BIGGER, BETTER, BOULDER!

Dear friends,

As you will hopefully know, we are moving to a new building in early 2025. During this journey we’ve had to make many decisions, some of which are key to shaping our future at the new site. 

One of these decisions is to focus on building and operating an amazing indoor bouldering venue, which means we will not be constructing a rope climbing wall at the new site.

As a result, our ability to offer top rope, lead and autobelay climbing will cease once we move. 

I know a small number of you use the current wall on occasion, so I wanted to share the two main reasons behind the decision.

• While our current roped wall is adequate, it isn’t the ‘dream wall’ we would like to offer. A quality rope wall generally needs to be at least 10 metres high (some now say it needs some lines at 15m+), but our new building doesn’t allow us to construct anything larger or better than what we currently have (7m).
• Additionally, a rope wall is a large piece of equipment that takes up considerable space. As we developed plans for the new centre, it became clear we would have to compromise on the bouldering walls to incorporate an ‘adequate’ roped wall. At that point, we realised we wanted to do something amazing, so we made the decision to focus 100% on bouldering.

On a personal level, I’d always wanted a ‘full climbing centre’ but I had to set that to one side, listen to my team, look at the options, and then try to make a good but difficult decision. Once it was made, it all came together quickly and the result is something we are excited to share with you all.

If you have any questions or comments, please come and see me or one of the crew when you’re at Highball.

Never Stand Still

Mike & The Crew