New project: Building a bouldering wall
What is bouldering? What is a bouldering wall? Shortly, bouldering is a condensed form of rock climbing. The routes are short, steep and hard. An artificial wall is used for training during the week as the rock climbing or bouldering locations are often too far to get to after work.
I’m in exactly that position – no crag close enough to reasonably reach after work during the week, and even the closest indoor climbing gym is slightly further than I’d like to drive to regularly – not to mention the peak hour traffic en-route.
The idea:
A free standing construction which will be relatively easy to disassemble and re-assemble. My living arrangements are somewhat unstable at the moment – I don’t have a permanent place to put up a wall, so I’ll need to be able to move it without too much difficulty. Building it indoors is also not an option at the moment.
Whats needed:
Some plywood, pine beams, and artificial grips. Bolts & nuts to put it all together and some paint to protect it all from the elements.
The Design:
I’m going for a simple design, almost exactly the same as this sketch from the Gecko Grips site (where I also bought my first set of grips), except of course I’ll have some additional construction to make it free standing.
So far I’ve gone after building metal brackets to bolt everything together. It’s been a pain, I’m seriously considering ditching that plan in favour of plain old wood screws.
I’ll post up some progress pics & details as I go along, watch this space.
