A new climbing gym has opened in West Cumbria – to a very busy first week of business.
Northern Problems officially opened last Tuesday in Haig Enterprise Park, in Kells, Whitehaven and has already welcomed dozens of climbers and climbing newbies through its doors.
It also has café bar space where it is serving coffee, cake and locally brewed beer for people to enjoy post-climb.
Owners Iain Bisset and Kat Von Goldacker, of Arlecdon, said the boutique bouldering gym is made by climbers, for climbers, and those who don’t know they are climbers just yet.
The gym fills a gap in the market for indoor climbing in West Cumbria – where the closest bouldering walls previously were over a 40 minute to hour one drive away.
Bouldering is a type of rope-free climbing that takes place over safety mats on lower height walls.
It’s a sport that has quickly grown in popularity following its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2020.
Iain said: “Since we opened it’s been phenomenal, it’s been absolutely wonderful.
“We’ve had more people come than we could imagine, we’ve only been open for seven days but we’ve had two people come four times already, so we’re doing something right.
“It vindicates the cost, effort and risk, because quitting work and putting all your money into something is exciting but it leads to sleepless nights, so seeing people enjoy it and start to take some ownership, because we all have our home wall, is really good.”
The gym is a fully inclusive space and open to climbers of all levels of experience.
Different levels of climbing routes – known as route settings – are available and will change every four weeks in four sections.
The gym currently has 80 climbs of which 20 are suitable for beginners – but Iain said by the end of this week, the centre will have 100 climbs on offer.
Children under 14 can climb at the centre but they must have full parental supervision.
Young people aged 14 to 17 who are competent climbers can be signed off to climb without parental supervision, but still require a parent or guardian present to sign up.
Inductions for beginners of all ages are available alongside shoe rental.
Iain said: “We’ve been doing weekly inductions and our first one was brilliant and it was full of really nice people in a spread of ages from 18 to in their 50s all helping each other out and being very social.
“But everyone can come at any time, we have slots for beginners and experienced climbers can come anytime.
“Everything we earnt in the first week got spent on holds. We got told by lots of wall owners to buy more jugs (bigger holds) than you think, and then when we opened we thought, we’ve not got enough!”
Iain added that the pair are keen to see Northern Problems become a solid part of the indoor climbing landscape in Cumbria.
He said: “There are people who will do all their climbing with us, but as part of a balanced climbing life, it should involve other walls.
“But hopefully for us if it’s dark and you’ve just finished work at 5pm and don’t fancy driving far, then people will think let’s go up to Kells and see Iain and Kat.
“At the moment I reckon I could name every person who walks through the door and we’re making a real effort of that.
“On Friday and Saturday we actually ended up staying an hour late just chatting to customers.”
Iain added that the café bar will also be used for different social events and activities alongside being a post-climb chill out space.
Iain said: “We’re going to run a board game night once a week and hopefully it’ll get people interested in climbing because they’ll see the wall and the inclusivity here.
“We’re also planning to do over 50s climbing socials and I quite fancy having that as a Friday night event.
“But people should just come along or drop in, you’ll meet loads of nice people and we’ll look after you.”
Northern Problems is open daily from 12pm to 9pm.
On Thursdays the centre is open from 9am to 9pm and on Sundays from 12pm to 7pm and Mondays from 12pm to 6pm.
