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!

Sardinia 2009

Okay, so while my Internet connection has been down I was away in Sardinia for a week with some guys from the centre. Again another fantastic holiday with its usual ups and downs and some great laughs along the way too. Below is a quick summary of our trip.

We left Sunday morning around 1am for Gatwick Airport. I had just finished a 12 hour shift so was defiantly not in the mood for the drive up but knowing your going away kind of keeps you up for it and before long we were at Gatwick buzzing.

After picking up the hire car over in Sardinia we started the two hour drive down to Cala Gonone and before long had arrived, dumped the gear in the apartment, and were at the first Crag of the holiday, a nice warm up and refresh days climbing at Cala Gonone. Some of the guys had done limited sport climbing before so we re capped on some the techniques used in sport climbing and before long they were away and climbing.

Next day saw us up at 'I Tornanti/Aguaplano' on the hill going out of Cala Gonone. The sport climbing newbie’s really started to shine with Flashes of 6a's on their second day and good attempts at harder routes. Myself and Rob cranked out a couple of nice 6+ routes before getting totally shut down on SunnyGirl. This route is defiantly going to make an appearance again next time im over there but its fingery all the way and fingers of steel are recommended. In the evening more guys turned up in the form of Tim and Jenny who had flew out at a later date to see us.

Next day and with a slight Hangover! we were out again and as team began visiting new and old crags climbing at our respective grades. Tim had unfortunately hurt his finger and was out for the week but came along anyway to offer his belaying assistance. The week was spent much in the same way visiting crags both in Cala Gonone and further afield. Unfortunately on the second to last day i pulled my tendons in my left hand and was unable to climb again for the holiday and became chauffeur to the guys. Highlights of the trip Include:

Robs 7b Red point at Cala Fuili
Branding
6b On sights my team members
6a flashes from the new guys
and good good food.

There are some pictures in the toolbar on the left hand side of the page of our trip away.
Until next time!!!

Update on Competition Team

Unfortunately I have had big problems with my Internet connection but i think the problem has been solved now so im back.

First off a rather late update on what has been going on with our competition climbers. The main news is our young star at Revolution, Isabelle. She has now finished all three rounds of the BMC Youth Climbing Series and achieved a personal best of 2nd place overall. This means she is on her way to the Final to help support the South East Team in retaining there winning form in the competition. The Final is to be held At The Westway climbing centre in June.

Izzy is hard at work training and is now visiting the centre more and more often helping to maximise her chances of success.

We wish Izzy all the best for the competition along with the rest of the South-East Team.

Round two- More success for Izzy

Izzy has managed to continue her recent good form in the BMC youth climbing series
by climbing to 2nd place once again. The event was held at the castle climbing centre in London with the same layout of three top
rope problems and three boulder problems.

Izzy now has one round left to decide weather she makes it into the final and join the other
south east winners to battle it out for national region glory.

A massive well done to Izzy once again and good luck for the third round on 25th April 2009

Competition climbing - Isabelle Cooke

Isabelle has now been climbing at the centre for over two years and has managed some great competition results already. In 2007/08 Izzy entered the SIBL (Southern Indoor Bouldering League) competition and after six rounds at different centres she managed a very impressive 10th place. Not bad for a first competition. Izzy then tried her luck at the BMC Youth Climbing Series in 2008 and came third overall to secure her place on the South East Team who went to battle it out against the other regions teams at Rathro in Edinburgh were the south East team won first place in her category. Izzy kept up her good form in the 2008/09 SIBL were she finished 7th overall.

Izzy managed to get her best result in the first round of 2009 BMC Youth Climbing Series by climbing to 2nd place. She managed clean accents of all three lines
up to 7a. Not bad for 11 years old. She managed all but one of the boulder problems falling from near the top. There are two more rounds left and to reach the final Izzy must finish in the top three competitors. I will update the blog as news comes in of her results

Revolution would like to say a massive well done to Izzy and good luck for the next round!

Peak Trip Feb/ March 09

Well, I have just got back from a trip to the Peak District with a couple of guys from the centre. We started of by driving the five and half hours to Almscliff and spent the day bouldering there getting up to V5. The next day we spent a damp session on the boulders at Caley which were certainly very impressive but the large majority of climbs we had come to do were not in condition so we made do we what was available and had an easy morning on the lower grade climbs round ‘The playground’ area climbing up to V4. We then visited Ilkley on the same day and viewed some of the impressive trad lines and the newly climbed ‘Getty’ which stood as one of Grit stones last great problems. We finished off by driving the hour or so south to Widdopp which proved to be a very isolated crag on the edge of widdopp reservoir. We had the whole place to ourselves and I pleasantly surprised to find the boulders in good condition.

Sam on the V5 eliminate at Almscliff

Next stop was Stanage and time to get the trad gear out. Conditions went good with very strong winds and some small outbursts of rain so we passed the day climbing some of the three star routes up to VS.
The next day conditions were not good again so we passed the day by visiting some of the other crags for a look around including Cratcliff, Frogatt and Cubar. We managed to squeeze a few climbs in but again conditions weren’t that confidence inspiring and the friction was not as good as we wanted to try some of the harder lines.

The weekend was clear and at times sunny (a first for me on grit climbing) and we were finally able to get to Stanage and climbs some the E1’s we had come for. After a bit of practice we managed to climb Elephant on a dog house which is graded E1 5b. Rich later went onto solo the route which was very impressive. We finished the trip off with a session on the Plantation boulders at Stanage with ticks of the Green traverse V6 and very close attempts on Deliverance being had by some of the guys.

Sam On Sunset Crack, Froggatt

All in all a good trip and everyone went home happy if not with sore Grit bashed hands. There are some photos of our visit on the Left hand side of the page.

Success!!

So, finally managed to get the V9 problem finished about a week ago. As for the grade im really not too sure. The Crux more is a blind semi dyno round the corner of the overhang and although a hard move in itself its made harder by the fact its blind and I find I do it quite inconsistently. For me id put it about v8 compared to other routes I have done. Im just not that sure that it is V9 as although it has taken me longer to complete than other v8’s I think that’s down to the fact I am inconsistent on the blind move and that’s not because it’s a V9 move its just because its blind. It has had other repeats by some of the guys working it and grades have range from v7 to v9 but most agree its around v8. Anyway, onto the next creation. Route setting should be completed in the next week so no doubt our setters can come up with something equally as hard.