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Going there end of the month and really haven't climbed anywhere other than local bouldering wall, Sunderland wall and Kendall wall.
Looks quite impressive
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
You clearly never used "Hadrian's Wall" that used to be in Falkirk then... it quite literally had frost on the holds in winter!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
I don't think they are in use.
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 leftI 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.