The Cambridge Arch Project

Cambridge, England is not full of mountains. It’s not full of cliffs. It is, however, full of enthusiastic climbers, young and old, town and gown.

Cambridge is served by two bouldering gyms, Kelsey Kerridge and Rainbow Rocket, but seek out roped climbing and you might find yourself driving over an hour to Milton Keynes’ Big Rock or spending 80 minutes on trains to reach London’s Castle Climbing Centre.

The Cambridge Arch Project is a group of local climbers working towards improved access to roped climbing in Cambridge.

A map of roped climbing centres in the East and South East of England, with a troubling gap surrounding Cambridgeshire.

Our vision is to build a non-profit and community-run roped climbing wall here in Cambridge.

In looking for the most cost-effective way to build Cambridge’s first roped climbing wall, we have been inspired by outdoor climbing walls across Europe. These structures sidestep the need for a tall, vacant building – something that’s hard to come by in Cambridge – and allow users to enjoy climbing outdoors in a public park.

Left, the climbing tower in Halle, Germany. Centre, the climbing tower in Munich. And right, the BaNanna Park climbing wall in Copenhagen. These and similar climbing arches inspire the name 'The Cambridge Arch Project'

By bringing the first roped climbing wall to Cambridge, we want to celebrate and support our favourite aspects of climbing: physical and mental health, socialising and playfulness.

Core areas of focus for us include:

Accessibility: We want to make a space that’s maximally accessible for anyone regardless of age, ability or income.
Education: By developing skills training programmes, we are hoping to create a place to teach and learn, to ultimately serve as a gateway to experiencing UK outdoor climbing.
Community: We want this new public space to be lively and social, a venue for climbing-related events, and a place to form new friendships.

We are really encouraged by the response to this project so far and are very optimistic that with the backing of local climbers, this idea will come to life in Cambridge.

In this newsletter, we’ll be sharing regular updates on The Cambridge Arch Project. Stay tuned and please share this page with those you think will be interested. We would love to hear from you in the comments or over email at thecambridgearch@gmail.com.

Happy climbing!

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Bringing Roped Climbing to Cambridge.

People

Marie Zedler

@mariezedler

Jared Khan

@jaredkhan