hours since i got back from my third trip to the Greek Island of Kalymnos. Its was another fantastic week with great weather and some world class rock. It was a bit of an epic getting out there with a 12 hour wait at Gatwick as the Greek airports decided to strike. The flight boarded around seven in the evening but then we were informed that we had to wait on the plane for another 1.5 hours as we had missed our take off slot. Because of the delay it meant we had missed the boat on the other side and we had another five hour wait in a restaurant in Kos before the boat came at six thirty in the morning. The eight hour trip out there from my front door to the hotelended up taking over 29 hours so by the time we arrived we were even more keen to hit the rock as we had wasted a day traveling despite being very tired.

Its been a while since i last tied on to the sharp end and i struggled with my head a bit for the first few days but soon started to get into the swing of things. No such problem for the other Revolution local Rob Hutton who got straight into the swing of things with ascents of upto 6c meaning he was back on track and on form to make his holiday goal of a 7a onsight. The other members of the trip also started well with Mark Croxall, Danie Rushmere, Ben Read and John Samways all climbing well.

This form continued with Mark and Ben attempting routes upto 8a with Mark making a successful ascents of Helios 8a at the North Cave area and Ben coming very close. Rob climbed as good as Ive ever seen him and came close to his 7a onsight goal. He climbed Kastor at Arhi on his first ascent but could not claim his onsight badge as he had already worked the route on a previous trip but it was a great effort. He did up his game when we visited Kasteli with an ascent of Krotdebiki 7b on his second go after belaying Mark Croxall on the same route giving him some beta.

It was fantastic to watch Mark, Ben and Danie climb making everything they climbed look easy and effortless. After Marks success of Helios he laid his sights on a quick ascent of Gaia 8b at Oddessy. With only a few days to go he started to work the route with good progress making all the moves but struggling on linking them. Next day he was back up at Odessey and tied on for the lead. Marks effort was amazing and he made it half way up the route before peeling off. After speaking with Mark he thinks it will go next time when he plans to go back in October with bit more fitness and stamia in tow.

We finished the week with an evening multi pitch climb. Ben, Rob, John and myself headed upto sector School to attempt the 125m routes of Kalymnos 2000 and Platon. I had previously done Platon on a trip back in 2007 so me and Rob jumped onto Kalynos 2000 will John and Ben went on Platon. The climbing is easy (upto 5c) but the view from the top is fantastic with views across the island and out to sea. The abseil off of the route proved more interesting. Ben and John went first abseiling from the top to the previous pitches anchors and then tying off their 70 meter rope and abseiling down all the way to the bottom. After dropping their rope me and Rob set of on our single 60meter Joker. Because we could only abseil 30 meters at a time we had to ab everything pitch making our descent alot longer. On pulling the rope at the end of the third abseil it became stuck and no amount of pulling would budge it. The decision was made that Rob would climb up on the other end of the rope belayed by myself and try and free it. I came close to dropping my belay device and before we had finished the light had faded. It was a long hot walk out made worst due to having no water. We arrived back in the hotel and hit the bar where we could finally laugh about the experience.



All in all we had a great trip and I'm already looking forward ed to going back. Its been great coming away with such talented climbers and its really pushed me to train harder and focus on becoming stronger. I only hope that the urge to train lasts. There are some photos of the trip in the toolbar to the left.



So its back to work tomorrow fresh with ideas of new routes. The centre will be reset in the next week so be sure to pop by and try them out.

Two weeks till Kalymnos!!

Its now just under two weeks till our trip to Kalymnos and preparation is going well. Ive been climbing more than ever to try and get in some kind of good shape for our trip with regular sessions focusing manly on my worst weakness.....Stamina. But with the new roof sections at Rev and the ability now to do long traverses over steep terrain on the bouldering walls means i have no excuse to at least try. We were slightly worried about our flight what with all this volcanic ash grounding all planes but at it seems we might be good to go now after speaking to the airline.

I'm really looking forward to it and it will be a great way to blow away these winter cobwebs with a bit of foreign sun. I'm off to Craggy Island Sutton in a bit to put to test all my training and to see how I'm performing.

Update on new B uild at Rev.

Right so its been a little over a week since i last updated you on the new upstairs build at Revolution. Its been all go with the floor going down last tuesday which looks really good and certinaly makes it look so close to being finshed but theres still quite a bit to go. The glass came this week for the main windows and the windows in the staircase walls and looks really good. Were just waiting on the sliding glass for the other window and the glass for the door and thats the glass done.

