Construction work has now started on the latest addition to the Awesome Walls family of climbing centres, and it shouldn’t be long before climbers can get to grips with it.

Sheffield will be home to the fifth Awesome Wall, following in the footsteps of Liverpool, Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent and Dublin.

Some climbers have questioned whether Sheffield needs another climbing wall, as it’s already well served by indoor climbing facilities, but Dave Douglas, the man behind Awesome Walls, explains that Sheffield was picked as a central point in England for easy access from everywhere via the M1.

“Awesome Walls Sheffield is not just for the local climbing community, it's for everyone in the UK” explained Dave. “We believe that we'll be complementing the other walls in Sheffield by offering facilities that don't already exist, there's no point in duplicating what's already on offer.”

When asked on what these differences will be, he listed major 15.5m lead walls, super steep competition walls (overhanging by 12.5m), an auto-belay area, slabs with a difference, a large dedicated kids’ climbing area, three separate unique bouldering areas, an outside balcony, car parking on site for 70+ cars and a capacity to house over 700 people.

Because of the size of the project it's hard to put an opening date on it but Dave is looking at late August 2013 at the moment.

Dave has also just agreed that the new centre will play host to the British Lead and Speed Climbing Championships on the 5-6 October 2013!

Progress can be followed on Facebook or on the Awesome Walls Sheffield blog

Video interview with Dave Douglas
 

« Back