Harrogate Climbing Centre

Want to go rock climbing in all seasons in Harrogate? Well you can now...

Now I’m a fan of doing different things in my spare time so when I had a call through from a nice man called Mike Lloyd who said he was calling from the Harrogate Climbing Centre I got a bit excited. Well a lot excited really and the conversation went like this

Mike:"Hi Pete, would you like to come down and have a go on our new climbing walls?"

Me: "We have a climbing wall in Harrogate? Mike, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?!"

Mike: "Well we’ve only just opened 2 weeks ago..."

Me: "But Mike, why did you tell me about this sooner!"

I was like a kid on Christmas eve and couldn’t wait to dig out my climbing skills and have a go. I practically told everyone I knew that there was now a climbing wall in Harrogate and that I would be on the loose there on Saturday....so much so I even updated my facebook profile saying so. I then straightway ‘liked’ my own update and commented on my own post (yeah I’ll put my hands up and admit that was a little sad!).

I got down to the Harrogate climbing Centre on Hornbeam Park as one of the kids taster sessions was drawing to a close. Now I’ve been rock climbing on and off for 15 years and seeing the group of kids enjoying it reminded me of when I first took the sport up all those many moons ago. I’ve got to say if you’ve never tried it, it’s worth having a go and age is no barrier.

One of the kids sessions at the climbing centre

Through the morning I spoke to Mike Lloyd (The Centre Manager) and found out a little bit more about the centre itself (and of course why he hadn’t told me sooner about it!). It turns out that the managing director John Dunne used to climb many of the crags in Yorkshire and after opening a couple of other climbing centres in the UK, he was keen to come back to one of his favourite counties.

I also got a chance to speak to Ellie Rymer (who's won a few climbing accolades in her time!) about how she got involved in the sport and found out that as there was now climbing wall in Harrogate she would be trying to get her school friends into climbing as well.

It would've been rude not to have a go mysel!

As an avid climber myself I did take the opportunity to have a go and even persuaded Mike to be interviewed live on Stray FM while being on the wall itself as I’d never done a link back to the studio at the top of a climb.

Mike and myself proving you can do a live interview while climbing

Thankfully the radio equipment isn’t too heavy these days and I climbed up and down the wall without incident despite a multitude of wires and expensive radio kit. Needless to say the bosses were happy that it all came back in one piece...I’ve been told that radio presenters are replaceable, valuable radio equipment isn’t!

Check out some more picutres of me on the loose at the centre.

Click here if you want to find out more about the Harrogate Climbing Centre.

Author: Pete Edwards

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