Category: Vaguely Regular Updates

The new year’s off to a great start. The team at the Quay Climbing Centre are resetting routes with giddy abandon and have an impressive programme of resets scheduled over January and February, giving us lots of new things to try. So much that we can’t fit it all in!

As normal, we’re climbing at the Quay every Monday evening from 6.30pm. Some of the group have, semi-officially, been climbing on Wednesday evenings too, to try out new routes sooner or to give old favourite routes a final hurrah before they disappear.

Our Beginners’ Nights are the first Monday of every month. In hindsight, we were a little ambitious in running a Beginners’ Night on Mon 3rd Jan – the final night of the most people’s Christmas break wasn’t the perfect time to try something new and, although quite a few people expressed an interest, unfortunately none could make it on the night. We look forward to welcoming new members next month!

What’s coming up?

Thursday Nights at Plymouth Life Centre, Thurs 20th Jan

7pm-10pm, Plymouth Life Centre
We’re excited to be visiting Plymouth Life Centre on Thursday – a small group will be travelling down from Exeter, joined by members from Plymouth. The hope is it’ll be the start of regular roped climbing sessions in Plymouth either weekly or fortnightly – watch this space! Entry £6.

Monday Nights at the Quay, Mon 24th Jan & Mon 31st Jan

6.30pm-8pm, Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter
A staple in our climbing diary, every Monday we head to the Quay. There’s no set programme or agenda; we just hang out, enjoy each others’ company and climb whatever takes our fancy.

Pride Night, Sat 5th Feb

4pm – 5.30pm, The Climbing Hangar, Plymouth
The team at the Hangar run a Pride Night every fortnight – it’s open to everyone and, for the same price as their regular climb (around £10), you get to enjoy the company of other LGBT climbers, a free hot drink, and lots of support and advice from their climbing coaches. The team do a flawless job of making us feel welcome. Book online with the Climbing Hangar.

Beginners’ Night, Mon 7th Feb

6.30pm – 8pm, Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter
A chance to learn the ropes – if you’d like to try climbing (or if you’ve climbed a bit and would like a refresher of the basics) our experts are here to show you what it’s all about. Several of our members are qualified climbing instructors and will be on hand to help you learn the skills to climb for the first time safely.

We don’t charge anything, but you’ll need to pay for entry to the Quay Climbing Centre and to hire a harness and climbing shoes. Approx £18 total. Email hello@climb.lgbt so we know to expect you.

As things start to wind down for Christmas, we recap on what we’ve been up to, and plans for the new year

What’s been happening?

Saturday 11th December saw our last Pride Night of the year at the Climbing Hangar, Plymouth. Attended by Josh, Mike, Fi, Ana, Char, Zoe, Sam, Kieran, Jack, Matilda, and our newest member Thomas (hi Thomas! 👋)

Monday 13th December was a quieter general climbing session with people starting to prepare for the festive season. We had a lovely mixture of longer-term members and some of our new members from beginners night. This provided all people with a fantastic chance to share experiences, knowledge, and support in a more relaxed environment. It was also exciting to see the climbs on the Prow (the biggest and tallest climbing wall at the Quay) being reset and how the staff at the quay go about this.

Saturday 18th December saw the second of our training sessions ((Vaguely) weekly update: 29th Nov – LGBT (climb.lgbt) lead Falling and head game run for us by Keiran Wolley (Instagram @Kw.kieran.climbing). In this session we focussed on mental and training strategies to help with feeling calmer and more secure when lead climbing and belaying for lead climbing. During the session we worked through breathing and countering techniques to help shift focus away from moments of anxiety. We then went through some training techniques for training falling and catching falls to help feeling more secure when you feel mike you might fall and making falling more comfortable.

If you are wanting to improve your climbing and develop new skills we will be continuing to run these training sessions in the new year and repeating both the endurance and lead falling and head game sessions.

What’s coming up?

Last Climb before Christmas, Mon 20th Dec

6pm-8pm, Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter
It’s the most wonderful climb of the year! We’ll be taking a break from our regular Monday night climbs over Christmas time, so this is our last session of 2021. Join us for a couple of hours of fun, relaxed climbing – we’ll finish earlier than usual and head to the Topsham Brewery for a drink and pizza. 🍕

Sadly cancelled as an Omicron precaution. We’ll reschedule in the new year!

