| Page 30 | The Castle Climbing Centre

Outdoor boulder field: Crispin Waddy (Living Stone Climbing Walls) is expecting to finish the outdoor boulders today. Next steps are to put in the rubber chipping which will form the landing surface and to finish the decking and landscaping around the boulders. We're on schedule to open them at The Garden Party on Sunday the 21st of July.

The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) has set the dates for the 2014 Youth Climbing Series.

Round 1 - 25 January 2014
Round 2 - 1 March 2014
Round 3 - 29 March 2014

As we've done in previous years, The Castle is likely to host a round.

There will be a few other changes to the BMC YCS rules. Full details are available on the BMC website.

Castle sponsored climber Jon Partridge continued his World Cup competition season with events in Toronto and Vail. His blog gives an insight into the life of a competition climber. His next appearance on the international circuit will be in Munich on the 24th and 25th of August. He'll also be competing at the British Bouldering Championships in Sheffield on the 6th and 7th of July.

Castle regular Chris Bevins has become the first British climber to solo The Nose on El Capitan (Yosemite, California, USA) in under 24 hours. Read the full story on UKClimbing in which Chris graciously acknowledged the role The Castle played in his preparations. Awesome effort, Chris!

On Sunday, 7th of July in collaboration with the London Wildlife Trust, we will be doing a clear up of the New River (on foot or in a little boat!) ending with music and beer at the other end! Join us to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the New River.

The 2012/3 competition season wound up with great success. Half of the squad qualified for the national finals of the BMC Youth Climbing Series, held the 15th of June at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena. Out of over 300 of the nation's best young climbers, alll of our squad members performed exceptionally well. Grace Spence-Green (pictured above with top British climber Steve McClure), our co-captain, won her category (Girls Youth A). This achievement is all the more remarkable because it's only Grace's second year competing.

The Castle Shop staff are holding a demo evening for customers to get to grips with the vast array of belay devices available on the market.

Do you know your Click-Up from your Cinch? Do you know how to use a Reverso in guide-mode? If not, this demo evening may be of interest to you. Come and check out the latest designs and get some expert advice from our staff.

We may even lay on some nibbles in the way of cheese & sausiccon....

Thursday 30th May from 5pm onwards.

Castle sponsored climber Jon Partridge is competing in the IFSC World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria on 17 and 18 May. You can catch the action live at www.ifsc-climbing.org .

Jon's blog gives a good insight into the preparation and training that is required from a world class athlete. In between competitions, you may see him training at The Castle too!

Our usual volunteer days will now be on Thursdays from 11am to 5pm in the spring / summer months. Pop along or email us at garden@castle-climbing.co.uk if you would like to come along.

If you would like to help out and learn about herb growing in particular, our medicinal horticulturalist, Nick is available on Mondays. Please email him at nick@castle-climbing.co.uk to confirm your attendance.