Falling on People While Gym Bouldering

I’m glad to see that most people agree with me, that it is not the climber’s fault if they land on someone. I do everything I can to avoid an incident, but I’m afraid it’s just a matter of time before I seriously hurt someone.

This post was inspired by two separate incidents that I was involved in this week while visiting Rockcreation in LA. Their bouldering walls are fairly tall, and don’t have a lot of space between them. People are constantly standing in the fall zone of two walls at the same time!

The first incident occurred when I fell off the fourth move of a vertical problem. I had assessed the fall zone before trying the problem, and no one was there. When I fell off, my butt came down on someone pretty firmly as I landed on my feet. I turned around to find that I had come straight down onto a small Asian girl who was standing there. As I squatted into the landing, my butt came down striking her lower back, right where it meets her butt. I must’ve hurt like hell. I know it felt like a significant impact to me, luckily it was only my butt, but it was her back. A couple more inches and I would’ve landed on her head.

The second incident occurred not 15 minutes later!!! I had been trying a different problem and falling near the top. I knew the fall zone, and asked three dudes standing there if they could please move, because if I fell I’d land right where they were standing. One dude made eye contact, said something, and they all moved out of the fall zone. Sure enough, I fell right where I said I was going to, and had to execute an odd landing to avoid hitting them!

The dude I was closest to goes “Whoa! Careful!”
I angrily said “Hey, you need to watch where you’re standing! It’s not gonna be me that gets hurt when I land on you!”
Guess what he says! “No big deal man, just tell us to move.”
I said “I told you to move!”
He says, “No you didn’t.” Are you kidding me?!?! I coulda decked him!
Controlling my emotions, I say, “I told that guy,” pointing at the guy who I had made eye contact with when asking them to move.
That guy just kinda shakes his head noncommittally.
I just walk away, before I do something I’ll regret.

THESE KIND OF INCIDENTS JUST INFURIATE ME! People are too dumb to realize the danger they put themselves in, and gym owners act like they could care less! It almost seems like someone needs to get hurt for the gym owners to take action.

I haven't seen anyone real fall on someone at our gym in a long time. The kids are the biggest issue but for the most part if you ask the yoga crowd and gymnastic crowd to move they will. I even like to lounge around on the big pads between climbs but I always make sure to move as soon as someone starts a problem that goes over where I am sitting. I

I climb in a remote part of Japan, and while there are a lot of downsides- more expensive holds, smaller gyms, less frequent setting- reading threads like this really make me glad for many things. The communities at the gyms I frequent are very tight-knit and self-policing, and I very rarely have to worry about anything of this sort. Newbies or kids who wander under a climber are quickly ushered away, and the overall attitude in the gym is one of respect, support, and cooperation.

Climbing here is still relatively obscure, and I sure hope that it doesn't head in this direction as it gets more popular. Anybody have any experience with etiquette and manners in European gyms?

My favorite activity is to loosen the finishing hold on climbs, then to sit on the mat directly below a climber and wait for them to come flying into my lap. I then typically can sue for assault and claim monetary compensation for my tweaked neck and black eye.

I need to afford those x4's somehow!!!

Tony Monbetsu wrote: Anybody have any experience with etiquette and manners in European gyms?

Most European gyms I've been to have a 'Don't stand or sit around on the mats' policy. I've never had any problems explaining someone why they shouldn't be standing where they are standing at the moment. Kids parties can be problematic but many gyms only do them early in the afternoon to avoid serious trouble.
Mostly you will find a friendly and encouraging atmosphere in the gyms. Climbing gyms tend to be exclusive to climbing only in Europe, so no fitness or weight rooms, that might help also.
But to answer to the OP. No, it's never your fault if you land on someone falling from the wall. Checking your landingzone before starting off should definitely be enough.

• *off-topic warning*

Tony Monbetsu wrote:I climb in a remote part of Japan, and while there are a lot of downsides- more expensive holds, smaller gyms, less frequent setting

One thing I miss in Europe is setting problems with tape. The bouldering gyms I go to all set their problems 'competition style' with coloured holds. It's very clear but also almost impossible to make up your own problems at the wall. And no 'feet free' problems either. My route reading skills dramatically improved while bouldering in Tokyo.

Halbert wrote: Most European gyms I've been to have a 'Don't stand or sit around on the mats' policy.

I think this makes perfect sense! Why don't gyms in the U.S. have this policy?

