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What is a climbing gym and what is climbing?

Climbing gym is a place where people climb out of season, when it's cold in natural climbing areas.

Climbing is a marvellous, rather safe sport, which has little in common with mountaineering it is often confused with.

 

Our climbing gym is called "Skala city" (the rock city), it opened on the 1st of October 2004.

The most important thing in a climbing gym is the artificial rock, or climbing wall. Our wall is 12 meters high and has a surface of 437 square meters. That's big.



The climbing wall has been constructed and certified to European safety standards.

We have almost 100 climbing routes, from easy routes for kids to advanced grades for seasoned climbers.

The climbing center has everything necessary for a full, convenient work out, including gym and changing rooms with lockers and showers.

Parking is available for the cost of 150 roubles, which is to be paid to the administrator as you leave.

In "Skala city" you can climb with a friend, in a climbing school group or with a personal instructor.

In order to climb you have to have proper equipment and bring a spare pair of shoes to walk around between climbs as the climbing shoes themselves are very tight. Even slippers will suffice. Should you have no climbing equipment of your own, we have a rental service.

Novice or professional, every climber has to know our safety measures and know how to belay a partner, even if he came alone. Our friendly instructors ensure all visitors can belay. If you have never done it before, they will happily teach you free of charge.

 

The climbing school is open to both adults and children, although there are many more adults in the school. Climbing is taught in groups according to level. There is no fixed schedule; you can come whenever is convenient.

Every year the climbing school travels to natural climbing areas worldwide, where they climb, have fun and take breathtaking photos.

In the last 6 years they climbed in Norway, Finland, Italy, France, Turkey, Jordan, Greece, Vietnam and Thailand, not to mention many climbing areas of Russia.

 

What are climbing routes and how do I climb them?

Climbing is organised according to routes of varying difficulty. The more experienced the climber, the harder the route.

In climbing gyms routes are built of holds. Holds are artificial colored stones of different shapes and sizes, which are bolted onto the flat climbing to create relief. Every route is built of holds of the same color, thus the route can be plotted and followed.

Yoг can also climb "off route" using all the holds available. This is easier; those, who have never tried climbing before, often climb "off route" two or three times at first to get used to it.

Climbing routes are designed and built by seasoned climbers. It takes 2-3 hours to build a route of average length, which is about 20 grasps.

 

The route builder names every route and gives it a difficulty level, both are written on the route passport beneath the first hold. The name is needed to remember a route that you like or dislike and to refer to the route in a conversation.

Route passports are color-coded; the easiest are green, then yellow, red and, finally, the nearly impossible white passports.

 

To build a good route is not a walk in a park. The route builder allocates the holds not randomly, but in such a way as to make the route-to-be exhilarating and just as hard as the difficulty level requires.To do so, he has to make the grasps diverse and set a couple of places, where cunning is required. These are called "route keys". When you reach the "route key" things become complicated; it is hard or unclear how to reach the next hold in order to move on. One can come across a key anytime, at the beginning of the route or at the very end, just before the top, where the climber will be worn out. Therefore, it is essential to climb efficiently from the very beginning to save strength for possible complcations.

There are two types of route keys: power and technical. The power key is self-explanatory, it's a very hard grasp on the route.

 

The technical key is somewhat different. Brute-force alone will not be enough to pass the key, rather the climber shoud solve the puzzle set by the route builder.

That's why a good route is exciting rather then just hard. Correct application of technical skills will let you overcome the key easily.

 

Routes are replaced on a constant basis, every month we build bitween 5 and 8 new routes and unbolt the same quantity of old ones. This is done to keep our seasoned climbers in shape and for the wall to remain challenging.

The reason for this is there is a huge difference when you climb a route for the first time and for the tenth time. Gradually you get used to the route, figure out all its features, climb it faster, more efficiently and it takes less effort to get to the top. "But that's just what I need!"- you might say. Not exactly. You stop thinking, and that's what you cannot afford to do. That is why climbers are constantly looking for new routes. As soon as there is a new route in the climbing gym, a queue lines up. Should the route be worthy, the queue gets impatient.

Climbers learn to "read" routes while they are still on the ground. A climber will patiently study the route, trying to figure out how to climb it, trying to find a possible place to recoup or spot a concealed route key.

 

By the time he starts climbing, there should be a rough plan in his head. When hanging on the wall he will not have much time to look aroud and think, as he will be losing strengh by the second.

 

Of course, having as much strength as possible is an advantage, that is why as well as the climbing wall we have a gym, where climbers warm up and train the necessary muscles. Use o the gym is included in the entrance fee.

The gym is located on the third floor, which can be reached by the spiral staircase.

 

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We look forward to seeing you in "Skala city" !

Address: Kutuzovskii prospekt, 36/3, metro station Kutuzovskaya or Park Pobedy. Please, see the map.

We work from 15:00 till 23:30 on week days and from 13:00 till 22:00 on weekend. There can be changes in the schedule.

Call us:  8 966 112 93 77; 8 926 025 65 85

(administrators answer only withing the working hours, other time there is an answering machine)

 

 
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