The School

I guess most people now know that the building in which the school boards are resident is now under threat and all of the people who use the building have been requested to vacate by Nov. Last night there was a meeting of all the usergroups within the building, it was a strange bunch of people some of which had some good ideas to input, others I could barely understand becaue of their age. I won't go over it again Ben has pretty much summed it up in his blog however even after seeing the enthusiasm I saw last night I can't help thinking its pretty much a lost cause and the very best we can hope to achieve is the council suggesting premises for relocation but to be honest i'm not sure if the boards would survive a move. It would certainly be a bad day for climbing if these boards were to be lost. Almost every good climber coming out of the UK has trained here. Despite its poor build quality, its infamous abroad, how many other boards can say that or claim to have aided so many great climbers in achieving the level at which they once climbed. Maybe I wouldnt be so bothered if there was somewhere else to achieve these goals within Sheffield but its simple really, there isn't. Everywhere (understandably) caters for the beginners and middle grade climbers as thats where the money is, even in Sheffield one of the places with the highest concentrations of hardcore climbers.


On entering the board last night everyone was looking far too strong/large and Joe was trying his best to replicate the classic picture above. Can't wait to get strong again, however I dont feel too weak, I managed four one armer in one go and easily did a pull up on the smallest holds of "Uncle Crimpy Guts...", not too long now anyway.