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© Core Climbing 2022
© Core Climbing 2022
Last week, I spoke with Hang’s founder, Jon Partridge, about their new bouldering wall. Located near the Blenheim Centre, Hang offers a premium bouldering experience, likened to the “Waitrose local” of climbing gyms.
Hang is situated in a modern, thermally efficient building with abundant natural light. Its High Street location ensures excellent transport links, bringing climbing to a wider community.
Above the reception, “The Lounge” offers a comfortable workspace with great views across the center, available to all Hang customers at no extra cost.
Crafted by “Climbing Wall Collective“ the walls feature modern, varnished ply with diverse angles. The matting installation was a challenge, but the team overcame it with determination.
The Core matting was delivered in two artic loads one week apart. The council were digging up the road at the time which meant that parking for artic lorries was severely limited. The offload was tough however all the Hang team turned up to get the matting inside in double quick time. A special mention to Omar and Tom who went the extra mile travelling down on the over night train fresh from filming at the Ice Factor in the Highlands.
Jake Mason, the head route setter, focuses on delivering varied and stylistically diverse climbs. Hang has a unique grading system inspired by Nando’s spice levels, emphasizing fun over traditional grading.
“We know how important both the quality and frequency of route setting are. We have a passionate in-house team and recruit the best independent setters in the industry”.
Jon Partridge
“We aim to provide comfy, interesting, pleasing on the eye, stylistically diverse climbs with cool holds for every difficulty”.
Jake Mason
Hang don’t do grades. Grading is incredibly subjective and there is huge inconsistency between climbing walls. Hang didn’t want any of the negatives that come along with the numbers and letters of traditional grading systems. So they have created their system with an emphasis on fun!
“As usual, you will find two tags at the bottom of a climb showing where your hands should start, but, just like a cheeky Nandos, you need to choose a spice level you’re comfortable with and enjoy”.
“The more chillis on the tag the spicier it is. So if you like it hot, go for our infernos but, if you prefer something cooler stick to our lemon + herb”.
Hang.
The colour of holds used on a problem doesn’t give indication of difficulty. This gives the route setters the freedom to create whatever they can imagine with any of the holds. It is a really nice way to do things as at some point all the customers will get to use all of the holds.
Above reception, you can find “The Lounge”. This is a dedicated Work space area at an elevated level and has privacy, comfort and great views across the centre. Available to all Hang customers at no extra cost it is a dynamic, flexible space for innovative businesses, freelancers, students or climbers.
I’m always impressed by climbers who take on the challenge to start up a climbing wall and even more so to embark on this adventure during the last 18 months. With the wall in its infancy, having been open for 78 days and counting, I was keen to ask Jon about his experience.
“Starting any business is difficult and starting Hang has been all consuming. Setting up a climbing wall is often a dream of many. It’s been a challenging process and it has been lot of hard graft and negotiation. It’s required a diverse skill set.”
Jon Partridge
I was curious to find out how Bouldering Bobat became involved with the Hang project. Jon explained that at the first round of funding, he was keen to bring people into the business who could add value beyond a straightforward investment. Bouldering Bobat is the biggest YouTube channel of its type with a staggering 182k subscribers. Running a Youtube channel is very much a full-time job, however, Omar and Tom have also committed to both working part-time in the wall. There are so many positive synergies and the two businesses are now forever linked. Hang is a great place to film content and a perfect venue to host Bobat events.
Hang’s unique blend of quality and fun in an urban setting can’t fail to inspire new people to climb. Hang. is a brilliant venue and I’m looking forward to getting back down there soon.