Climbing Wall

[SelfContained]

Doing a little garage makeover and I plan on building a simple climbing wall. I have a space cleared of about 5' wide x 12' high, and a smaller area of 5'x7'. I picked up two sheets of 3/4" maple plywood (the good stuff without formaldehyde) which gives me 64 sq ft of material. I would like to make a peg board or hangboard/fingerboard if space permits.

My plan is really just make sure everything is secure, and see where the ideas take me.

I've seen there are quite a few avid climbers on the site. I'm a noob when it comes to the sport, but I ordered some holds and hardware off of amazon to get me started (Rocky Mountain Climbing Gear). So any tips/design info/criticism/supply ideas you can offer up, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

 

[gtluke]

The climbing gyms use a million quick insert nuts on the back of the plywood. And texture the paint for your feet grip.

 

[merritt]

T nuts and sandtex

 

[ktmrider]

I built a 30' X 25' wall for some 21 year old rich kid in mendam a few years ago , it was in his great room . I ordered all the stuff from backcountry.com I will try to find a picture .

 

[clarkenstein]

i had a garage wall for a while. consider making it relatively steep. or build in the ability to adjust the steepness easily.

to avoid boredom have plenty of holds available. hit up local climbing gyms. a lot of the time they have buckets of holds they no longer use. see if you can snag a few holds out of the left overs.

do yourself a favor and get an allen wrench that is long on BOTH ends. like super long. it will make changing holds/setting routes a lot better.

i opted to not use a sanded surface for two reasons. sometimes you end up with a spinning hold if you have too much texture too close to a t-nut, and it makes for harder smearing, which means stronger climbing. if you can smear on a smooth piece of plywood you can smear on anything.

i would switch my wall out from system holds one week to climbing holds the next. so i would "train" on it one week and then work on boulder problems i set for myself. i'd set a few warm up problems, then the rest were super slopey or super crimpy. if you don't make it interesting, you'll get bored of a small wall fast.

 

[SelfContained]

i had a garage wall for a while. consider making it relatively steep. or build in the ability to adjust the steepness easily.

to avoid boredom have plenty of holds available. hit up local climbing gyms. a lot of the time they have buckets of holds they no longer use. see if you can snag a few holds out of the left overs.

do yourself a favor and get an allen wrench that is long on BOTH ends. like super long. it will make changing holds/setting routes a lot better.

i opted to not use a sanded surface for two reasons. sometimes you end up with a spinning hold if you have too much texture too close to a t-nut, and it makes for harder smearing, which means stronger climbing. if you can smear on a smooth piece of plywood you can smear on anything.

i would switch my wall out from system holds one week to climbing holds the next. so i would "train" on it one week and then work on boulder problems i set for myself. i'd set a few warm up problems, then the rest were super slopey or super crimpy. if you don't make it interesting, you'll get bored of a small wall fast.

This is all awesome...THANK YOU!!!

 

[Pampa]

@JimN (is Brandon on the board?), @gtluke I don't know if this goes here. This is the first climbing thread I found...

It looks like fun: https://futurism.com/videos/these-projections-turn-rock-climbing-into-a-real-live-video-game/

 

[JimN]

Lol, I feel like climbing is fun enough on its own, but that does look pretty cool. Climbing outside is obviously way better than climbing in a gym, but climbing in a gym isn't like riding a trainer or running on a treadmill.

This is all awesome...THANK YOU!!!

Did you end up building a wall?

 

[clarkenstein]

i was climbing enough where i decided to put up a wall in my house again. i have a traverse wall and a real steep wall. i have more holds now than these last pictures and more on order from atomik.

i will say, atomik climbing holds are pretty damn nice. expensive but i think worth it. i was really disappointed in the metolius bulk box of holds. it was pretty much 80% screw-on vs bolt-on holds. and most of the bolt-on holds are small crimps or foot holds. good for a slightly overhung wall but definitely not for a steep wall unless you can warm up on a V9.

 

[soundz]

I like how this gives you something to do while your clothes are drying.

 

[huffster]

No wonder he's always volunteering to do the laundry.

 

[stb222]