Westway Adventures

So today, Nick and I went into London for our first visit to the Westway climbing gym. We decided to take the train because we figured it would be about the same as driving both time- and price-wise. The trip in was relatively uneventful -- train from Orpington to Charing Cross, and from there one more switch on the underground to get to Westway.

Westway itself took a little while to get "registered" at. There were a lot of lines. Eventually we did our supposedly "very difficult" belay test which basically consisted of putting on a harness, tying in, and showing on a piece of rope hanging from a bar how we belayed and lowered. Nothing that "difficult" about it, but English gyms typically don't have any sort of practical belay test at all, so I guess this was hard for England.

Eventually we actually got into the gym at like 3:45 or 4. On the way in, we bumped into other Cambridge kids who were there earlier in the day on their way out, and said hi. Then we headed into the actual climbing room. We climbed, routes only, until just after 6:30. The routes/gym was about as expected. There were actually slightly more stations than MetroRock -- 103, to be exact. However, they were generally closer together than MR's, and there were far more of them that were sort of reserved for beginners like ropes 1 and 2 at MR, so the amount of space for challenging climbing routes was less than MR.

As is standard for English gyms, most of the more challenging routes were supposed to be led, and it was rare to find TR stations with climbs harder than about French 6a or so. So Nick and I spent the afternoon leading a lot of 6's, and TRing a few as well. I think the hardest lead I did was only about 6b+. I also put the rope up on a wall with a 7a, and TR'd the 7a clean first try (although it was probably at least a little soft). But so the good news is that I'm not completely terrible ... yet.

Westway sets by hold color, and has the standard problem where, from above, the holds all look gray. This is compounded by the poor lighting typical in gyms. So there were definitely routes where this caused a problem, but it was manageable. In general, the routes were soft, too. But it wasn't completely terrible, just what was expected (similer to, say, Carabiner's).

On the way back, we did a detour on the underground that let us walk up Oxford Street, which had some big Christmas lights up already on the big department stores (House of Fraser, Debenham's, John Lewis, etc.). It was supposed to have more lights up over the street, too, but those weren't lit up. We also saw the end of the lit-up section of Regent Street, but didn't actually walk down it because it was raining. We've decided we'll go back and walk up and down the street sometime else before Christmas when it's not raining and when more is lit up.

Then we went back to Charing Cross and took the train back to Orpington (with my new Young Person's Railcard all of my travels cost only L4.80, which really isn't bad). By then I was starving, but we had a pizza and garlic bread for dinner and are now watching TV. I'm taking the train back up to Cambridge tomorrow morning and then doing real work for the rest of the day. Those are my Nika-updates!