[Lund]

Tonight, as with many evenings nights, I shall be down the castle.

In years gone by, I would have been sat under the feature wall, spending hours making up problems and trying those that others had made.  I'd have watched people new to climbing on the wall too, climbing a mixture of the coloured blobs and the fake plastic sticky out bits and pockets, heaving their overweight masses around atop flabby hire shoes.

Tonight, some of those problems that we did are now "classics"; the only people who can barely remember them a handful of 30-something year old opinionated dickheads still climbing in London.  But even then, most can only vaguely remember the arcane and ridiculous rules accorded to the plastic-feature eliminates.  This is because when they opened more walls, we moved on to things that were more flexible; where the walls could change, where new holds could be put on, smaller or crappier holds, or those miles apart and to challenge us in new ways.

I'll be sat under the wave this evening.  It's steeper than the feature wall, and has more holds on it.  Yes, I'll still be climbing eliminates I or another 30-something dickhead made up.  Like before I'll still be watching fat people in hire shoes climb coloured blobs, although rather than having to share the space with them I can wonder from afar as the wave is too steep for them to get started on.

Maybe I'll visit the catacomb too - I fancy a trip to the cave of justice soon, and so climbing on a roof is a good idea.  I could do with practising the footwork as it's a bit of an embarrassment.

The feature wall has had its day.  Even were it still there I'd not go on it.  Nor would most of the 30 something dickheads that used to live there.  The modern walls are more flexible and more suitable for training as they aren't fixed; it's possible to set them (either by paying someone or climbing on a training board) with more variety.

As to the root question: are modern walls rubbish?  Not in London they aren't.  The castle isn't.  Could it do with more training space?  Yes it could.  But I could also visit the board room at Mile End; the training walls at the biscuit, or whatever it is that they have at the westway (I don't do the west side, strictly an east side dude).

Anyone who thinks that the feature wall represents anything near the pinnacle of training for outside is (a) on crack, (b) a fatty in hire shoes, or (c) has never seen splinter.

[duncan]

Anyone who thinks that the feature wall represents anything near the pinnacle of training for outside is (a) on crack, (b) a fatty in hire shoes, or (c) has never seen splinter.

This demands a reply, as do several other posts, which will be forthcoming.  Unfortunately the whoosh of deadlines flying past is becoming deafening and I have to do some real work today.

[slackline]

Problem with using tape/tags to label problems is that it can go missing. Leading to ages spent working out unlikely matching / hand-swap sequences before an in-the-know  local puts you out of your misery. 

That said, coloured holds are no guarantee of identifiable problems.  Last time I went to Leeds Wall, there were two areas that each accommodated a grey problem, a black, and a white.... which all looked grey.  The lighting was on the blink too which didn't help the colour matching process!

White holds with dots and LED holds

[Wood FT]

Problem with using tape/tags to label problems is that it can go missing. Leading to ages spent working out unlikely matching / hand-swap sequences before an in-the-know  local puts you out of your misery. 

That said, coloured holds are no guarantee of identifiable problems.  Last time I went to Leeds Wall, there were two areas that each accommodated a grey problem, a black, and a white.... which all looked grey.  The lighting was on the blink too which didn't help the colour matching process!

White holds with dots and LED holds

fucking hell those LED holds are mental, maybe the wall could do discos nights?

[north_country_boy]

Problem with using tape/tags to label problems is that it can go missing. Leading to ages spent working out unlikely matching / hand-swap sequences before an in-the-know  local puts you out of your misery. 

That said, coloured holds are no guarantee of identifiable problems.  Last time I went to Leeds Wall, there were two areas that each accommodated a grey problem, a black, and a white.... which all looked grey.  The lighting was on the blink too which didn't help the colour matching process!

White holds with dots and LED holds

Mmmm....white holds? Small coloured stickers? Climbing chalk?......is it 1st April already?!....

The LED idea sounds good for comps, as I dare say it could work well at an outdoor comp like the Arco Rockmasters if they staged it at night? But really, I don't think they are going to appear as a commercially viable option for the majority of walls.

[ftstone]

don't know if this has been mentioned already, but if you want to climb on featured walls in london go to mile end's secret garden section.

btw we did have some featured wall at the arch once, don't know if you remember it... the small traverse section by the roof tunnel. No fun building it, no fun climbing on it, even demolishing it was no fun. Johnny liked it though