Queen of The Castle

Today I took Gina to get her Visa paperwork sorted and her passport sent off.  So after the early morning start we headed over on the tube to Manor House. We got there a little early so we headed over for a little pick me up snack in a lovely little Turkish restaurant. The Castle, as par recommendation from Anna, was a good choice for the day in London. The Castle is run by climbers for climbers spread over 4 floors. With 450 roped and lead routes (8m to 13m) and a large range of bouldering surfaces there's a little bit of everything for beginners to experts.

Opening at 12 and after a quick look around the floors and shop. Gina and I found our way to the 1st Floor. I bouldered in the Mezz (Blue Wall), sticking to V1, V0 and VB. It was awesome to be able to boulder more like that as opposed to the traverse walls at St Marys. We also moved over to The Slab (Green Wall) and I bouldered V0 ans V1, and a couple V1-V3, sticking to a comfort zone due to the early start in the morning. There is also the Lust and Envy area, where I traversed V0s and V1s. Next to it is the Catacomb, that is mainly constructed of roof routes, so I gave a few a go. I tried a couple V3s and got half way before slipping off. 

The Castle is a definite return location for bouldering and to try the top rope and maybe even try some lead. A lot of the routes were being reset for top rope and lead that day anyway so even if I had someone to trade belay with I probably would have been restricted to how much I could have done. I also payed the cafe a little visit with all their home grown products, and it turns out their tomato, pesto and mozzarella toasties really hit the spot! The cafe is next to a lead area and a bouldering wall that Gina explored while I ate. We went up to see The Loft area too but there was a class so we didn't hang around. We bouldered a little more before leaving. Must explore the outside bouldering area sometime.