Wednesday 14 January 2009

WICC Reopened (Summit Centre)

In the pursuit of cheap climbing, CUMC headed back to the Welsh Institute Climbing Centre, now called the Summit Centre and so I thought a review of the changes that have occurred there was in order. Basically nothing has happened whatsoever; its totally same old WICC. Apparently there has been loads of investment into the place; in all honesty I didn't really see any. The old reception has been completely torn down and is still a work zone, whilst the newish slab wall has been repainted with the summit centre logo. That was about the sum total of all the physical changes. The bouldering wall was OK, the edges of the mats have deteriorated somewhat but the routes provided an evenings enjoyment. I personally wasn't too fussed on the route setting in the bouldering room, but others seemed to quite like it (but maybe this was just due to the fact that they dislike the highball bouldering at Boulders). As for the wall itself, the main overhanging section is still out of action and will be for the next ten weeks :(. Even without it, the walls remain impressively high and I'm obviously not used to it, normally pumping out after the 5th clip. I lead two routes; the hardest one on the slab at (around 6a+) and a nice vertical face at around 6b. The route setting on both of these routes was actually quite good. My main grief with the wall however was the self-belay; they spent the time and the effort changing the machine itself but then haven't got round to changing the routes on that wall; these have been up since last Easter!

Overall the Summit Centre is improving, and for the price of entry and the cheap price of petrol at the moment, it is definitely worth a visit every now and then. If only for nostalgia's sake...

1 comment:

Peter said...

It's got so much better nowadays. All walls are open (including the competion double overhangs), the reception is back where it used to be, and the routes are starting to be regularly changed. The new bouldering wall is good too. Much more professional