Birmingham Walls Bonanza

by Mick Ryan Climbing in Birmingham is all set to get better. The Redpoint Climbing Wall is a new facility under construction. Phil & Paula, Mirf, Dom and the Birmingham wall crew report: “For those of you who don´t already know – we got the building for the climbing wall at last! Planning Permission, keys, lease and everything. Although the lease officially started on the 18th June, we´ve already been in for a week clearing the site, knocking walls down and filling skips. Good parking. Its 6000sq ft, with a 4000 sq ft basement (phase 2) over 12m high, with a mezzanine (bouldering below and cafe above)and a huge gantry crane for us to hang the walls off! We also have the building next door for the shop, offices, changing rooms etc etc. It´s pretty much City Centre, It´s a big pointy building with a big red door, so we are calling the centre Redpoint. We´ve waited a long time for this moment. The last few years have been something of a roller-coaster and there have been times that we thought this would never happen but the moment is finally here and its as scary as it is exciting. We are now paying rent on an empty building and we have to turn that into a climbing wall as soon as possible to make our dream a reality. We think that this can be achieved in 3 months with a little help and a lot of graft. At the moment our next milestone is the arrival of 1000sqm of birch ply tomorrow – eep! We are aiming for a September opening and we should have a centre that´ll rival any other.” Good news from the Creation Climbing Centre of Birmingham. Creation owners Mike Kerby and Ian Gee report: “Creation Climbing Centre in Birmingham has just completed a deal to take control of the 38,500sqft building of which it currently occupies. Plans are now underway to extend the climbing centre and will initially include another 40 lines on top of the existing 62 on offer at present. The Bendcrete competition wall from The Rockface will be installed along with a host of new lines on vertical and overhanging walls. In addition, as the building is transformed from the existing Skate park setup a new bouldering area is promised along with a new cafe and chill out area. The onsite shop will also be expanded again to include twice as many product lines as at present.” Good news all-round for climbers in the Midlands and much hard work to do at Creation and Redpoint.

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