Northumberland Bouldering

Newcastle Upon Tyne is to get a world class dedicated bouldering centre, due to open its doors later this year. Masterminded by former British Bouldering Champion and World Cup winner Andy Earl, Climb Newcastle have secured an exciting property for the project in Byker, 1 mile east of the city centre.

The facility will boast a main room for circuit and competition problems comparable to the Climbing Works in Sheffield and in addition a maze of a dozen further rooms on 3 floors including dedicated rooms for kids, coaching, training and stretching, a cellar cave room, changing facilities, offices, lecture theatre, shop and cafe. The buuilding which is the former Shipley swimming pool, is in the ideal location immediately outside Byker Metro Station and will be accessible from almost anywhere due to its proximity to Newcastle's Central Motorway.

Andy Earl was British Bouldering Champion for 3 years running from 2003 to 2006, and won the 2007 World Cup in La Reunion. His partners in the development Chris Graham and Darren Stevenson bring extensive experience in coaching and competitions and are well known in the local and national scene.

The progress of the Climb Newcastle project can be followed in news posts and galleries on their website www.climbnewcastle.com

Andy Earl has continued to put the Northumberland Bouldering Guide out of date before it hits the shelves in most parts of the country, this week adding a new problem to the left of Blood Sport in the Turtle Rock roof. It's All About Me starts from undercuts to the left of the Blood Sport hole and acends the prow via a shallow hueco high in the roof. The new problem weighs in at a hard 7c.

Meanwhile Blood Sport itself has been seeing many recent repeats, including young Tom Newman, yorkshireman Martin Smith, Liam Desroy and previously Mickey Page.

The 2008 NMC Northumberland Bouldering Guide is now on sale at Wildtrak in Newcastle and should be well on its way to other retailers nationwide.

The official launch for the guidebook will take place at 6pm at Wildtrak on Thursday May 29th.

Guest speakers Andy Earl and Chris Graham will be giving their slant on the status of Northumberland bouldering with an illustrated slide show, along with some special appearances from some of Northumberland's legends of yesteryear and light refreshments courtesy of Wildtrak. The launch is open to all and the more the merrier!

The long-awaited Northumbrian Mountaineering Club's 2008 Northumberland Bouldering Guide is creeping into stores ahead of schedule with an official launch due at the end of the month (watch this space for details).

The guide definitively documents the problems at all of the major bouldering venues in Northumberland and is illustrated with photodiagrams and hundreds of colour photos.

Newcastle based distributor The County Climbing Company have now made their popular Snap bouldering mats and accessories available for purchase online at their website snapclimbing.co.uk.

The County Climbing Company was formed in 2006 by North-East legends John and Andrew Earl (right testing his products in Switzerland). You can read reviews of the Snap pads here.

Teenager Adam Watson has been making his way through many of Northumberland's hardest and boldest climbs with quick repeats of Masterclass (E7) and Off the Rocks (E8). Yesterday Adam added his 3rd hard tick in a week, taking advantage of the recent dry weather to grab a repeat of Dave Cuthbertson's County Ethics (E7 7a or highball 7c+). Adam's is probably the 4th ascent after the route waited 10 years for a repeat by Andy Earl followed by Andy Banks.

This weekend the 3 part regional BRYCS competition will wrap up at Sunderland Wall and it is the last chance to have a go this year. The top 3 in each category will go on to the final at Ratho on the 28th June 2008. More info and application forms are available on the BMC website.

This weekend's BMC festival of climbing and walking in Northumberland kicks off tomorrow night with a slideshow by father and son John and Andrew Earl on the Development of Northumberland Climbing. A preview of the slides has revealed some classic photos old and new and it should be an unmissable event. More information on the weekend's activities is available on the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club website.