[Closed] Any indoor climbers about - Tell me what to expect at Ratho (Edinburgh)

It's a climbing wall so like the others but more... It's also the coldest place on earth in winter.

It's a very [b]large[/b] climbing wall and I think an excellent venue for an old skool rave, but the events manager didn't see the potential for that. Loser!

I'd agree it's pretty impressive - I haven't climbed there myself but my wife and son have and some of the walls look pretty high.

As its for my 7yr old daughter who was very impressed with Kendal wall, I think its going to be a bit more than just another wall, or at least I hope it is.

Have been told to pack cold weather gear as, even if the weather is improving it will still be cold.

Looked at a few you tube vids and I can see the 'rave' venue idea being amazing. Imagine a few injuries would occur on the centre boulders

Take heed of lemonysam - it can be absolutely baltic.

Nice bouldering section in a different room from the walls.
The walls have different routes and grades like any climbing centre. The biggest difference I noticed was that the walls are much higher than other centres; you obviously don't have to climb to the top but expect burning forearems if you do!
Enjoy.

Daughter loves heights so that's part of the attraction. I just end up with a sore neck from belaying.

Cant wait to go

As others have said really high and pretty cold even in summer! There used to be one of those ariel assault courses as well.

On a side note they are building a wavegarden on the other side of the Union Canal
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/ratho-quarry-to-be-turned-into-10m-surfing-centre-1-3618841

Is there much there for non climbers to do? We will have family with us and don't think sitting around keeping warm with a cup of coffee will get them through an entire day.

Is it located near anything of interest

Thought there was a cafe / restaurant there too..

Is the Skyride thing in the roof still running .. ? I really enjoyed it.

It's not in Edinburgh it's about 10 miles out, so there's not a lot nearby, so yeah, you're going to be sat in the cafe.

My two loved it, walls are pretty bloody high!

I noticed the skyride thing. Might be able to persuade my son to have a go but my wife and her parents will not be keen. Looks great fun.

I bought a 40m rope when we first started roped climbing a few months ago. It has quickly become apparent its not going to be long enough when we go to the bigger walls. I have never been up that high but daughter enjoys it other than the weight of pulling the rope through gets a bit tough near the top

Ratho's great. There's also a Gym and a section for young kids (Scrambles) as well as the canal path nearby. If you don't need to stick about take a walk to the Bridge Inn in ratho for some quality pub grub.

Is there much there for non climbers to do? We will have family with us..

Not been in a good while but there used to be a big play room with a bouncy castle, dress up, train sets, buggies to ride on etc (plus coffee on hand for the grown ups).

No idea if that is still there or not though.

The Bridge Inn is indeed excellent - good food and good location overlooking the canal. Jupiter Artland is also nearby and also worth a visit.

I shat it off the skyride thing, it turns out, it's in the ****ing [i]sky[/i].

There's some kiddy things to do- a soft play place and playroom, ceramic studio thing, as far as I know that's all still open. Though I think they had to close their spa down. It's pretty close to the canal centre at ratho which is pretty nice for a short visit, check out the boats etc, visit the pub... Not that much else around there though really, it's a nice area though. Not far to livingston shopping centre if that floats their boat?

[old git] I remember climbing at Ratho when it was an overgrown quarry [/old git]

Your 40m rope won't be long enough to get to the top of anything on the lead wall. You need 50m and there's some walls which need a 60m rope. There's plenty of top ropes on the smaller walls

It's also the coldest place on earth in winter.

Great info guys.

The suggestion for the pub lunch is perfect. Wife, son and grandparents can disappear for a few hours and defrost for a few hours and have a walk by the canal.

Rope is definitely not long enough. Its a lovely weight though (9.5mm I think) so good for my daughter. The 60m 10.5mm weight one we used last weekend at Kendal weighed so much more and by 20m she was really struggling to pull it through (She lead climbs up to 25m so far). Will be looking at longer ropes soon but try to keep the weight down.

