FIRST CIRCUIT

Just quickly - first set by Rob Napier and Dan (whose surname I have forgotten), regular Works/Foundry/Edge setters. All on immaculate white Bleaustone and Lapis holds. Shauna and James are currently 'testing them' I will have a little play later, the first problems - oooh I'm all giddy like a school girl (the stereotypically constantly giddy kind)

<---- 'TESTING'

Opening events action

Hi All,

Ok, time to emerge from the stress hole and realise 'Oh, I'm opening a bouldering wall in under two weeks, probably best to let people in some knowledge!'

I am honestly sorry for being a seriously slack blogger, but hey, getting better.

Right here is what you need to know about your new wall

THE CLIMBING HANGAR

When - Saturday Jan 8th 12noon
Where 6 Birchall Street, L20 8PD (1KM north of Awesome Walls)or 3mins walk from Sandhills station of training it it.
What - a relaxed opening affair with a fully functional bouldering centre with Teas, proper coffee, homebaked beautiful cake action, and a range of bouldering circuits from V0- to V13
How - come to door, hand over money/debit card, enter building, go climbing. Cost for adult is £7, everyone else is cheaper, I am harassing my web man to complete the website although it is mainly my fault for not getting him all the info before xmas.

EVENTS:

Prize draw - all people who come in to climb on Saturday will be entered into a prize draw to win approx £100 worth of Red Chilli gear, so if you're hardcore, perhaps some of those mint Matadors, newbies will be able to get shoes/chalk/bucket, everyone wins! (well only the winner really!)

Celebrity Circuit: Celeb culture is everywhere, its crass and undignified, but it seems this infection cannot be defeated, so lets jump on the bandwagon! Every three months we will have a leading climber come and set a super hard project circuit inspired by their fave problems from around the world. The circuits will go from 7b - 8b/+ giving everyone something to project. Our first 'celeb' is Tom Randall, Rab, Wild Country and Red Chilli make up his sponsors. Famous for being a crack climbing genius, bold as brass and just sending One Infinity (8b+). he is also the British Team manager and perhaps the most knowledgeable man in the universe on training for climbing. He will also be giving a short talk about the problems that have inspired our circuit and showing us some of his videos and photos to inspire, check him out here:

One Infinity

Email any questions to: ged@theclimbinghangar.com

Foam delivered

Foams delivered, 10 pallets of big blue bouncy stuff, 96 sheets of the stuff! foam covers also delivered, first set going up tomorrow - I'm going to have a bit of an upload session tomorrow and show the world the glory! In the mean time checks out yours truly as the model for some our initial promo shots, you know I think I'm a real natural in front of the camera, there could be a career out there for me, that real messy hair unshaven sort of look with a hint of not enough sleep for a number of weeks too, adds real character...

Your cue now is to say something like 'Ged, don't be silly, you look fresh as a daisy and I would kiss you...' Probably at at life time pass for the best esteem boosting comment!

That link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gidYYDs97Cs

Is this going to work this time???? Normally I am not technologically inept, however this new blog action seems to be quite challenging... For some reason I don't seem to be able to make an active hyper link, so sod it, just copy and paste it!

Enjoy Christmas people I am working hard on building up a natural weight belt as previously climbing with my svelte figure was just not challenging enough, so lets stack on some poundage to add some real difficulty!

Oooh, is that another mince pie I spy?

some sort of transition

In the manic approach to xmas, work here has also been manic, a nod on our part to the British approach to seasonal joy and as a happy result of the complete carnage inflicted upon our sanity and personal lives, the unit is making the gradual transition from building site into industrial unit! In the spirit of such things I wandered around with my ancient digital camera and filmed the beauty of it all. You will notice however huge slabs of pale blue foam blocking a full glimpse of the plywood marvel, however at least you can be sure that you will be landing on the very finest huge blocks of foam!



Mindless unedited commentary, but five days off since Nov 5th is taking its toll and my mind is departed fully, so please forgive. Hopefully the pictures get you psyched, our 7a to 8a circuit is being set on the 29th, I am organising a cool event for our Jan 8th opening and there will be some monster setting action soon as soon as my three pallets of holds arrive! I am looking forward to getting my head back into setting interesting easier problems, always the hardest really, trying to tune into making V0-/V0/V0+ problems that contain fluid movement, but setting is great fun anyway, hardly a chore!

