dagibbs | Climbing near Manchester

I found two climbing gyms (over here they're called climbing walls) that weren't too far away -- both were on the south-east side of Manchester, so I set off to find one of them. Sadly, I failed to find the first one, but the 2nd wasn't far away and I managed to find it.

The gym was Rope Race and was in a 100 year old cotton mill. (Yes, it does look a lot like the picture of cotton mills in Brass; there's a picture of it on the page I linked to.) It takes advantage of the height available to have some 65 foot (20m) climbs and has some very nicely textured walls with lots of built-in features. There were parts which felt surprising like outdoor climbing -- not just seeing the next obvious hold and making the move, but actually having to feel around for possible grip points. 65 foot is long, that's more than twice what Coyote has, and it really hits you, especially at the end of the night.

I flew up a 5a (5.9ish) and a couple 5b (5.10bish) routes, and managed with a bunch of hang-dogging to complete a 5c (5.10dish) route, but fell off a 6a (5.11c) route repeatedly. Either I was climbing strong, or their grades are a touch softer than Coyote. By the end of the night, I'd been there a little over three hours, and I finished by doing a 30' wall and then (without a break for my belayer to climb, since he was done) immediately went to do one more (easyish -- 5.8ish) route up the 65' wall. As I got near the top, I was really tired, and my arms just didn't want to pull/hold. I was doing strange and unusual moves, leaning, pushing, etc, just to avoid grabbing and pulling on a hold with my arms. I was exhausted and dripping sweat by the end, but quite happy to have gotten out and climbed there, and to have met someone at the gym to climb with, rather than just bouldering for the evening.