Most do. No one enforces it though. They are more worried about bare feet on the walls or loud cursing.

skelldify wrote: I think this makes perfect sense! Why don't gyms in the U.S. have this policy?

Because it'll turn into a customer experience nightmare throwing somebody out for sitting. Posts on mountainproject, ranting on yelp, possible law suits. All because somebody is dumb enough to think that a climber has more control over when, where, and how a fall occurs than a sitter has over where they sit.

Kind off topic but I watched a girl climb off route by at least 10 ft on the auto belay system. Once she realized she was in trouble she let go grabbing both strains of the top rope hanging near by and never let go as she rode it down. Needless to say she had a pretty bad case of rope burn and a bruised backside. Sad thing is folks like this pass the gyms "belay test" and head straight outdoors

In addition to the general ignorance and unawareness of climbing gym patrons and failure of staff to enforce best practices, I think this is largely due to an inherent design flaw of most modern bouldering spaces. They always seem to be set up in a way that maximizes climbing wall surface area without allocating adequate space for larger groups to rest and observe climbers.

While many bouldering areas provide ample wall space for climbing, and enough room for safe falling, they often lack enough space for people to sit and rest and watch as they wait their turn. On a crowded Wednesday night, this usually results in people hanging around in fall zones without even realizing it. Not trying to justify their being in that space, just pointing out that herding people to safe resting/watching areas is a design issue as much as it is an awareness issue.

Take the DBC in Denver for example: I've personally never run into this problem there. I think it's mostly because they have plenty of space and seating back and away from each of their walls. It's therefore natural and intuitive after a climb to retreat to that area and observe until you're ready for your next burn. Also, the fact that DBC resting spaces do not have a climbing wall directly behind them makes them much safer and requires less spatial awareness from the resting climbers (they don't have to worry about someone flailing on a wall directly behind them).

Most other gyms seem to have (whether on purpose or on accident) set those rest areas up in between two or more walls where your options are to either sit or stand on the mat somewhere in the middle of a cave or canyon, or essentially leave the bouldering area altogether while you rest (which is neither intuitive or practical). When busy, large groups form and crowd in on the fall zones. This easily makes for people falling right behind or on top of others unless everyone is paying close attention..

I'll go ahead and just continue my rant with another boulder gym annoyance: boulder islands and people/kids carelessly walking/running around them. Once, I was giving one last go of the night on a hard (for me) project when out of nowhere a guy just walks around the corner in a hurry and almost knocks into me causing me to lose my footing and peel off.

"sorry, bro".

When you walk around islands, walk *away* from them. No need to hug that corner, bro.

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TLDR; if gyms put more focus on designing intuitive, comfortable, and safe rest/observation areas for people who are engaged in a climbing session, but not actively climbing at the moment, this type of thing would happen a lot less.

That was one thing I hated about earth treks in golden. The bouldering area is huge so if I was working on something back on the vert wall and wanted to take a break it meant walking all the way back to the tables. They have enough room to lounge around on the pads but why not make a area designated for sitting down that's more central location.

I was there all day and before it got crowded there was no issue. Then around six people started pouring it and everyone was standing at the base of the problems looking around and in each other's way.

My gym is actually pretty good about policing the bouldering area. It's satisfying when annoying kids (don't get me wrong, some of the kids are cool and know the rules) and adults for that matter get told to be careful. I'm sick of having to do it myself.

Today bouldering there was several groups of 3 just chillin on the mat under some problems far above my onsight level I wanted to attempt. There were also a bunch of kids playing gameboy hanging around under problems all around the gym. One was rolling around as he played and stuff, right under a problem I have attempted a few other times and almost finished. I didn't attempt. What's with that?

Christian wrote:Seen a guy lead climbing in the gym with the prototypical too-cool-to-pay-attention belayer fall near the 3rd clip and crater directly onto the back of the neck of a girl who was obliviously standing underneath. She went unconscious and dropped like a sack of potatoes and woke up a few seconds later on the ground. Then they decided they should move her to a more comfortable spot, had to intervene and say "Don't even think of moving her until the paramedics come." Off to the hospital for x-rays after that, think she was fine in the end but what a shitshow...

I did that on my gym's lead test. Ended up on her shoulders like she was giving me a piggy back ride. Neither of us were hurt, just laughed :)

It was only a jug ladder with a minor over hang. I was embarrassed. I failed the test :P ...now I need to work up the confidence to try again.