[boulderliverpool]

 

Ladies and Gents of the bouldering world, Liverpool will soon host it's very own dedicated bouldering centre.  Replete with the very finest bouldering, a vast array of angles to suit all tastes and desires and some very unique features, Liverpool is destined to join other UK cities in being fully furnished with top notch climbing facilities.

The team behind the plan is headed by Crispin Waddy of Livingstone, who if you have climbed at more than two indoor walls, you have probably been pulling hard on his handiwork.  The picture shows a small section of our new building, quietly sitting with not so much as a nod to just how exciting it is about to become!

Our website is under construction and will be operational by Friday.  The blog, the RSS feed, the Twitter and the Facebook are all being put together and soon you will know all. 

So spread the word please and keep your eyes peeled, the next post will have the web link.

The Boulder Liverpool Team. 

[fatneck]

Aha! Had heard rumours of this last week and got pretty psyched! The 'Pool's been crying out for a dedicated bouldering wall for years, good work!

No photo on your post?

Keep us informed...

[boulderliverpool]

Good to see people are psyched to have Liverpool join the ranks of fully equipped cities!  Itching to get details out, but that is why I'm building the website!!

The first photo of the buildings interior can be seen on UKClimbing.com - we are in the premier posts forum.

BoulderLiverpool Team.

[Richie Crouch]

Hell yes!

Hope it's open in time to get some training in for Switzerland at the end of Sep 

[Monolith]

YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!

This has

a) Crushed my dreams of ever opening a masterpiece of a dedicated bouldering wall in Liverpool

but

b) Elated the fuck out of me! Good work to all involved. Really really pleased to see this has happened.

The burning question is the location of the building? Are we talking easy access from city centre?

[Monolith]

Also, can I request something? If there is a possibilty, could I look at securing an evening residency behind the wheels of steel (free of charge of course) to ensure the godawful possibility of James Blunt on repeat doesn't ensue?

Pounding techno + climbing = Scientific proof of grade escalation.

I'm so happy.

[boulderliverpool]

Dearest Monolith,

Calm your fears of having cutting edge psyche rendered impotent by the whining and repetitious nature of Mr Blunt.  Under my management, even the suggestion of JB will result most likely in either the death or excommunication of said individual (or perhaps both).  As for pounding techno increasing grade average, I would love to see the double blind, peer reviewed article that suggests a positive correlation between the techno variables of:

savagery/phatness
BPM
volume
choice samples
heart rhythm altering bass lines

and average grade brutally crushed by a random sample of the climbing population.  A keen dirty hard dance music fan myself, I must weigh this against the diverse nature of the climbing wall demographic and their musical desires.  However, one would imagine that some sort of power hour type affair, combining the chunkiest and nastiest of beats, with some of the most roar inducing overhanging maneuvers, is not too far from the drawing board.  With regards to your request to pilot the wheels of steel, some time in the near future, I will request a sample and a decision based on that can be made.  I do hope this gratifies your enquiry. 

As for crushing your dreams, I can only apologise!

Ged

[Monolith]

What an articulate post! Wishing you all the very best with this and chomping at the bit in anticipation of details....

My dreams were likely to have remained dreams in any case!

[fatneck]

The other channel reports that..

Our first delay! The website will not be ready for tomorrow as there may be a major positive development to our team. Although I cannot release any details yet, should the negotiations continue in current trend, Liverpool is set to benefit from an even greater development.

Apologies for the cryptic nature of the email, but while things are formative it is unwise to say much.

More soon...

Boulder Liverpool Team

Interesting!

[Monolith]

I practically didn't sleep from thinking about this last night.

[Mike Psyche]

Can't wait for this, should be amazing 

[Tris]

The first photo of the buildings interior can be seen on UKClimbing.com - we are in the premier posts forum.

Good news...

Here is the UKC link with photo:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=410622

[Richie Crouch]

The plot thickens!

I wonder if there are any plans to realise the dreams of Benedict and have a super slopey mantle ring where you jump down into a foam pit and try and mantle your way out via a choice of desperate greasy angles 

A depot sized training roof with volumes would be immense 

[SurfingRock]

Good Luck to you guys!! Can't wait to see the website! Hope all the developments are coming together! I've got my fingers crossed for you!!

 

[Monolith]

Not to pester, but any news brethren?

[boulderliverpool]

Sincere apologies for the sudden absence of updates!

The delay was caused by us finding out that were was another party interested in also opening a bouldering wall in Liverpool.  Now as excellent as this might sound from the perspective of a boulderer, it is a not necessarily the 'christmas and birthday at once' scenario it might seem.