Downstairs is pretty much done with the main climbing recpetion looking really good. The walls have been re painted and the stock has come back into the cabinets and above the reception desk. The old kitched has been transformed as well with the walls now plaster boarded and painted and given a good clean along with its own lights. It looks and works really well.





Hopefully it wont be to long before we can open it to the public. Its now just a case of touching up and finishing off a few more odd jobs as well as the glass then we are ready to get it signed off by the building regs.

On other news the new lead wall above the arch has started to be set with Rob and myself putting up four routes. The far left line is open now as a top rope line only and the other two lines are still out of action. As soon as we fix in the quickdraws and some metal supports for these two lines we are good to go. Hopefully this will be done in the next week. The routes explore both the vertical and horisontal parts of the new section with the easiest of the routes being a jug fest of yellow holds going straight through the roof and up over the yellow wall. The hardest moves are gaining the new yellow wall via a thin rock over. It wont be long till you guys can find out for yourself. Three more routes have been added to the left hand top rope line with a fierce yellow and blue route as well as a good 5+ red line that will put to practice your bridging abilities!!




UPDATE: There is now a fierce green route taking somewhat of a wandering line through the longest section of the roof and over to the new yellow wall. This was set by rope and require a lot of stamina and good finger strength to overcome the small pockets on the roof. Again we hope to have this open to you in the next week.

New Build at Rev Update.

Upstairs Party Room

As promised below are a few photos of the new build i mentioned in a previous post. Its really coming along now and tomorrow we start the painting which is a good feeling. Were still waiting for the glass and the floor but these wont be long although we wont be finished as quickly as we would of liked.

Oh and if anyone asks you if you can give them a hand to sand a ceiling after dry lining it, run.......run away!!!!!

After Sanding The Ceiling. Nice!


View From The Upstairs Area Of The Centre

Revolution Climbers Perform Well in Recent Comps.

Two of the regular Revolution climbers have been busy on the competition scene of late with Isabelle Cooke and Ellie Bacmeister competiting in both the SIBL and the BMC Youth Climbing Series. Both girls entered all rounds of both competitions with Ellie winning every single round of the BMC comps to finish in top place and secure her place in the final in Scotland later on tis year. She also finished a very respectal 7th place in the SIBl in a category with over 40 climbers competing.

Isabelle has been just as pro active and has had a good competition season so far. She finihsed 3rd over all in the SIBL beating some much taller and experienced climbers. In the BMC Youth Climbing Series Isabelle finished 3rd overall which means she will be joining Ellie on the long trip up north to compete in the final at Ratho.

Both Girls have continued to improve with regular training sessions at the centre and have now got their sights set on the final. Both girls and their families joined me on a trip to Harrisons over the Autumn and managed to climb problems upto 5b. Not bad for their first trip outdoors.

Ill keep you updated as they continue to perform well. Hopefully the new walls at Revolution will be of help in their training.

Peace

Okay gonna promise to keep more updated.

Right so ive been pretty slack of late, alright really slack. Its been almost a year since my last post but think i might of got the bug back to post again. Its been really manic over the last year, so i thought id post up whats been happening. The 2009/10 SIBL series came and went with six fun packed round. I really enjoyed this years series with some great rounds and working with some of biggest names in the business. Was great to have a day setting with Gaz Parry at Evolution climbing wall and visiting walls id never been to before. Really looking forward to the next series. I have afew months break from it all now and will start the organising of it come late May.

In the mean time however i am still keeping busy. At the moment we are building a large extension at Revolution with the addition of some sick new lead lines and we are currently building a new upstairs specator area over looking the wall. It should all be completed in the next week or two and its gonna make the centre feel and work so much better. Its gonna be sick when its finished. Ill have some pictures up in the next day or two of how progress is going.

Ive also got a trip planned to Kalymnos again. It will be my third time out there and am really keen to finish off some of last years projects. Ill be heading over with some good mates from the centre, John Samways the Lyon rep for the centre and two sponsored climbers: Mark Croxall and Danie Rushmere. We leave on May 5th for one week. Really wanted to get the first flight out but that booked up within days so second flight out will have to do. Time to treat myself to some new shinney things me thinks.

Apart from that work has kept me busy. i have my brothers stag do and wedding in May too and im looking forward to making sure the stag do gets messey. Car is playing up and is gonna cost too much to fix so ebay awaits for it me thinks. It has however meant i have been getting out on the bike of late and to my surprise im really enjoying it. It takes only a few minutes more than my car to get me to work so ive no excuse really.

Keep an eye on the SIBL website for more updates on the up and coming 2010/11 series.

Climb On!