Temporary closure of The Lock Climbing Wall during improvement works.

The Lock Climbing Wall will be closed to the public from 6pm on 24th April , reopening on the 9th May 2022

Dear Climbers,

We hope we find you all well after the recent troubles and very much hope that we are returning to somewhere near normality – whatever that may be!

We have been busy with some fairly impressive work over the past 2 years; hopefully you’ve seen the new Harlow High Adventure course and Clip and Climbs that have been installed and are now open for bookings. We think they are a fantastic addition to the centre and certainly increase the opportunities for young people and families to access the outdoors.

Upgrades to the climbing environment at The Lock

The Climbing Wall hasn’t been forgotten and will benefit from 2 projects, soon to get underway, both of which will improve your climbing experience by improving the environment in the wall.

The first element will seem fairly minor but will certainly add to your climbing experience as we are installing a Climblab ultrasonic hold cleaning machine. Not only will this improve the quality of the holds as they are cleaned more thoroughly, but should also prolong their useful life. It should also prolong the useful life of Paddy’s back, as hold cleaning becomes more straight forward!

The second improvement is in 2 parts and will be kicking off on April 11th. Unfortunately, this is going to be more disruptive while works are underway, as we will be improving the air circulation and de-stratification system currently in the wall. The first part of the project will see the installation of an air scrubber to remove airborne contaminants in a bid to improve the air quality within the wall. We have all seen and probably felt the build-up of dust within the wall and our hope is to reduce the amount of airborne particles significantly by filtering the air constantly while we are open.

Part 2 of this project will see the installation of an Evaporative Cooler. Essentially a unit mounted on the roof that will extract air from the wall or, when required, switch to draw in fresh air into the wall. During summer months, the unit will cool the air being drawn into the wall by up to 10 degrees, enhancing the climbing experience by cooling air and increasing the air circulation at the same time.

As you can imagine these works are not insignificant and unfortunately will cause us to close the wall temporarily while underway. Therefore, we must announce that;

The Lock Climbing Wall will be closed to the public 25th April – 9th May 2022

We will of course freeze any active memberships before reactivating from the 9th May. We understand that closing the wall will impact on everyone and it’s not a decision that we have taken lightly, especially given the Pandemic related closures that we all suffered through. We are hopeful, however, that the long term health benefits far outweigh this temporary inconvenience.

If you have any questions regarding the works, memberships or courses, please feel free to contact the team immediately.

The Lock Climbing Wall Team