Beginners’ Night, Mon 3rd Jan

6.30pm – 8pm, Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter
Make climbing your New Year’s resolution! It’s a great way to get fitter and make new friends.

On our first Beginners’ Night of the new year, our experts will be here to introduce you to our fantastic sport. Several of our members are qualified climbing instructors and will be on hand to help you learn the skills to climb for the first time safely (or refresh your skills if you’ve not climbed in a while).

We don’t charge anything, but you’ll need to pay for entry to the Quay Climbing Centre and to hire a harness and climbing shoes. Approx £18 total. If you’re interested, email hello@climb.lgbt, or message on Facebook or Instagram so we know to expect you!

Pride Night, Sat 8th Jan

4pm – 5.30pm, The Climbing Hangar, Plymouth
The team at the Hangar run a Pride Night every fortnight – it’s open to everyone and, for the same price as their regular climb (around £10), you get to enjoy the company of other LGBT climbers, a free hot drink, and lots of support and advice from their climbing coaches. The team do a flawless job of making us feel welcome. Book online with the Climbing Hangar.

Hello. Welcome to the first of a series vaguely regular posts, covering what we’ve been up to lately and what’s coming up in the near future.

What’s been happening?

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks.

Sunday 21st November saw what might be (unless the weather suddenly gets warmer) our last trad climbing trip of the year. Mike, Fi, Josh and Zoe visited Dartmoor’s stunning Bench Tor, and tackled Oak Tree Zig Zag (VD, Mike lead) and Central Buttress (HVD). Josh and Mike set up a top rope on Central Buttress to be sure everyone had a chance to climb before losing the light.

Fresh from the crag, some of the survivors regrouped for the regular Monday evening at the Quay, joined by Char and Jordi. It was a fun, laid back night – we just enjoyed each other’s company and climbed whatever took our fancy.

The following Saturday was Pride Night at the Climbing Hangar in Plymouth. The team at the Hangar run a Pride Night every fortnight – it’s open to everyone and, for the same price as their regular climb (around £10), you get to enjoy the company of other LGBT climbers, a free hot drink, and lots of support and advice from their climbing coaches. The team do a flawless job of making us feel welcome. Mike, Josh and Fi travelled from Exeter, joined by Jack and Keiran from Tavistock and Matilda from just up the road!

We’re looking to add the option of some structured training to our regular Monday sessions on the Quay. On Monday 29th, Kieran introduced some budding volunteers to endurance training: pick four routes (below your onsight grade) and climb each three times – no hanging around, shaking out or stopping to rest!

Kieran’s used his years of experience (and qualifications as a climbing coach) to draw up a list of topics for future sessions and he’s planning to run them in alternate weeks – one Monday we’ll have some (optional) guided exercises, the next Monday we’ll just hang out and climb what we like – and also to run some as additional sessions (eg on Saturday afternoon). Coming up – fall practice and head game!

What’s coming up?

Beginners’ Night: Mon 6th Dec, 6.30pm – 8pm, Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter

A chance to learn the ropes – if you’d like to try climbing (or if you’ve climbed a bit and would like a refresher of the basics) our experts are here to show you what it’s all about. Several of our members are qualified climbing instructors and will be on hand to help you learn the skills to climb for the first time safely.

We don’t charge anything, but you’ll need to pay for entry to the Quay Climbing Centre and to hire a harness and climbing shoes. Approx £18 total.

After the session, we’re heading to the Topsham Brewery just over the road – they have a buy one get one half price offer on pizza for climbers.

If you’ve read this far, we’d love you to join us! Email hello@climb.lgbt, or message on Facebook or Instagram so we know to expect you!

Training: fall practice and head game with Kieran, Sat 18th Dec 12.30pm-3.30pm, Quay Climbing Centre

Falling can be scary (rightly so) but sometimes the fear of falling is worse than the actual thing. Or at least that’s what Kieran wants us to learn.