Only been doing this a year so everything is a new learning experience.

Mr Nice I believe there are still some 'natural' surface climbs left. I was hoping to get her on them as we have not climbed outside yet so hoped it would give her an insight to more natural holds etc

Oh and as we have a few climbers about, anyone built a practice wall on an outside wall. I have a piece of wall I reckon I could get about 10ft on. 10-15dg slope should make it interesting enough for her to practice on.

Oh and as we have a few climbers about, anyone built a practice wall on an outside wall. I have a piece of wall I reckon I could get about 10ft on. 10-15dg slope should make it interesting enough for her to practice on.

Lots of people do but it's a really easy way to make climbing very, very boring. If you're training to get strong then woodies are great but they need to be much steeper than that and they're still duller than a very dull thing.

I believe there are still some 'natural' surface climbs left

If you have not been before ,that first walk up to the window is pretty [b]WOW [/b] 🙂
My son was in the kids climbing club there,we were never away from the place

It's warming up a bit there now and the boulder room's cosy 😉
Have fun.

The biggest difference I noticed was that the walls are much higher than other centres

The big wall is only 3m higher than the big wall at Kendal I think.

Though I think they had to close their spa down

Nope, still open. They even seemed to have unlocked it so its free. They closed it for a while to un-grubbify it - got a bit manky in there.

I believe there are still some 'natural' surface climbs left

I don't think they are in use.

Correct. Think that was on the original wish list to have "outdoor climbing indoors" but I've never seen any.

A couple of lovely climbs in the quarry itself, though. Must.. get back... there...soon...

It's huge, and you'll be needing a 60m rope if leading is on the agenda.

[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3839/14543445006_912c1bab7d_s.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3839/14543445006_912c1bab7d_s.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/oa9XvQ ]It's a big wall![/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/95059685@N02/ ]GregT_[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2922/14566536405_eca4d97091_s.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2922/14566536405_eca4d97091_s.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/occiMp ]Saturday morning intro[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/95059685@N02/ ]GregT_[/url], on Flickr

Also, be aware that the BMC Youth Climbing Final's are there Saturday 25th April

We will be there for The finals Greg

Just checking your pics out Greg. My girls in cat E finals. Only 7 so not bothered how she gets on but really excited for the finals

Thats great to hear, so will we.

One thing we learn't (and I would recommend) is to try and get there on the Friday and have a look around (and a bit of a climb). It's a big place and its easy to get overwhelmed by it.

Traveling down on the morning unfortunately. Tbh I want the wow factor for her. So far everything has been wow so why not the final 🙂

Will look out for the Midlands hoodies.

We'll be there too. Katy's in the Girls' Cat D final... look out for a Granite City Rockstars hoodie.

Hello again guys.

Wow, what a place! Its huge and the climbing was fantastic. Really need to get some practice on bouldering with features as they were insanely difficult. The cold disappeared for me (Probably due to the adrenulin going).

Lily came 9th in her class which was pretty much what we were aiming for. Will be back next year to win it 😉

Oh and next year will be travel down Friday. 6.30am start and 9.30pm finish for us was too much. Will be booking a B & B next year.

It is a spectacular venue!

Well done on the 9th place, what age category was she in? My friend's daughter came 3rd in her's (think she is maybe 11)!

Well done OP ,glad you all had a good time,it's a great place.
I was my lad's belay monkey for years ,I kinda miss that buzz of the comp finals,happy days.
A fantastic sport and has set my son up for life with something he really enjoys and has made some good friends through. 🙂

Cat E. She has only just turned 8 this month and has only been climbing 12mths. With the experience of this year and what we have seen I am pretty confident we can put up a good fight next year for No1.

Fasthaggis that's one of the reasons I wanted her to try climbing. Such a nice atmosphere and sense of friendship from everyone.

9th is excellent, well done to her!!

Luke came 15th in Cat C Boys, and will still be in Cat C next year, so he's pretty chuffed with that.