Anyway only seventeen more sleeps till opening day!!!

3D Projection

A good friend of mine has created a 3D fly around of an approximation of our finished project. The colours are obviously just a guess on the part of my designer and the other video of the recent paint job gives you an idea of the look we are going for. The Berghaus branding is not to be panicked about, the designer was just using the only outdoor brand he knew to spec. the walls - afterall he is a computer man and not fully genned up on the outdoor brands!

The second phase will have a campus board in too and the cave will be bigger AND the comp wall will be steeper! So much goodness to be had, yum yum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3utcOaqLRUA

The new paint job!

One day of painting completed by our lovely lovely voluntary team! Only one coat on and not all the surfaces are covered yet, but you get an idea of what we are trying to do with the place!

Big love to all the helpers, there should be photos of the home made BBQ action and Ged's killer mulled wine that involves healthy amounts of 63% Jamaican rum. Nice.

More goodness soon.

Check this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqk3O-RB4LU

Your verdicts please!

Hi all,

The level of building action is sick and wrong, its is all hands to the deck with a constructive fury shaping ideas into reality that you will be able to test your mettle against! Decisions about heat, style, order, coffee beans and colour are being feverishly made in haze of industry - dang its insane!

BUt there is something for you to do too, well it is going to be your wall so you may as well have some input right? Well obviously we are on phase one of the two phases (phase two Feb opening) and I have a pal of min whipping up a 3D walkaround of the lower building, now he sent me a wee section of the video he is making and he coloured the panels as he saw fit without input from us.

This is the link to that video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6azAuq7LR_k

So what do you think of the colours? Throw some feedback our way. tell others to do the same! Lets get a feel of your thoughts!

Also this coming weekend is painting weekend with beer and BBQ for all volunteers (soft drinks available too!) is anyone keen for a spot of 'roll on/roll off'? Sneek preview of the greatest centre in the universe also! In the future you can tell your grand kids, hey john and jane, granddad painted that panel and they will be so proud - picture their little faces...

Staff team

Hello everyone!

What a week, goodness gracious, I am bushed!!! We have just finished our third day of interviews and seventeen strong candidates later, I'm whacked and need a kip. However we have earmarked our team but are going to sleep on it and see if we feel the same tomorrow (sure we will). I am super psyched now as the people we have provisionally selected were not only qualified but had a really good 'vibe' about them, a positive energy if you will that left me feeling - I cannot wait to start work!! When was the last time you heard some one say that?

I think a climbing wall is essentially a place that draws people and if it treats and cares for those people well you build a community where people feel welcome. Hell, you dont start a climbing business as a get rich strategy, its all about the love, the poeople and the lifestyle. Fingers crossed we can make it work - I we because I do mean you too, I may own and manange the wall and have shaped it thus far, but what you bring to it will shape its future and that I find really exciting - where will you take us?

Also included a pic of the arch - so much sick clamping problems to be set... and Crispin getting medievil on the steel work!

I thought this looked rather good!

Our first promo pic, obviously all posed and lit up for effect, but dang it makes me go all tingly!!!

Still on track for January opening there folks so keep every day free in your diary!!

Helping out

Afternoon everyone!

I have taken a little break from writing inspirational risk assessments to ask a favour and arrange an event.

1) Are you stressed out, angry at work or with a friend or loved one? Then come and try Drllling and t-nutting - using big power tools and bashing the hell out of stuff with a hammer helps get things back into perspective. In exchange for a days action we can offer you a ten climb pass, lunch and as much tea/coffee as you can handle.