(breif explanation as to why - you can skip this if you like)  Businesses and customers benefit from competition when there is a large enough market to compete for, competitive behaviour keeps prices low and demands ingenuity in service delivery in the competition for the largest slice of the pie, meanwhile both businesses have enough clientele to be able to generate enough income to fund innovation etc, the trouble with the bouldering market is that a. it is tiny and b. is has to be grown.  We the climbers, are barely enough to keep walls open, the kids groups and birthdays etc are the bread and butter, but they need to be enticed in and cannot be factored in as a source of income in the early days of the business.  In these dark early days, walls depend on pull hungry climbers to be beating down the doors to demand a rich selection of problems.  This income is enough oxygen to keep the business alive while the school groups begin to take notice and bus the kiddies down for vertical fun.  This income allows you to begin to develop your climbing product and services to a higher level.  Now imagine there are two walls, the scant number of climbers is halved, so the oxygen is reduced, time for schools to get involved is less, the number of schools that come are now divided, thus no money to continue to develop and improve the facility.  After a few years of limping along, the services and product dont develop, customers disappear, walls go under, or one dies and other lives in savage 'to the death' scenario (but slower and with the sad addition of job losses).

Now consider the shame of this, BoulderLiverpool, the working name for the company that made this forum (and the only one I can currently comment on!), before we found out about the competitor will be manager by a myself, Ged, a British Junior Team coach, I obviously then enjoy training and coaching, I love seeing people develop and have been working on this project for along time and and psyched out of my mind to introduce new ideas and ways of doing things to all climbers, new and burly.  Without a healthy growing business, the money in the future that I have mentally ring fenced to launch these ideas may never come to fruition and everyone loses.  TO AVOID THIS GREAT SADNESS.....

... we have decided to try and collaborate!  It does say try because there are a fair number of details and legalities to be ironed out.  We have been in an are nearing the end of this process.  So what we should end up with is the power to open a better wall in the very first instance, the ability to grow and improve faster, to give you one of the best and biggest walls in the UK.  Now that is xmas + birthday= happy climbers. 

So again, I apologise for the delay, but unless I was to give summaries of the seven trillion emails/calls in circulation daily, there is not much to report other than the totally vague statement of 'we are moving closer to an outcome.'  Which is true, but uninformative, anything more elaborate than this is currently impossible!  So for now i beg your patience, as something I can actually tell you about happens...I will post!

Do not worry - you will get your wall, you will get original and addictive problems, you will get stronger!

Ged

[Monolith]

Power update, thanks team! Keep up the good work.

[boulderliverpool]

I suspect monolith is psychic.

[Andy F]

I suspect monolith is psychotic.

[Richie Crouch]

I suspect monolith is a sycophant.

 

[Monolith]

Nice summary men. We've all been going psychotic for a Liverpool dedicated bouldering wall and we'll say yes to any suggestion!

[boulderliverpool]

Evening all!

Hurrah, good news at last!  The consultation with the planners is over, they were very impressed with our application and it has now been fed into the big planning machine that will regurgitate a reply in 6-8weeks.  Thank goodness for that, it was all rather dull.

Now that is in, head is buried in logo design and I have delegated the finding of a domain/webpage/general webness to a trusted friend, and the whole media machine should be cranking into life mid next week I am told (my fingers are crossed for sooner).

When the website goes up, there will be a wee document I will ask all and sundry to download.  It will be a letter to the planning office explaining your urgent medical need for the wall.  As some may already know, planners like to approve things that people want, evidence of people wanting it other than me saying 'Liverpool is totally psyched for a wall' which they have the arrogance to assume is biased somehow, goes down well.  So it will be the first favour I ask of you!

Some teaser knowledge about the site (dont want to spoil the web 'launch') it is 0.2 miles from the train station (sub 3min walk), has onsite parking, free off site parking, will have a bike shed, the potential for as much (possibly more) climbing area as The Works, a specific area for kids climbing to be taught, I mentioned proper coffee already (was looking into buying a coffee roaster... to expensive just now - placed on the future shelf!)

Just a tease!

Huge thanks for all the support so far - I promise this will be worth waiting for.

Ged

[Richie Crouch]

Converting St Georges hall (with it being next to the station and having a large parking area) into a gigantic climbing arena would probably leave little in the way of funds for a coffee roaster, shame 

Look forward to seeing the website up and running, good work!

[Monolith]

Amazing. I think from the interior I can guess which building you are occupying that is roughly 0.2 miles from Lime St. If it's not Lime St then I'm wrong.

If you'd like an instruction manual from myself (ex Awesome Walls instructor) and Richie Crouch on how to reprimand and flog local youths that will infiltrate the centre, just holla

Still not sleeping here but look forward to the sedation your website will offer.

[boulderliverpool]

Folks - go here

http://boulderliverpool.blogspot.com/

ask questions, get excited, click on follow, get the updates!

So excited I can finally get details out -thought I was going to pop!

Cheers,

Ged