Getting In Shape

Climbing wall- finished

After another weekend of cutting, drilling, and hammering, our home climbing wall is finished. Our friend James loaned us some of the specialized equipment and materials, as well as a bunch of the holds, which was a huge help. Thanks heaps James!

The main bit is a 30 degree overhanging wall, 2.4 x 2.4m. A 30 degree overhang is pretty steep, which keeps the climbing hard and interesting. Here it is in perspective:

We added a ~1m roof on top, mostly because it was easy to do with the framing all ready in place. Carrie and I are relatively weak at climbing roofs, so this will give good practice.

Here are a few more photos of the construction:

Carrie, drilling holes. Each sheet of plywood needed ~100. The holes
really needed to be straight, so we used a drill guide.

We made a 1ft tall vertical "kicker board" at the base of the wall
for starting footholds.

You can also see the angle cuts for the vertical spars. I had to review basic geometry to get these right. The sin of an angle is the adjacent length divided by the hypotenuse, right? (nope).

Screwing the plywood sheets into place

Carrie is looking good, but that crash pad is looking a bit small. Hmm.

Adventures in Climbing at Home

John and I are building a climbing wall at our house. Yes, we have the coolest landlord in the world. Here are photos of stage one of the building process...

Our wall is going to have a vertical foot board at the bottom, then a 30º section that goes up to a small roof, which is nearly horizontal.

John and I are still smiling after a day of building. Our roommate was pretty sure that one of us would be sleeping on the couch after a long day working together, but we made it. :-)