2) Perhaps a spouse or even yourself is over keen on decorating the house, quench that thirst by voluntering for 'The Big Paint'on Dec 11th and 12th. This is a weekend fesival of rolling on paint to plywood to the sound of wicked beats, and a thankyou BBQ and Beer evening to show our gratitude. Our professional designer will be there to boss us all around so we don't even have to think, just roll it on baby! People with greater motor skills might be asked to do some cutting in.... Volunteer for one or two days, bring a friend! Bring your Mum! Bring everyone! probably not a great event for vegans however as beer is normally filtered through fish scales (uurrgghh - I know!) and pork sausages and beef burgers normally (unless in McDonalds) havwe animal origins. We also used donkeys and an endangered Burmese Orangutan to help us build the wall as free labour.

email my good self at boulderliverpool@gmail.com to say, 'Ged I want nothing more than to volunteer my body to the cause, take me and use me as you wish.'

Peace out!

 

Round the back of 'Le Elephant' style centre piece, we are connecting it to the back wall with a monster arch, a really terrible panorama this time, but you will get the idea.

Ged

Psyched Yet?

 

Ok folks and folkettes - we have been building for seventeen days now and this is what we have to show you!!!!

I apologise that my stitching of photos is worse than my photography but it does a quick glance of the good stuff!

It doesn't show the office, shop, plush shower room, heated changing rooms or the new stuff built downstairs - you know we love you!

Anyway as a point of OMG interest - the big monster thing in the middle was built upside down and rolled over!!!! It was a beast of an operation!

Also how do you fancy early January opening? You are probably excited as i am scared! Excellent!

The BIG questions

 

Now if you're anything like me, anytime you are at a dinner party or meal of some sort, a few bottles of wine get drained and people start dishing out the big questions to which there are never any real answers, life (meaning/purpose of), the universe and if two pigeons inhabited a 5000sqft industrial unit undisturbed for four years, and then you brushed up all their dried poo, how much poo would that be... and so on.... Well ladies and gentlemen, I can now answer one of these questions, the meaning of life is infact to go indoor bouldering, haa haa, my marketing skills are stealthly - did you see that blinder?

At keast I can finally put that tricky pigeon poop question to bed, that wheel barrow was over half full, while sweeping it all up - all i could think was 'Living the dream Ged, living the dream.'

Did I mention...

That we have planning permission and are able to move in whenever we want so that we can start building you good people a bouldering wall?

Relief would be an inadequate word to fully convey the sense of overwhelming release that this crucial decision brings.

All the phone calls and emails and harassing of Liverpool Planning Department - I think I know them all by name now..... Has been worth it to get the green light to build the first outpost of the empire, sorry I mean dream (mwah haa haa haa)....

Thank you everyone for waiting, soon there will be a brand new blog, all official and professional, we have almost decided on a logo/brand, the proper website is under construction and we are ordering some wood soon for the whole building of a wall thang!

I know, I'm exicted too! Anyway, when I'm not totally smashed from an insane day, I'll post some new pics up and crank this whole media machine into action.

Big Love.

There could be news in the pipeline!

Nothing official just now, but positive noises of a very positive nature have recently been made in the region of the last two hurdles. Very cryptic I know, but I'm excited so I thought I would share my excitement with you!

Hold your breath....

One down! Two to go...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One of the last big three hurdles is down, our bank has agreed the loan! Yippee! We now have all the funds required to build a monster boulder centre of justice or something equally insanely cool sounding.

Just planning and the lease to nail.

Also I would just like to thank those people who emailed to tell me to keep the faith after the last rant! Honestly that was a real boost to see that you're out there and you give a damn!

More as it happens in a sort of delayed way as opposed to say, BBC News 24 where there are constant updates. Nope, off to make a coffee now, mooch around and recover after climbing in Climb Newcastle's 2nd birthday comp. Dropped some silly problems that i felt daft about, but did manage to climb the legendary Byker Groove. The groove is an annual problem set by Chris Graham (aka Springer) a master of flexibility, dynamic power and sheer technical deviousness. A visionary setter and particle physicist - now thats an unusual mix!

Have a good weekend!

Cusp - what cusp? What is a cusp?

You know folks, I believed it when I blogged it, I really did. For some reason I thought the previous three month long pattern of a date being promised to me by someone and then being pushed back was going to stop.

I thought the bank manager was going to stick to giving us our decision on Wednesday.
I thought planning was coming on Oct 19th.
I thought we were in there with the lease.

I was in some ways wrong and in other ways naive.

The bank man is now saying tomorrow.
Planning now due next week.
Lease negotiations practically done (but still incomplete).

