Ice walls come down permanently at Ellis Brigham stores
Mountain and winter sports clothing and equipment retailer Ellis Brigham has announced that it will take down the ice-walls in its stores in Manchester and London for environmental reasons.
The retail group has housed the Vertical Chill Ice Walls in stores in the two cities since 2003, but at the start of this year, marketing director, Mark Brigham, explained that the temporary closures imposed by covid-19 had given the company a chance to reflect on the idea. The result of this reflection is to remove the features permanently.
“Despite it being an innovative concept, Vertical Chill no longer fits with our environmental goals in a world where we are all concerned about our energy consumption,” Mr Brigham said.
The ice walls were 8 metres tall and were housed within a refrigerated unit, with glass viewing panels to the front and a variety of different climbing routes to suit all levels of experience. They were available to hire for climbing lessons, for which Ellis Brigham provided instructors and kit, or for sessions for qualified climbers to practise on.
