Tag Archives: Snow Factor

2016/17 with the NRCC

This past year has been huge for the NRCC, with more members than ever before and lots of great activities. We have climbed hard and had fun both at and outside of climbing. As well as twice weekly climbing/bouldering sessions, we’ve been here and there for trips and outings.

We kicked off the year with a trip to Snow Factor in Glasgow for some ice climbing. Some chose to try out the slopes instead, with various luck you could say.

Shortly after came the annual NRCC pub climb, this legendary event always lives up to it’s expectations and is a can’t miss for both new and old members.

To make the best of the lovely autumn weather, we headed out to Blackford Quarry for an outdoors climbing and bouldering session. We usually head to Blackford at the start of every year, to introduce our new climbers to outdoors climbing and for some variation.

There’s a first for everything, and in October we had our first NRCC Pub Quiz, with questions about climbing, the committee and also non-climbing related topics.

We also participated in #ThisGirlCan week, a great opportunity to show off all our fantastic female climbers!

There was also time to head to EICA Ratho for some even cooler climbs than before.

Last but not least from a busy first month, we crowned our first Climber of the Month, Bride, who will be taking the role of Secretary in the 2017/18 committee.

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Come November, there’s time for some more antics, this time at Tenpin bowling. Turns out we have no photos from the night, so these climbers falling like bowling pins will have to do.

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There was also time for some more oudoors climbing, both at Blackford Quarry and Bowden Doors in Northumbria.

Our biggest event (ever!) also happened in November, we had climber Pete Whittaker join us for a talk on his recent projects and how he became one of the best crack climbers in the world. The event sold out, and Pete delivered an inspiring and insightful talk.

End of November we found a new Climber of the Month, Chloe, who is the new Media Secretary of the club.

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True to tradition, every December there’s time for a Christmas meal. We headed out to Revolution for lovely food and the usual NRCC antics.

New year and time to try new things, so we sent our President and Secretary to participate in the Team Napier Sports Day. We think they participated at least, although they seem to have just been standing around in the background almost all day..

And of course, another year, another pub crawl. And we of course have some more low quality photos of our drunken activities!

We have of course another Climber of the Month, Alistair, who is the new committee’s Treasurer. Starting to sense a theme here..

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Come February there was high time for another trip, this time to The Climbing Academy in Glasgow. Henrik made this film to sum up the day:

Another chance to show off how great we are came up and we grabbed it; Euan and Richard were off to Sighthill once again, with James joining them to kick some ass at basketball.

We can’t always climb and drink, so this time we settled on food. We headed off to Cosmo to eat more than humanly possible, and succeeded.

To lose all the extra weight we got from Cosmo, we did two trips in one weekend, first climbing at EICA Ratho, and then a hike in the Cairngorms.

February’s Climber of the Month, Gabriel, has been a valued and faithful member of the NRCC his entire time in Edinburgh, but unfortunately he had to go back to Mexico. Once a member, always a member Gabriel!

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March brings the most anticipated event of the year, Sports Ball. Having been nominated for three prizes, we were all psyched to say the least.

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The club got their first prizes this year, the Media Award, and Sportsman of the Year for our President Euan King. Thank you to everyone who nominated the club!

Reaching the end of the year also means Annual General Meeting time, and time to elect a new committee.

The year has nearly come to an end, but not quite yet. A few of our keenest climbers headed up to the Cairngorms with St John Scotland MSI to learn mountain safety skills.

After deadlines, assessments and exams came the real big event of this year with the NRCC, our bouldering holiday to France. This is the first time we’ve done a big trip like this, and it definitely lived up to our expectations!

Now we’re all getting ready for another year of climbing and carrying on the success of the club into another year!

Climber of the Month – February

It is with great joy that we crown Gabriel Montes Ziga our Climber of the Month, but at the same time we are devastated that Gabriel has had to leave us for his native Mexico.

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Gabriel came to Edinburgh year and a half ago to do his masters, but in all honesty, this boy must have done more climbing than studying.
His skills have impressed us all, and we can all only dream about having Gabriel’s strength-to-height ratio.

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As well as being an incredibly skilled climber, Gabriel has always been happy to coach, give advice and pull some pranks. His humour, spirit and dedication has been a huge addition to the NRCC the past 1,5 years.

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His friendliness and warm laugh has made us all adore and look up (when he’s on the wall at least) to him, and his words of encouragement could get anyone out of a bad mood.

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An incredible climber and a wonderful friend, Gabriel deserves Climber of the Month more than anyone.
We miss you Gabriel, and you’ll always be a part of the NRCC!

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Ice Climbing at Snow Factor in Glasgow

We’re always looking for new styles of climbing to try out, and yesterday we got the chance in Glasgow!

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13 keen climbers got in the mini bus and off we went to Snow Factor. You’d think we’d travelled out of Scotland and entered a Winter Wonderland, and it was definitely not September anymore.

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Cold or warm, no weather stops the NRCC, and up the wall our climbers went!

As well as climbing, some of us took the opportunity to hit the slopes for some skiing and snowboarding. No point wasting such a beautiful, snowy day!

With frozen hands and wet socks we got back in the mini bus, all ready for bouldering at Alien Rock the day after, once our forearms stop hurting from all the axe whacking needed to scale the ice walls.

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