In fairness I should have known this would happen, but there has to come a point where somebody makes good on one of these dates otherwise no wall would ever get built. Planning has to be completed by Nov 15th by their own rules, so there is one final date. The bank wanted some extra figures, which they have now, so tomorrow should be a reality. The lease is with the legals folk now so we have done what we can.

The people we have been dealing with have generally been upfront and progressive, Liverpool Planning Dept, despite all the bad things I heard about planners on the grapevine, have been beyond reproach and have really outdone themselves (Vickie V deserves a medal).

I have nothing to calibrate this experience against, is this good, but feels bad because I'm in it? Are we making excellent progress for a startup in a severe recession? Who knows?

What is a blogger supposed to do? Should I just post saying 'nothing definite to report!'? Or should I should I give my opinion based on the best info I have at the time?

I nearly drank a bottle of red wine about midday on Tuesday such was the frustration. I went climbing instead and got on with coaching the young people of the North East at the wonderful Climb Newcastle. I like it there, good vibe, good staff. The value of good staff is immeasurable, not once have I walked in and not been greeted, owners Andy and Chris have been a source of brilliant advice and support and clearly owed some form of gin.

From here on in, the blog should perhaps be my ranting space and then BOOM! out of the blue, without warning (tautologous there!) I say 'People we build now!' and the Liverpool climbing community rejoice. Speaking of you instead of me, is anyone going to the Ron Fawcett lecture on Nov 10th? Quite fancy a look myself, Fawcett being a bit of leg-end!

Rant over.

On the very cusp...

So it's been quiet on the blog front. My hands are up, my head is bowed, my body language spells apology. However the silence on the blog front normally indicates that I've been busy like a bee, a notoriously busy insect.

The problem is with the nature of the business that has been going on, is that it leaves very little to actually report, phrases like, 'we might have sourced some excellent bouldering matting' or we have finalised the interior designs on our scale plasticine model etc don't really convey the progress that is being made. The progress is always inching forward, inexorably towards the point where something definite happens. Every single step before the definite is simply a possibility, no matter how possible it seems, until it is signed, dated and binding, it is nothing. Little undermines a man more than a promise unfulfilled!

What I can say for definite is that we have entered a critical phase, within ten days we will make an announcement. What it will be depends on the outcome of various processes over the next week. I am however very positive, but then you need to be an eternal optimist to support the peseverence to survive the string of setbacks and problems that befalls any project of this nature.

Your patience, you willingness to come back here and check to see if anythign is happening, is appreciated and I hope to rewards you soon with seriously cracking facility.

Hold your breath...

Inspirational

I have just returned from four days at the World Cup inspired and psyched out of my tiny mind. Filled with ideas for getting young people and normal people and aspirant hard climbers to aspire to dizzy heights and enjoy the bliss of pulling harder than you ever thought you could.

Near five hundred youth from around the world arrived at EICA in Edinburgh to climb on the world stage. Now in Britain comp climbers get a lot of grief sometimes, frequently attacked with cynical swipes of 'What have they ever done outside' or 'I bet he couldn't do that at Malham' or some equally trite quip. I deplore this, I really do, because these people are not taking into account that someone has taken years and months to prepare to to express all of their training and hard work in a six minute window. No second chances, one shot. Competition climbing is a form of expression in the diverse church of climbing and to be overly critical based on deciding it is lesser because it is not outside is to misunderstand the whole art of competition climbing. What I can say is that in that environment, the British Team that I work with were brilliant, four made the semi finals in field where 8a onsight is the norm. Our team supported one another, climbed their hearts out in front of the world and were a slick professional unit.

It reinforced that climbing is a community of people with a shared passion. People prepared to cheer on their competitors, to mingle freely with people from other nations and to be inspired by the grace and style with which the person who just beat you did their route. If the United Nations could conduct themselves like the comp climbers I was privileged to spend four days with, our world would be a hell of lot better.

As for what have they done outside? The best onsight grade of any of the climbers I think was 8b+ and there were a fair few who had redpointed 9a outside, I lost count of the people who had redpointed 8c. This is girls and boys and across all the age ranges. Now is the bit where somebody says, 'Aye but that is long European fitness routes, all steep thuggery blah blah blah' and then moves on to cite some obscure Limestone route in Peak/Yorkshire with loads of invisible holds etc that nobody could ever onsight.

