Marylebone Mountaineering Club Climbing

Climbing The club's climbing activities revolve around the regular monthly meets as well as more informal weekend trips. The MMC climbs throughout the UK, from Cornwall to Scotland, as well as venturing to Europe in search of winter sunshine or summer alpinism. In the winter, the emphasis moves to mountaineering and ice climbing. For the last couple of years, members have organised ice climbing trips to places like the Les Ecrins, Chamonix and Colorado, as well as making the occasional foray in to Scotland when conditions are good. For indoor climbing, members meet at the Westway and The Castle (see opposite) on Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Please try and arrange that you have a climbing partner if you come to the wall as we cannot guarantee that there will be someone free to climb with you otherwise. Also, we recommend that if you are a complete beginner that you attend a basic course showing you how to tie in and belay safely. These are available at the West Way and the Castle. Climbing Safety The MMC Guide to Climbing Jargon Equipment Life	London Climbing Walls WestWay This is by the far the biggest and best leading wall in London. It's situated in Crowthorn Road, North Kensington, W10. A number of members go there on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. If you are interested in this contact Nick Kemp for the Tuesday session or Simon Menzies-Conacher for Thursday . The Castle Extensive leading and top roping walls built inside a Victorian Pumping Station. From Manor House tube head south down Green Lanes. Some members meet here on Sunday afternoons. Contact Patrick Regnault. Crystal Palace It's a tough bouldering wall in South London and it's cheap. Contact Nick Checkout Mikhaylo Shalagin, champion Ukrainian Boulderer climbing at the Palace here. Mile End (NLRC) London's premier bouldering venue. Haverfield Road, E3. Craggy Island, Guildford Nothing to do with Father Ted. The South's newest climbing wall is now regularly frequented by the MMC. Swiss Cottage NW3 3NR This is a somewhat unique indoor climbing environment with no windows, which I presume were designed to keep the place cool in summer, but in the winter it leaves the wall open to the elements and sideways-rain can get to you if you are unlucky. The climbing itself varies from the ridiculously easy to the insanely impossible The far right hand wall on the upper tier has a few challenging routes which require some thinking but overall is easy. The bouldering, which is on the lower tier and has a small overhang is quite a nice feature which can occupy you for no more than 2 hours max I’d say. The super over-hanging walls which dominate the view from the road is very impressive on entering the centre; it it slanted at what appears to be a 30 degree wall from the vertical and some of the routes on it are very hard, more so because of its great height – it requires a lot of stamina. I would guess it is between 15 and 20 metres high. Summary: A good wall for a few sessions until you’ve done almost every route, but it gets very boring after that since the routes don’t change frequently enough and because of the relatively small size of the complex. Review by Paras
Readers are reminded that climbing, hill walking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement.