UKC

If you were this week looking for F6a to F6c autobelay routes for mileage laps (i.e. non-crux-y), which Sheffield wall would you go to? High one-off registration fees and/or onerous “exams” might be a negative consideration.

Thank in advance.

John

In reply to JLS:

The foundry.

In reply to Somerset swede basher:

Cheers. Also has added history appeal so jumps to top of list.

In reply to Somerset swede basher:

I’ve found the Foundry auto belays to be more cruxy, also there are often gaps in the grades the OP is looking for. The routes are seldom re-set and as a result can get dirty/greasy. I do use them occasionally but prefer the Awesome Walls auto belays which to me seem much better for endurance training, routes are longer, more consistent in grade, more choice and are changed more often. I am lucky in that I can use the walls mid week when not so busy. 
A good alternative for endurance training is the excellent circuit board at the Depot

In reply to kevin stephens:

Cheers for that. Sounds like the score is 1:1. Hopefully a casting vote will come along. I have an iffy back that doesn’t thank me for dropping/falling off boards (and boulders) so not keen on the circuit board idea.

In reply to JLS:

Foundry for me, i alway find the routes more interesting then the flat boards grab and pull centers and they do change quite regularly.

In reply to JLS:

The Foundry Furnace (though I’ve only ever climbed at AW once and most of my peers don’t seem to rate it). I use the Autobelays most weeks. The routes are really good and don’t tend to be that cruxy. They also get changed reasonably often (too often in my view - I use it purely for training, so I’m sometimes a bit disappointed when they take a really good route down!) Length is not an issue as every line has an easy route you can descend if you want to link multiples routes.

Hi John

We have nine autobelays at AWCC Sheffield with three routes on each. I'd dare say that 90% of the routes are within the grade that you are looking for. All the lines are a whopping 13m!

As for registration fees- If you pay a one-off lifetime membership £10 you get access to all our special rates.

Early Bird (Mon-Fri) £7.50 10:00 - 14:00 and includes a brew.

Off Peak (Mon-Fri) £9.50 14:00 - 17:00

Normal rate £10:00

If you prefer not to purchase a £10 life membership then it's simply £12 a visit.

I'm pretty confident that you'll get your monies worth whichever way you sway.

If you need any more info, please just ask.

Cheers

Dave D.

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

Cheers for the lengthy reply. I tried the Foundry* today which was fine.  Given the Peak weather this week I expect I’ll end up in Awesome Walls before the week is out. I don’t imagine the experience of pottering up 6b autobelays will be vastly different at either venue but I’ll soon find out for sure.  

*choice primarily based on proximity to the Cathedral and other Mrs JLS flavour visitor attractions.

In reply to JLS:

My recommendation was partly based on your requirement to avoid one off fees. I use the awesome walls ones too and there is nothing wrong with them.

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

What's Ron doing there, is he lost? He must have overshot the ClimbingWorks😀

In reply to JLS:

Another consideration is parking. It can be a bit of a pain trying to park at or near the Foundry. If you live nearby and / or can cycle or use public transport then not an issue. 

In reply to JLS:

Well, ended up visiting both the Foundry and Awesome on separate days.

As expected, both offered a perfectly acceptable experience. I found the autobelay routes at Awesome a bit more cruxy than I’d have liked but despite that I think the Awesome experience had the edge on the Foundry. The difference may just have been down to the timing of the visits. The Foundry was pretty dead as it was week day mid-afternoon while Awesome had the buzz of the after work crowd starting to arrive. Certainly, the Awesome reception/cafe set-up looks much more inviting than the Foundry.

I may or may not have formed different opinions had I been doing a regular session on lead routes rather than just autobelays.

Was just going to add that my gripe with the AW ones is they're all very close together so didn't really feel that they could all be safely used at the same time, in effect removing a good amount of available lines. Sounds like you've come to your own conclusions now though. And in fairness the Foundry had this issue but with them overlapping lead fall zones.

In reply to Queen of the Traverse:

Yes, I noticed the autobelay lines on the left felt quite tight. It wasn’t a problem for me to pause climbing a try to shake out at a particular bottlenecks but I can see it might be a pain if it’s busy and your trying to tick a hard redpoint.

In reply to Queen of the Traverse:

Hi QotT

Do you mean you'd like to see the autobelays on every other line or they should be spaced a little  (or lot) more generously?

If it's the latter, there's not a lot we can do about the fixings on top but it could be taken into consideration for future builds.

Either way, thanks for the input.

Dave D.

Hi John

Thanks for coming and giving us a spin and providing the lovely feedback.

If you ever want to return to try the lead routes and need a partner you could ask on here or try 'Awesome Walls Social Climbers' on Facebook.

Happy climbing

Dave D.

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

Cheers for the response. If the latter is impossible then maybe the former - if you're leading you can move to another line if the next door route is going to cross over, but if I'm on the autos it's because I don't have a belayer and you can't really safely use all of the autos at the same time as currently configurated - so in effect you only really have half the capacity available.

Appreciate it's not an easy fix but I do get a bit nervous from having in the past (not at AW particularly) had other climbers start climbing in my fall zone, or climb past so I'm in theirs, without thinking about it, so now don't trust this won't happen again. Think we generally need to educate folk about this tbh though (happens on lead, not just autos, and not AW specific).

Ta. 

In reply to Queen of the Traverse:

Thanks for the feedback.

If the choice was 4 autos spread over 8 lines then this would stop the fear of people falling/lowering over/near other people. The fact that we're lucky enough to but 8 autos on 8 lines is pretty good to be fair.

As people say, a little bit of common sense goes a long way!

Cheers

Dave D.

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

Hi Dave

would it be possible for the autobelay routes to be set twice as often?

They get so much traffic and therefore way slippier (and harder) than other routes

In reply to JLS:

Not Sheffield but Oldham have. good set of ABs - overhanging + vertical + good length. better than Leeds

In reply to Jus:

Good call…

(I’m sure my route setters are cursing me for coming on here😉)

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

But leave them up long enough for me to get the redpoint! You can’t please all of us

Now if only you could fit a decent endurance circuit board amongst all that bouldering surface I could visit twice as often

Hi Kevin

So what size would this decent endurance circuit board be (metric please)?

I’ll grab my awesome wand and see what I can do 🧙🏾‍♂️ 

Cheers 

Dave D

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

As you go into the bouldering area from the stairs, the first two panels on the left, before the really steep one would be ideal (you had a circuit board there a few years ago) or similar size on a more uniform board elsewhere. Something which allows around 30 moves per circuit

Endurance bouldering: 50 moves min plus more than one ‘uphill” section ie not just a boring ‘oval’ (although it’s difficult to set more than one vertical sequence on a circuit if using coloured holds… perhaps figure of eights?).

In reply to carl dawson:

Figure of 8s

In reply to carl dawson: the Depot oval circuits (6c-7a) fit in many up and down moves, I’ve not counter total number of moves. The Works circuit board used to be good but spoiled when they truncated it to fit in the system board rather than giving up some of the plentiful set problem space

In reply to carl dawson:

Yes and multi angle set ups are best where you can train either one angle or train multi angles thus training different energy systems all in one circuit .Imitating steep long routes outside.

In reply to Dave Douglas - Awesome Walls:

👍 thank you 

Our upstairs Kilter Board can be adjusted from 30° right down to a mean 90° for those that require a variety of angles💪🏻👌🏻

In reply to kevin stephens:

Just checking that you're aware of the board area at the top of the building? Besides the kilter and two moonboards, there's a custom spray board, a lattice... lattice, and a circuit board. As well as beastmaker 1k/2k/lattice rungs with pulley system, campus boards etc.