Anyway, enough rant from me - check out the brief review on the IFSC website:

">http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/?page_name=home&category_id=28&item=356

Ninja monkeys (British Youth Climbers)

Psyched for next week already, nothing to do with the bouldering wall, but it is the British round of the world youth series in EICA (Ratho to most of us). As a British Junior Team coach, you go to these events and get totally inspired by the performances you see and I thought I might just recommend to everyone that you go have a look.



This is a pictorial representation of the juniors - ninja monkeys - some of them may not appreciate this, but basically it is a gesture of respect from me but in comedy form!!

The reason I mention it is that I've been doing a lot of work on the coaching stuff for the wall and it gets you thinking about how you want to help people improve. One thing that occurred to me at the last British team event where we had a superb friendly comp against the French, was that I watching 12 year old boys and girls onsight 7c. This gets you thinking about the average. X years ago 7c didnt exist etc, Sebastian Helenke ((German Junior) has onsighted/flashed every 8a he has tried since his 14 birthday)).

So I got to thinking do we limit ourselves by measuring ourselves against those around us? The weekend warriors of Catalunya in Northern Spain all send 8's at the weekend because it is normal. In Britain on routes, we seem to plateau at 6a+/6b. Many of our female climbers rarely progress past V5 despite women like Shauna Coxley and Suzan Dudink demonstrating that girls can send seriously hard problems.

Would we all climb better if we did what the wonderful Malcom Smith was alleged to have done, locking himself away, whipping himself into a state of paranoia about how everyone is Sheffield was going to kick his ass something rotten. He emerged as some kind of mutant from his bedroom to obliterate! How much of this was due to his punishing schedule/genetics/determination and finally nobody to compare himself to, to then say, it's ok I can ease off now, I have reached the limit.

My personal belief is that everyone is able to climb V5 or 7a sport from climbing twice a week if they think about what they do when they climb and apply a little bit of training theory. I would argue that they should be the average. Cast your minds forward, if the 12 year olds of now are onsighting 7c, what will they be doing in ten year when they are peaking physically and with all that experience behind them? When (as it will become) a regular news event for the pro's to be onsighting 9a and we as normal people all expect to climb 8a most trips out - what will have changed? Only our expectations I would contend. Can we use this knowledge of knowing that even if we are quite good now, in ten years our abilities would make us punters to change how we climb today to liberate us from comparison and begin a journey of exploration of our own capacities?

If you think you can or you cannot climb 'V10' I would argue that you are probably right!

Be inspired, go see the youth climb at EICA (Sept 8-12th).

Update

Crispin, our creative inspiration has returned from a trip to the imposing cliffs of Inishmore in Ireland and he brought back a design for the bouldering wall too! Its only a prelim design so I wont be going out on the web just yet, but when we are happy with it, I will post it as a video file.

Those of you who sent in support letters - thank you soooo much! I was chatting to our planning case officer the other day and he was overwhelmed by the support - this doesn't mean you shouldn't get others to send some in mind! More cannot hurt!!!!

Planning is ticking along,but we have to resubmit some drawings showing where the car parking is going to be. If this is the biggest hurdle we face, then hopefully nothing should really hold us up.

I am currently spending my bank holiday creating the coaching programmes for everyone from beginners to seasoned individuals looking to really give their climbing a boost. I hope there are some real training monkeys out there who fancy a drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket type training session!!! All good fun!

That is it for now - hope everyone is getting out and getting some action in, please do the odd problem on my behalf, I would appreciate that. I am just grateful I have a training board in my loft - without it I would be lost!!!!

Controvesy!

Seems I accidentally started a forum discussion on UKC last week by asking about for female boulderers! Rest assured people, there will be no preferential or discriminatory practices taking place - just when you are thinking ahead about how you might like to construct your staff team, you put the feelers out there to see what the chances are of being able to make it so! Nothing untoward!

Anyway, we are in some mystical stage of box ticking and sort of feeling like being in a slight limbo as we await planning permission, we have had to respond to some minor issues, but mainly on how we intend to divide up the car parking area. This has caused a slight delay, but way less than some walls have experienced getting permission so no complaints from us.

I am pouring over some product catalogues currently, pondering what holds to buy, what kind of staff uniform shall we have, I even printed off some little fashion drawing templates to sketch on some designs, but then it turned out that i cannot draw, so i quickly stopped what had clearly become a displacement activity!

By mid September the plan is to produce a 3D walk around video of our digital model of the site to get everyone all excited. Job adverts should be made public in September too which is very exciting as for me it is the people I am going to be spending a significant portion of my life with for the next year. Who will those 'lucky' people be?

Has anybody seen E9 climbing gear? It is sold in Climb Newcastle and I reckon it looks great but thought I would ask the people for some thoughts. Andy Earl seems to have no issues crushing stuff wearing their climbing pants and he is very flexible so they must pass the highstep test!

Also still looking for climbing tradesmen willing to do an exchange - if you know anyone - point them in our direction!

Tara for now!

Hard bouldering women required, GSOH....

No not a lonely hearts ad, but a quick search to see if there are ladies out there to fulfill a job or two I have lined up for later this year. Now lads, don't get disgruntled yet. I have already had four or five male job applicants despite not advertising any jobs yet! I will be advertising formally soon - so patience!

I am going to need a part time and full time female boulderer for coaching and general duties. I am looking for someone who is bouldering around V6/7 or above and is super interested in climbing movement and training. Your knowledge base doesn't have to be huge, but the enthusiasm to learn about it is critical. The jobs are not available yet, this is just a preliminary search to see if there is anybody out there interested and to chat.

Contact me at boulderliverpool@googlemail.com

Not many hoops left to go...

Morning all! We had an engineer visit our site yesterday and check out our proposed designs and building - we now have what appears to be the verbal green light on our ideas! We are just waiting on the written report coming back to confirm the details, so this is brilliant progress and we all went out for a fried breakfast to celebrate, I know, totally unhinged party animals

As such, we are now looking around to make arrangements with people for help. We would like to find keen bouldering tradespeople who can exchange a few days work for passes, so i you know anyone or are anyone in the trades who would like to be involved, then fire off an email to boulderliverpool@googlemail.com so we can work something out.

I was also at the Kendal Outdoor Retail Show on Thursday looking to find us the very finest rock climbing products available to humankind and I was really pleased with the responses of some companies in offering to helping us get off the ground with a decent range of bouldering gubbins. A nod is due to Evolve and Scarpa and new kids on the block (at least in shoes) Edelrid for their patience in dealing with my questions. More news there as it happens.

If I can apologise for the delay in posting, I took the opportunity of there being a pause in the workload to go climbing, sorry to say folks, but it was roped, 7 days on at Kilnsey, with the overhang providing shelter so that despite there being some rain every day, I got to climb everyday. That said, after day three, the recovery function failed to kick in and my climbing became hopelessly feeble, enough excuses! I am re-chained to the computer and will not be leaving unless it is to t-nut a board or something!

A dedication to all sons out there

Good evening all!

I thought I would share some musings with you and ask for an opinion. Like most men who have lived away from home for over a decade, I get regular calls from my mother who makes helpful suggestions about things I am doing wrong. The latest in the installment was the colour of the blog, the yellow background, with the yellow writing was unreadable apparently. So in haste I have transformed the background to something much more adventurous and rock climby and readable (using the template editor - I didn't actually make any real choices, but rather selected from options)

So how do you rate the new look? This is live market research! I am not too proud to have my mother be proven right! Have no fear however, after having been top roping twice, she suggested a Beastmaker board, a filthy cave with potential for thirty move problems, Sumatran monsoon malabar coffee and a DWS wall above a jacuzzi. The directors are considering her advice very seriously....

The middle of next week should see more news worthy of posting. For now hilarious Mum/Dad stories would be great, lets celebrate our shared experiences!!!

Ged

Swimming along...

Not huge amounts to report today other than things are moving along well, obviously still waiting to hear back form the planners, but as we submitted online they do get back to you as problems arise to speed things up - so in this respect no word is good word!

