NCMC

Norwich Climbing and Mountaineering Club


We're a fairly informal club, but mostly you can find us down at the UEA climbing wall on Monday and Thursday nights after around 20:00. After climbing on Thursday nights we usually go down to a local pub for a drink, although some go down on Mondays as well.

There are some club trips with published dates mainly to the Peaks but also occasionally to places like the Lakes, North Wales or Swanage in Dorset, but mainly the climbing wall and the pub are used by climbers to make arrangements to go climbing anywhere anytime, depending on people's interest or level of experience. There have been trips to Spain, France, Switzerland, Thailand and even Africa to do all sorts of stuff, although the club is predominantly about climbing rock. We also have a limited amount of gear that people may borrow, like wall ropes, harnesses, helmets, ice axes, crampons and a lead rack to help people get started before buying their own, however, you will still need your own climbing shoes.

It might seem a bit strange that a city in the centre of the flattest land in Britain has a climbing club, especially since Norfolk only has some rather pathetic, very crumbly and fast-eroding 'cliffs' along its coastline and a local 'rock' that only last had any real use during the Stone Age, when apparently it formed the basis of a good trade in spears and stuff!

But that is our secret strength! By the time we get to the week ends we're just desperate to see rock and hills, so we arrange trips away at various times of the year. This is our main reason for being a club - we're just a group of people living in a non-climbing area who want to get away climbing when we can.

There's a big age range in the membership. Some people have just left uni and would like some climbing contacts. Most work, some don't, or at least don't have cars, so on trips we try and arrange transport through car (and petrol) sharing to the various venues. Some people lead E1 or 2, some prefer to second on V. Diffs and most climb somewhere between the two. However we are not able to include under 18s, because of insurance and we don't instruct. We also seem to attract people from different corners of the world, usually those who are here for a short time connected to UEA. That's great 'cos it gives us contacts all over the place. At the moment we seem to have a fairly even mix of men and women, although possibly a few more men than women. Basically, we all just share a common interest in enjoying ourselves climbing.

We hope you'll come and climb with us!