In 2006, there is going to be a new climbing wall in London, in Herne Hill, at the Herne Hill Velodrome, see Streetmap for location. They have a total estimated cost of £6 million for the whole complex. The indoor climbing wall aims to have a central 7.5 metre "mountain feature", bouldering wall and traversing walls.
Last June, Southwark's Planning Committee gave approval to the outline planning application to regenerate Herne Hill Velodrome. This saves the whole site which had been under threat.
See some pictures of the site and drawings of the plans, plus some older pictures of the site from the last century.
This new climbing wall will mean that there is a decent wall in all four corners of London, with the Westway, the Castle and my usual Mile End.
climbing: January 2004 Archives
Prompted by Euan writing about climbing, I found this quite raw post on the experience of climbing, unfinished from July.
climbing is a personal experience, it is difficult to impart the feeling and thoughts of lead climbing in an intelligible manner.
So, despite having said that, here are some thoughts and a narrative description of climbing the route Ringo, which I posted a picture of earlier.
there is a rythm to climbing and an order
setting up the belay
tieing in to the rope
checking one anothers harness
checking the rack
eyeing up the moves
getting to the first position
climbing
first gear above head height
finger jams
the bulge
leg jam rest
horizontal break
then layback / rockover to the rest
fiddling the gear
getting pumped and resting
gear in teeth to hold it whilst wrestling to choose the right size
last piece and feeling safer
make the move and haul over to the top
then set up the belay at the top and let your partner second it
My short summary review of Touching the Void and a list of links to other reviews of the film of the excellent Joe Simpson book, Touching the Void (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk)
A great film about friendship and being alone and the will to survive. It has superb photography, you really feel involved and the opening of the film is fantastic. It starts with sound of crampons and an ice axe on snow, plus the magical sound of climbing gear tinkling, see the trailer.
The style of the film is very suited to the book, a mixture of to camera interviews and climbing footage, then the long struggle from out of the crevasse and down the glacier.
Even if you have no ambition to climb a mountain, go see this film, it is really excellent and quite powerful, the reunion at the end is especially strong.
- Ed Douglas in Guardian Film
- Kevin MacDonald on making the film
- BBCi review of the film
- IMDB listing for the film with cast list (possibly one of the shortest at 4 people)
- The distributor Pathé have a small micro site for the film, with the trailer for the film
- Joe Simpson's personal website
- OutdoorsMagic article on the making of it
- In the January issue of the magazine Climber there is a 5-6 page article on the making of the film, focussing on an interview with Brian Hall, who acted as guide and extreme film-making consultant.