It would appear that the proposed coalition between us and our potential competition that was mentioned on UKBouldering will go ahead, giving the project more money and more talent to draw on in our board of directors adds up to a better wall - so really excited currently.

It looks like the talented and ubiquitous Andy Long will be adding his distinct stylish flavour to our wall design in addition to the inspired designs of Crispin Waddy. So two styles of wall in one build, now if that doesn't have hungry boulder bunnies salivating then goodness gracious you don't know when you're being spoilt!!!

Also if anyone sends in a letter of support to the planners - ask for a letter of confirmation and we will exchange one of these for a free climb, the karmic roundabout turns on goodwill!

A little 3D projection of our building that we made recently - thought it looked nice and I would share it with you all. Has anybody sent a letter yet - sure I can reward your support - how would you prove you had sent a letter to the planners? Any suggestions n how to do that? I'm sure they could be exchanged for a sumptuous coffee or the like - shall we do something like this?

Planning letter

Evening all,

As explained we are trying to smooth the passage of the Boulder Liverpool planning application. The planners tell me that if there is evidence of people wanting the project to go ahead, it is much more likely. Therefore I am requesting that those of you who would like Boulder Liverpool to be up and climbing asap cut and paste the text from below into a word document, add your contact details and send it to the following address:

FAO: Jonathan Woodward; Kevin Baker; Vickie Vaughn
Planning, Municipal Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool, L1 2DH


FAO: Jonathan Woodward; Kevin Baker; Vickie Vaughn
RE: Proposed indoor climbing structure at 6 Birchall St, L20 8PD

I am writing in support of the proposed development of an indoor bouldering facility at 6 Birchall Street, Liverpool, L20 8PD.

I am a keen boulderer and would appreciate having such a facility to enable me to achieve more in my sport and provide somewhere to climb and train when it is raining.

Additionally, I belong to a large bouldering community here in Liverpool that would benefit from this new facility being developed. The inclusive nature of the sport, being largely free from equipment and instruction will give access to a wide range of people and grow our community.

I can be contacted via the details I have supplied.

Yours Sincerely,

The Boulder Liverpool team are sincerely grateful for your patience and the enthusiasm people have shown so far, I've had loads of emails wishing us well and feel much happier about the hours spent by my computer instead of getting out on some rock in the sun!

More as it happens!

Ged.

The first details!

Finally the moment is here, I can actually begin to tell people what we are doing before it threatens to burst me....

I am so excited, we have an amazing building with real flexibility in what we can do inside. he access for car and non car people was a real key point and we are pleased with what we have found. The area available for climbing space should be about the same as The Works, so we really do have an amazing project lined up!

Key facts:

11,000 sqft

3 interconnected buildings

sub 3min walk from Sandhills train station (0.2miles)

6mins by train from central (£1.35 fare)

on site free parking

on road free parking

Bike shed

changing rooms and shower/s

So what can you see here? The exterior shot is one third of the building, it is the exterior of the interior shot with the small internal building on the left hand side.

To the right hand side of the exterior shot you can see the building we will be converting into a specialist young persons/families coaching area.

The other interior shot is a poor internal shot of our second building, this will be the second stage of the project to open, featuring some of the most exciting indoor bouldering concepts the UK has seen yet.

Finally is one of the ubiquitous Google maps showing really just how close we are to the train station.

It is clear there is a fair bit of aesthetic work to do the property, but that is of course secondary to filling the interior with enough quality bouldering to make you go all dizzy.

Now climbers of Liverpool, here comes the bit where we need you, we need letters of support to facilitate our planning application. It has been in for a wee while now, it was put together with plenty of consultation with the planners, it is not really controversial in anyway and should be okay, but my view is those forms took so long to fill (literally weeks of work) - that I never want to do it again, so a bit of help cannot harm! To save you hassle, tomorrow I am going to post the address of where to post it to, even write you a letter you can cut and paste and add your name too! Don't say I am not good to you!

So that is it for tonight, obviously post this blog to everyone in the Greater Liverpool area, conjure up all the support you can by writing in letters and persuading your other climber friends to follow suit - lets get us a wall that is the envy of everyone shall we?