Nottingham Climbing Centre — Local services in Nottingham

I'd give it 3.5 if I could but I couldn't give it four. And by that I mean it's slightly better than an average wall that could make some minor changes to improve to a good wall. Its a nice little wall with a generally good vibe. The chap at reception was pleasant. Only did top roping and bouldering as my partner couldn't lead belay. Ropes were well worn showing slightly concerning fraying at the ends around tying in areas. One rope struggled through the belay plate it had expanded so much. I had to check an end for fraying and it didn't look like it had been hot knifed, rather cut and then heated. The route setting for roped area was really enjoyable though a lot of the problems were solved with a layback to acquire very high feet followed by a rock over. I love this style of movement and it might have been by chance that I seemed to choose routes with the same thing but I would have enjoyed a bit more variation too. The grading generally seemed about right for the grade. The mix of grades on the top ropes was very 6 focused. Fine for me but my friend exhausted the 4s and 5s in one session. As I say, I didn't get on any lead so this review is a bit incomplete. The slab wall was brilliantly textured to achieve smears and gritstone-style climbing which was excellent. The rest of the walls were a bit drab in comparison but that's not overly important. The biggest let down was the grading plaques. A small thing but an important one. One or two of them were out of date, and many of them didn't have grades on at all. Combine this with having similar coloured routes next to each other it was tough to judge what was a good route choice. It just makes a session frustrating when it doesn't need to be and such an easy fix. The bouldering area is fairly compact but generaly good. Incidentally the floor is excellent quality as it is in the main room. The route setting varies from a bit bland to excellent. From what I understood to be the non-comp problems, these were generally well set with a few yawns. Some of the comp problems were really excellent. However, as with the main room, the grading was really unclear. There is a poster with the colours on with the grades, but if the routes are supposed to match this, then they're really off point. There were 6s and even 7s i could top out and then low 6s that I found hard, even on the same terrain. There weren't any starting hands either so had to spend ages looking for the beginning of a route. Again, simple changes could have improved my...

I took my girlfriend to the centre to do some bouldering and found that the room which had an overhanging wall had a very solid "soft" mat. This meant that falling off the wall hurt and made my girlfriend ( who is a very experienced climber ) scared of completing the routes. So as a result we decided within 15min of starting our climbing to ask for a refund. We kindly asked the lady working at reception for a refund and she explained that the floor was "within industry standards" but that there were softer mats round the back of the centre. So we checked them out and they were softer but the problem was there was no overhanging walls where the softer mats were. On arriving back at reception to get our refund we patiently waited for the receptionist to be available and without having noticed us she decided to trash talk us to her co-worker, who then had to point out to her (after hearing her horrible description of us) that we were standing right there. The staff was less than helpful in issuing the refund and took it very personally that we were not happy with their facilities. Rather than give us a refund and treat us with a good level of customer service they decided to insult us and claim that they were giving us the refund back because they "had no other choice". As a paying customer I would like to believe that even if I am asking for a refund I should be treated with respect by a receptionist that is employed to serve customers. The climbing wall itself seemed to be good for novice climbers and families but unfortunately we did not get treated nicely by the staff working there. Hope they will learn to treat...

Wanted to try indoor wall climbing for a while. I tried Nottingham Climbing Centre which is tucked away about 400 yards from where I work. All the staff seemed confident when I chatted to them, which put me at ease straight away. I didn't feel daft when I asked them a question, and they didn't mind spending extra time with me while I spoke to them about it. I booked a bouldering lessons for the next evening. The lesson was £15, which I thought was very reasonable. Marina, who was my bouldering instructer, was very capable and straight away put confidence in me. Which I needed, as it was my 1st lesson, and I will admit, I did feel nervous. She took me step by step, through everything that time and my level, allowed us to go through. She constantly made me feel at ease, even if I felt frustrated if things wasn't going my way. Since then, I have been going back 3 times a week, which I must admit, I don't think I would have done anywhere else as I feel non judged by the staff and the rest of the public there. Everyone is willing to chat and give advice, they have a nice little cafe for coffee and light snacks. As well as Jason who is at the shop who is willing to, just stand and chat to you about what is best for you or what would be better for you without trying to pressure you into buying something. I've just got to say s massive THANK-YOU, to everything at the Nottingham Climbing Centre. The centre has changed all its pegs again, and all grades are...