[shannon Law]

COMING SOON!!! The Westway Climbing Centre is in the process of building it's long awaited new bouldering wall - 4.8 metres high and 16 metres long with overhangs of 40 degrees, a wild curving barrel, font-style circuits and over 150 new problems, it promises to be well worth the wait. For updates and pics, visit the website at http://www.westway.org/sports/wsc/climbing/gallery. Official launch date is 17th November 2007, but for those interested in getting a sneak peek, completion date is due mid October and the wall will be open to users with a selected number of problems to test your metal before the big launch day..

[Paul B]

after my last visit to your center, your going to need a whole lot more than that to tempt me back.

[Dave Westlake]

after my last visit to your center, your going to need a whole lot more than that to tempt me back.

 


When i went there i was told off for not belaying "properly" by some wanker staff member.  the belaying method he demonstrated gave me the impression he may have looked at a manual once but had never actually belayed himself - basically insisting i had it locked off the whole time (even when paying out rope!) 

[Adam Lincoln]

Good to see Shannon! Hopefully the wait will be worth it  Pitty i wont be around to get on it!

Good luck with getting it finished.....

[Paul B]

Basically when I went I'd been captive down in watford (staying with my g/f's parents) for far too long and getting very worried about becoming weak, I didn't have a vehicle but she kindly offered to drive me there one saturday whilst the other members of the family watched some football game. Got there, took over an hour (no exageration) to get passed the initial desk, then another 30 for someone to turn up and 'Test' me, they then refused to let Nat past the barrier without charging her (at this point she didn't climb), it cost us a bloody fortune for registration etc. then half the bouldering wall was shut for route setting and all of the other problems were absoloutely shit and very easy. Oh and a bolt on smashed off in my hand as some idiot had put it over a curved bit of wall. I didn't stay long and sent them a letter with my reciept attatched, didn't even get a reply. 

[Jaspersharpe]

Sounds great.

Oh and a bolt on smashed off in my hand as some idiot had put it over a curved bit of wall.

You've not had a great deal of luck with climbing walls in general then mate.

[Paul B]

on that note when I was in a climbing wall at the weekend another guy had an accident... some punter walking about had the audacity to pronounce bouldering as "safe" etc. until some people pointed out otherwise. Later in the session he came over to me and asked "Do you really think spotting would of made any difference"...

[Monolith]

When i went there i was told off for not belaying "properly" by some wanker staff member.  the belaying method he demonstrated gave me the impression he may have looked at a manual once but had never actually belayed himself -

Was it a Hispanic bloke by any chance? He was an arse to me also. Suffice to say I'd never go again as I also encountered the ridiculous wait just to get to that stage.

[Nibile]

few things can be more depressing than a bad bouldering wall.
one is: going often to a bad bouldering wall.

[Houdini]

Sounds almost as bad as the Craggy Island experience.

£10 for one bouldering session (plus 'induction') full of wank, aye, wank Croxhall problems.

Gelderd to I:  What do you do?  Roped Access.
I to Gelderd:  What do you do?  Mountain Instructor.

Cue remedial 'can you belay' tutorial, followed by a session on the most clagged-up, poorly ventilated tin-shack fuck ever visited. Piss poor.

[chappers]

Sounds almost as bad as the Craggy Island experience.

indeed i had the misfortune of visiting this shit hole a number of times when working in chertsey. over priced, rubbish problems, and full of tossers who left their ropes up routes (im sure for a show off factor) and got pissed off with me when i puled them so i could climb said route. 
ended up building a board in my garage.

it is hard to explain to the people on the desk that 10 quid on bouldering somewhere like this is a joke, when i go to boulderUK for what works out to be about £2.50/£3 a visit with my pass (between £4 and £5 for non member), and i climb on problems set by two of the best (if not the best) setters in the world, and without fail they change EVERY month. in a facility that is more than twice the size.

(not been to the westway, but dave told me how shit it was, lets hope that they sort out their prices, staff etc...)

rant over.