Highball’s kicking off the new site with our first opening comp, boasting a full day of climbing and events, alongside hosting our first live finals on the brand new comp wall. If you’ve never been to a comp here or elsewhere they can seem very intimidating, so here’s the info you need to make it all seem a little less daunting.
📅 Date: Saturday 10th May 2025
📍 Location: Highball Climbing Centre
🏠 Address: Unit 7, 5 Whiffler Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 2AG
🎟️ Prices
Members – £15
Non-members – £20
The competition will be based on a Scramble format. This means entrants will attempt as many of the 25 blocs as they can, and will record their scores themselves.
You’ll submit your scores via a google doc, we’ll provide you with a QR code on the day to access this.
Finals will be between the 6 top scoring male and female climbers and will take place on the comp wall. Everyone who took part in the comp is encouraged to stay and watch the finals, because with only one male climber and one female climber on the wall at a time – it gets nail biting!
We’ll reveal our final running times closer to the day, but here’s a rough guide for anyone wanting to plan out their Comp timings.
We’ll be opening up as usual at 8am-12pm for those wanting to have a general climb, or warm up, in the morning.
At 12pm we’ll start the qualification round. This takes place across the whole centre, (excluding the comp wall, as this will be reserved for finals blocs).
At 4pm, once the Qualis are over, we’ll return to general climbing – which will give you guys time to grab food and drink ready for the finals, and gives our routesetters time to get the Finals blocs ready!
The Finals will take place next, followed by the raffle, a big thank you from Mike and finally an After-party climb for everyone!
Qualification scoring works on an attempt basis, meaning the less attempts you take to complete the bloc then the higher score you will have overall.
Generally, it’s broken down on the scorecard like so;
|
1st Attempt |
2nd Attempt |
3rd Attempt |
4+ Attempt |
Zone Hold |
|
10pts |
7pts |
4pts |
2pts |
1pt (with no top) |
At the end of the competition your total score will be automatically added up and entered into a spreadsheet. This will be how we determine our top scorers and finalists of the day!
Finals are completely free to watch. If you’re climbing in the Qualis and don’t make it to finals, or if you were just there to spectate, anyone can hang about to watch the top climbers battle it out on four unseen blocs. We also encourage you to watch and cheer on the climbers putting all their effort into the finals after already climbing 25 blocs in the past few hours
Finals are NOT mandatory if you make them, but we would highly recommend you take part if you’ve made it! Plus you’ve got to think of the fantastic camera opportunities for your social media posts.
This event is a two-headed beast, doubling up as our first official comp in the new site, and our big official opening event as well. We’ll be packing good food, fantastic music, raffles, games and much more into the whole day for you all.
We’d love to get back into the swing of regularly running comps and special events, as we try to get the local Highball community back into full throttle after our move to Whiffler Road!
Can’t wait to see you there