Have you seen the setter's grade sheet for this year? Cat C had 6c, 7b & 7c leads and V4, V5 & V6 Boulders!

Well done Luke. Some of the lead climbing looked very impressive.

I have seen the setters notes but I am such a newcomer I don't even understand the difficulties. Lets just say I wasn't very impressed with them having a team GB demonstration of a route when that person is about 4yrs older and much much bigger. Absolutely no point at all.

Even funnier was the fact that the team GB climber for the Cat E boys FAILED to climb one of the roped climbs despite 3 attempts and they actually reset the route...

What I will say about the boulders is that we are not used to features on boulders at all. A couple of sessions on them boulders in general would have made a massive difference to our climbing. I think we will be having a few trips to ratho over the next 12mths. The place is amazing

Can I ask, did anyones team do much preparation/coaching for this? Our team seems to have realised that a bit of preparation for the event would have been a good idea. Only they realised the day before......

We got an email the day before with an invite to an physio assessment event plus some benchmarking session. I have no issues with this, I agree with measuring their improvement but having checked out a few of the opposition teams training schedules we were basically sent in after a bit of a play on some monkey bars in comparison 🙂

Where did you get to see the setters notes?

I thought the climbs were pretty well set (challenging to everyone, but achievable by the best climbers in the groups).
The boulder problems were far too hard; most of the girl's in Katys group barely made it off the ground!

The setter's notes can be found on their Facebook Page [url=

Ratho Routesetters[/url]

As for prep, as a team, no, we're too spread out. Although keep you eyes open for an invite to the [url= https://www.thebmc.co.uk/regional-academies-2015 ]2015 Regional Academies[/url] as these are coaching session for all who qualified for the finals. They'll start in September, and are worth doing.

The Boys V6 was hilarious and just burnt energy. The rest I thought were challenging, but achieved their goal of splitting the group from the start.

I thought our route setting was perfectly set to get the best climber to win.

She's climbing lead at 7? That's impressive, all the centers around here seem to have a restriction to 14 before they let them move to lead hence why no. 1 son is obsessed with bouldering, he's got a bit bored of top ropes (don't ask me why). How did you get that going? Did she so a bunch of NICAS levels in a boot camp or something?

Competed at bouldering recently and as he's small for his age at the grand final problems he could only just touch the start holds 🙂 - hasn't put him off, wants to go back next year as 'my arms will be longer'.

2 of the boulder problems for my daughter had me scratching my head trying to fathom any way of getting started, let alone finishing them. I just smiled at my daughter and wished her good luck

Its been a funny thing brassneck. I don't fit in at all at climbing walls. I always tend to turn up in trousers, shirt & tie (Straight from work) and I walk around in a harness and this clobber on. Its a different matter when Lily gets on the wall though. Keswick, Kendal, Penrith & Sunderland all let us lead. Basically she proved her mettle and they were quite happy for her to lead. I cant really climb so if we want to practice together, she has to lead. I had to buy a light rope because they make a big difference when she is 20m up, tired and trying to clip in.

Been looking at them Greg. We did a session with the GB Team manager about 3wks ago at Kendal. Really nice bloke (Cant remember his name)

LoL all about 300 miles too far north for me! Our nearest walls are a 60 mile round trip, but the hunger hasn't waned in him over a couple of years, so I think he's bitten.

Did you (both) have lessons to learn how to lead? I'm fine with top rope work indoors, but would be interested in getting us on the road to leading as it opens up the outdoors, so your experiences would be appreciated.

Greg, can you explain the grades please. She lead climbed a 6a+ before we went to the event. I assume a 6b is harder then 6c harder the 7a hardest.

I haven't seen that boulder grading. Ours uses similar to the numbers for the ropes.

Nope, no lessons. I got a lesson off a mate and his wife on how to tie in and belay for a few hours. My mate got sent up ever single climb at penriths wall which was rather amusing while my daughter climbed top roped.

