suggestions for building bouldering wall

Post by KD » Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:47 pm

SikMonkey wrote:3/4-inch plywood, 2x6 wall studs, SCREWED...not nailed...construction, LOTS of T-nuts and bolts, holds, some carpentry skills (I built one, so my guess is that pretty much any nut job that can hold a beer in one hand and a saw or drill in the other can put one together too).

Mj

Use gussett plates when attatching trusses to framing.

Post by **SikMonkey** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:39 pm

Use gussett plates when attatching trusses to framing.

Damn KD, you are gittin' all high-tech on me there. I can't say I used truss construction on my wall. I did use some chains and turnbuckles for added support though.

Mj

Post by **Cromlech** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:24 pm

Sumdog,

I have a cave in my basement with a 45deg to a roof to a 22.5deg. The back wall of the cave is vertical for my kids. There is a picture of half the wall on rc.com.

http://www.rockclimbing.com/users/list. ... D=cromlech

I'll be happy to talk to you about the construction my wall and another much larger wall I helped build in Chicago.

If you need any holds I have 40+ large boxes of holds I picked up when a local gym closed. I have a mixed bag of pusher, nicros, groperz. I'm willing to sell them by the box or by the pound.

If you can wait until the weather gets a little warmer I'll bring a couple of boxes with me next time I drive down to the Red to save on shipping.

PM me if you are interested, PLJ

Post by **the lurkist** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 12:47 am

you might check out moonclimbing.com. He has on his site plans for the replica of the systems wall used the the school room in sheffield, england. It isn't rocket science, but it is a defintie set of plans. My wall is essentially that wall (much bigger holds on mine) and it's angle (60 degrees) is ideal for training for the red.

Post by **ReachHigh** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:32 pm

Tequila also helps in building a solid climbing wall. just look at the one a good sized group built in Don's garage.

Don doesn't build climbing walls, the wood jumps in to formation and the holds stay on out of fear.

Post by **sumdog** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:53 pm

thanks for the info. everyone, except i perfer bourbon over tequila. how much do you think the supplys will cost, not including the holds? TradMike, maybe you can lend me a hand since i live close to the 'nati. do you climb at eden park much? if anybody would like to lend a hand, i'll send a donation of $200 to help with the murray-pendergrass preserve in their name. thanks again to everybody for their input!!!!!!! nick

Post by KD » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:16 am

sumdog wrote:thanks for the info. everyone, except i perfer bourbon over tequila. how much do you think the supplys will cost, not including the holds? TradMike, maybe you can lend me a hand since i live close to the 'nati. do you climb at eden park much? if anybody would like to lend a hand, i'll send a donation of $200 to help with the murray-pendergrass preserve in their name. thanks again to everybody for their input!!!!!!! nick

It depends on the extent of the wall. 3/4 isnt cheap, screws and other hardware adds up, im scared to add all the reciepts for my wall up. i built an outside wall though so its a bit more expensive. i live in louisville, when would you want someone to help? ill be glad to donate a day of labor for the murray donation - as long as i'm free that day.

Post by **Zspider** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:27 am

Yeah. Don't make it too overhanging. If you can't stay on it for at least 10 minutes with the big jugs, then it's too hard. Fine if you're training for bouldering, I guess, but you need endurance for a lot of the tie-in routes.

ZSpider

Post by **Wes** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 4:28 am

I don't think so. I have found that just training power and maybe some power endurence does much more for actual on route endurance then just training endurance does. I think much of that is because many of the "endurance" routes of the red are more like extended boulder problems with good rests in between. So, if you can bust out 10-15 feet of hard bouldering, then it is easy to link 20-30 foot sections of routes together. The thing that you might want to train, is train how to shake out and recover on good holds.

Zspider wrote:Yeah. Don't make it too overhanging. If you can't stay on it for at least 10 minutes with the big jugs, then it's too hard. Fine if you're training for bouldering, I guess, but you need endurance for a lot of the tie-in routes.

ZSpider

Post by **SikMonkey** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:58 pm

I don't think so. I have found that just training power and maybe some power endurence does much more for actual on route endurance then just training endurance does. I think much of that is because many of the "endurance" routes of the red are more like extended boulder problems with good rests in between. So, if you can bust out 10-15 feet of hard bouldering, then it is easy to link 20-30 foot sections of routes together. The thing that you might want to train, is train how to shake out and recover on good holds.

Well, while local endurance and power endurance aren't mutually exclusive, they do need to be trained separately. You won't get up Tuna Town or Team Wilson just by bouldering unless you are a mutant anyway. Training PE will just make it easier to hold onto smaller holds for a longer period of time, but if you don't have some local endurance to back it up, you are not going to be able to recover.

Mj