chopchopBC Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Saw in a recent High mountain mag that they have a couple of new Ice climbing gyms in Scotland and England.. http://www.icefactor.co.uk/ Given the season is so short on the west coast, who knows one day it could be a vancouver reality, especially with the global thermostat set to "WARM" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin_Matlock Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 I've seen a few indoor gym's web sites showing off their "ice" wall, so I've seen this more local before. Â My wife is a sales rep for a foam manufacturer. Some place in Bend, OR has called and asked her for some super-dense foam for their indoor ice wall. Not sure the name of the place though. I thought this was an awesome idea for a home ice wall but found out that the foam in question is super expensive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYleK Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 (edited) Wow, quite the facility, it's gotta be worth millions. They put in 15m of concrete "under" the giant refridgerator just to deal with the weight. The simulated 18m Scottish gully sounds interesting. And it goes to -50C, they should put in giant fans and fill it full of freshiez for the full spin-drift effect. Edited December 16, 2004 by LYleK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 -50C = the full dinner-plate effect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafael_H Posted December 16, 2004 Share Posted December 16, 2004 Pretty cool. Now all there is left to do is indoor alpine and high altitude rooms, plus a big wall room... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icezazz Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Most so-called indoor ice climbing is drytool practice with rounded picks into the handholds. Grivel makes a full set of gear for this. Mostly just Lat pulls with yur gear, good for impressing the babes at the local planet granite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 I don't know how much money went into this project exactly, but the structure had been there for years as it was an old alumin(i)um works, hence the thick concrete floor. I guess there are plenty of buildings like that banging about in the PNW too.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosolo Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 I was wondering if they also included some objective hazards like falling ice, extremely cold temperatures, maybe some warm days when you wondered if the ice will fall on your head. I think it may be missing most of the fun! Next thing you know someone will be gluing rigid foam up to some crags to have year round "mixed climbs"....It reminds me of when climbing holds came out and we thought nobody would be stupid enough to do that but..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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