1 week later she wanted to go back and climb. I got my mate to check I knew how to tie the knot properly and off we went. I made sure she climbed within my comfort zone for the 1st few goes but then (As I had been advised I just let her get on with it).

We are looking to get her outside in the next few weeks to see what she thinks of it. I trust my pal with her safety but he knows I am watching like a hawk as I want to learn too

Brassneck, our local climbing team is currently setting up an outdoors coaching session for bouldering and roped climbing. I am not suggesting you come along but I looked on their website and they do coaching days. For 10 people it works out at about £10each for half a day. Surely one of your local instructors would do it for similar where you are based. I wouldn't go outside unless I was with someone I trusted 100%, no way am I ready for that.

Not on the NICAS scheme. She started some NIMBAS thing but tbh its a bit like childcare and she ends up messing about. If she wants messing about I take her to the wall and have a competition with her. It seemingly very funny to see an overweight man with very dodgy knees fall from the top of the walls in a sweaty heap.

@LittlestHobo so the grades for the roped climbs range from 1 to 9b+.

Most walls use the Sport Grade system, and there's a table [url= ]here[/url]

It is impressive seeing loads of 8 year olds leading 7b.
Less impressive is the way it doesn't translate into seeing more folk on the best Scottish crags.

chickenman, I haven't really got an opinion on inside or outside. TBH I would love to climb outside on Scottish crags (My daughter rather than me). BUT I finish work, I have a son who I coach football and it got rained off last night. 15mins later me and my daughter were on the climbing wall practising. Its so convenient I cant see any issues with it.

Its going to happen for us, its just a case of when

Less impressive is the way it doesn't translate into seeing more folk on the best Scottish crags.

I don't see that as a bad thing.
Indoor climbing is a very different animal to outdoor sport and trad .
A lot of people get all they need from climbing indoors.

A lot of people get all they need from climbing indoors.

+1 - I have the opportunity to go outdoors with some of my mates, but i'd rather be off MTB'ing or playing hockey when the weather is good
Indoors i can hit loads of routes & problems

Less impressive is the way it doesn't translate into seeing more folk on the best Scottish crags.

Well, it's a bit of a drive for some of us 🙂 - the aim is to do so when both I and he have some experience and sufficient competence (and a few like minded people to start us off). If you don't live in a traditional climbing area it can be difficult and dare I say a little intimidating to get going.

Thanks TLH for the answers, but of course it generates a few more questions 😀 - that sounds like top roped though? Don't have a problem with that, it's the transition to lead - my understanding is there is a different technique for belaying, and the climber needs a few extra skills to clip themselves in as they climb.. maybe some extra gear (I don't even have a rope) that's the bit I'm trying to get my head round. Seems like you and your daughter have made that leap, when the centers locally here seem to want him to 14 and climbing 6c (that bit isn't a problem) before we can do a course.

Know what you mean about NICAS / NIBAS - he had some good groups, some bad. Main issue for us was hitting the timetables available, so I took it up to give us the flexibility.

FWIW on the grades - boulder problems seem to be harder than the top ropes for the 'same' grade IME - I'm certainly climbing higher grades than I'm boudering, mini B likewise.

[i]Thanks TLH for the answers, but of course it generates a few more questions - that sounds like top roped though? Don't have a problem with that, it's the transition to lead - my understanding is there is a different technique for belaying, and the climber needs a few extra skills to clip themselves in as they climb.. maybe some extra gear (I don't even have a rope) that's the bit I'm trying to get my head round. Seems like you and your daughter have made that leap, when the centers locally here seem to want him to 14 and climbing 6c (that bit isn't a problem) before we can do a course. [/i]

No, we started top rope for the 1st session with friends. My pal went up and put the top rope in for us each time and off we went. Then when we went back a week later it was lead climbing (Or am I confused about what lead climbing is?) otherwise we couldn't climb.

