Great news – you found us! We’re excited to be involved in the BMC’s #FindYourAdventure campaign and are keen to welcome you to our club. Joining the TWMC is an excellent way to progress your climbing, have adventures and meet new people.
Scroll down to explore what the club is about. We look forward to climbing with you, The TWMC Committee.
Climbing with us
Whether it’s your first time out or you already lead E1, we want to make sure both you and our members are safe. We welcome climbers of all abilities, we just request you be honest about your skills and if you’re unsure of anything, please ask! We are fortunate to have some awesome sandstone crags nearby.
New to climbing?
Rock climbing is a great way to explore the country, several of our members started climbing with the club. It’s important you can tie-in and belay safely, so we suggest a course with a qualified instructor beforehand: outdoors at Harrison’s Rocks with Nuts4Climbing Beginner Sessions or Hatt Beginner Rock Climbing or indoors at: Woolwich The Reach’s Roped Skills course or Brighton High Sports’ RockStart course or Polegate Ordinary Climbers’ Competency course. If you enjoy it and see yourself becoming an independent (unguided) climber, get back in touch.
Climbed indoors? Or a little outside?
If you’ve bouldered before, you’ll enjoy the short sandstone routes, but it’s important you can tie-in and belay safely. So even if you pull hard on plastic, please book onto a course – see ‘New to Climbing?’.
If you’ve top-roped or lead climbed indoors and want to climb outdoors, come along! If you’re rusty or prefer a confidence boosting refresher, check out the courses above. Also, a great way to kick-start your journey to becoming a self-sufficient club climber, is to learn about ‘sandstone rope setups‘, for instruction, enquire with Nuts4Climbing about ‘rope setting’ training. There are many differences when climbing on real rock, especially sandstone, and you shouldn’t expect to climb at the same grade straightaway.
Many people aspire to ‘Trad’ climb as it opens up a huge range of routes on sea-cliffs and mountains. Instead of clipping in-situ bolts like in Sport Climbing, Trad Climbing involves placing protection (aka gear) yourself and more complex rope work. Some people ‘learn to lead’ on a course with a qualified Mountaineering & Climbing Instructor (MCI) or Rock Climbing Development Instructor (RCDI) whilst others prefer the ‘apprenticeship’ approach of seconding experienced friends and reading books & online materials. The club occasionally organises a beginner Trad weekend for aspirant leaders.
Experienced trad or sport climber?
You’ve got a rack, rope and partner, so why join TWMC? You’ll get a heap of new climbing partners, advice, club trips, knowledge, car sharing, socials. A major advantage of climbing as a club on sandstone, is that you can climb more routes as people often mix-in and swap ropes on ‘club nights’. If you’ve moved to the area and already climb, get in touch! There are so many benefits of being a club member, the BMC wrote this article: Why Join a Club?