She roped in, I got the belay ready and off she went. I just feed out ample rope for her to reach the first clip and then I feed out as quickly as she climbs. She has had to adjust her style a little as she was clipping to high to begin with and we have been told to 'clip at the hip'. Reason being if she is pulling through enough rope to clip in higher up (Shoulder level) then that means if she falls whilst doing it she falls further. We also had to deal with screw gate carabiners which have been tightened too tight at the top of climbs which are a nightmare for her. Not sure if you are supposed to but we tend to unclip the quickdraws as she climbs down and then we top rope a couple of different routes from there to save time.

I think you are over thinking it tbh. I am not in a position to advise but if I was you I would ask someone with a bit of experience to help you out for an hour at a wall and you would be off. Around here a bit of confidence seems to go a long way.

Oh and another thing my daughter struggled with because she has small hands is actually opening the quickdraws whilst feeding the rope in. Its something when you show them feels easy but she really had to work for the first few goes to get her head around it. In the end I bought a quickdraw and a mate gave me 6ft of old climbing rope for her to practice in her bedroom.

I bought a 40m rope (Wish I had bought a 50-60m now)for about £50 from a store in Keswick. Theres some good offers at run rock climb I think.

Not sure if you are supposed to but we tend to unclip the quickdraws as she climbs down and then we top rope a couple of different routes from there to save time.

You can do that if you want, or you can just leave them as they are and climb past them.
Just make sure the rope is always through at least 2 points (normally both crabs at the top, with the screw gate screwed shut).

+1 - I have the opportunity to go outdoors with some of my mates, but i'd rather be off MTB'ing or playing hockey when the weather is good
Indoors i can hit loads of routes & problems

Haha, the exact opposite for me. On a nice day I'd rather be out climbing. Bikes and hockey are for the wet days.

And brassneck, try not to directly compare the french bouldering grades and route grades. Bouldering feels harder as they have to pack more punch into the problem.
As an example, the hardest sports route is 9b+ whereas the hardest boulder problem is 8C+. It's going to take someone pretty special to find and complete the 9A boulder problem.

Chris, bouldering grades and sports grades can't be compared as they're not the same system!

French sports grades are not the same as Fontainebleau ("Font" or "French") bouldering grades : A sport route graded F8a is usually going to have crux moves of about 7A (about V6 in the US bouldering system, and 6a or 6b in UK technical grades).

There isn't a linear comparison between sport and bouldering grades, and there's a huge variation in what makes routes hard - a route with loads of easy-ish moves could get the same grade as a route with one brick-hard move.

timb34 - That's what I was trying to say, but badly. I was trying to suggest using them as an indication, but not to expect that because you can get up 6a route doesn't necessarily mean that a 6A boulder will follow.

timb34 - That's what I was trying to say, but badly. I was trying to suggest using them as an indication, but not to expect that because you can get up 6a route doesn't necessarily mean that a 6A boulder will follow.

Plus it's important to remember that whilst route grades seem to tend towards consistency over time, bouldering grades' primary purpose* is to cause arguments. I know a chap who has flashed 8a but can point to a 5 he can't do - and nor can anyone else I know - and yet that's the consensus grade it's been forever.

*The ranking of climbs according to difficulty is merely a fringe benefit.

That at least explains some of my confusion 🙂

TLH - you're probably right, just want to start the boy out right as he's smitten - seems to be his 'thing'. Sounds you had a good leg up from your mate and just bypassed the top rope bit which I was pretty much starting from scratch with, so I've been following the advice from the centers.

Brassneck - Yep, we did one session of top rope and we were advised by her coach and my pal to just get her lead climbing as quickly as possible. I watched every youtube guide I could and took her. I was more nervous than she was tbh.

She hasn't had a big fall yet though so watch this space......

For brassneck. Don't pull it to bits. She's just turned 8 and had been climbing on and off for 3hrs.

Just in case brassneck missed this.

Hi guys,

Any of you guys going to the Mcofs? Scottish champs this weekend, including speed climbing which should be interesting?

We have been for a training day recently to ratho so a little more seasoned now 😉

Be interested to know what comps everyone is doing?