Garage Rock Wall Design

My wife and I recently went to a local rock climbing gym for the first time and really enjoyed it. We are both complete noobs and have no clue what were doing. I was wanting to build a rock wall in my garage so I could train / improve skill and hopefully create something that me, my wife and our 8yr son could all do together. I've posted some pics of what I'm thinking of building. My father in law is a retired contractor so the building part will not be a problem.

I really wanted to get some feedback on the design and see if it could be improved. My goals are to get stronger and improve my technique over time. However, I need to enjoy it at first and have my wife and 8yr son be able to climb as well.

Thanks in advance.

Note.. The 25 degree wall is 10 ft wide, the 10 degree wall is 6ft wide, the 45 degree is 4ft wide. The cylinder object in the photos on right side is the hot water heater.

Hi Will, welcome to the sport. As a new climber, I'll tell you it gets addictive.

Homebrew walls are generally referred to as "woodies". Look down a few topics from yours and you'll find a huge topic full of them, which should give you plenty of ideas.

Tony Monbetsu wrote:Hi Will, welcome to the sport. As a new climber, I'll tell you it gets addictive. Homebrew walls are generally referred to as "woodies". Look down a few topics from yours and you'll find a huge topic full of them, which should give you plenty of ideas.

Hey Tony... Yea I've read through all 17-18 pages of that thread and various others. That thread you mentioned is very informative and has a lot of good ideas.

I'm limited by my garage shape and space so I have designed my woodie based on that and the ideas from various threads.

I'm trying to get a feel from people that have climbed on these smaller walls if this design will be a good one and if it can be improved. For instance, I'm curious if the 45 degree wall will be able to be used based on its dimensions and if the other walls seem to fit well, etc..

Ah, I see. In that case, I can't help too much, as I'm in the process of planning my own first wall!

Personally, on this wall, I'd remove the protruding 45 degree segment and simply make that whole side of the wall- everything that isn't the 10- something like 30 or 35 degrees. If you want a 45 degree segment I'd build a bigger one- that protruding segment is essentially just a big volume, and it would probably be easier to make it one flat segment and add in volumes as needed.

I'd also think about adding a short roof.

Best of luck!

Make a 45, 30, and a 15. Remember it will be mostly for training sometimes you will set a good route or two. Try to make them as large as you can my 45 is 8 foot by about 10 foot. 30 degree is 4 foot by about 8 1/2 foot and the 15 is 6 foot by 6 foot. I'll put up some pics later.

If you have 16 feet of width, my suggestion would be two 8-foot sections. No plywood cuts, and easier to set fun movement. In terms of angles, I think 10 degrees is not steep enough. I have a 15 degree wall that I barely climb on and a vertical wall that only my kids climb on. The 35 degree and 45 degree are just more fun.

I disagree with one of the previous posters. I have a lot of fun routes on my walls. It's not just training. Nothing has improved my climbing more than building my wall. Just realize that you will always want to expand your wall, even when it fills the entire garage like mine. Enjoy.

Climbing walls are rad, and I enjoy having one, but if you have a gym nearby then you will save a lot of money and climb a lot more if you utilize the gym over building one yourself.

If you insist on building one yourself then you should make a 20 degree section and a 35 degree section, leave a foot or so at the base of the 35 degree section for a footer.

Have you looked at climbing hold prices? Expect to pay around $7 per hold (for CHEAP HOLDS), and put 2-4 holds per square foot. I have a small 45 degree wall with fewer holds than I would like and it cost me around $900. Your wall looks to be around 3 times bigger. . .

Thanks everybody for the suggestions and input.

I have a few constraints that I should have originally mentioned. This wall can't completely over power the garage so it can't take up the entire floor. Also, I use the garage for a lot of different things for the house and are vehicles so I have a bunch of tools, air compressor, workbench, etc that I'm going to still need to be able to use. If you look at the pictures you will see there is a door that goes inside the house. We do not want the first wall to go beyond that short wall on the left side because it begins to stick out at you as your walking out the door. So this limits me to the max 25 degrees on the first wall. Then if you look on the right you see I have the hot water heater and I also have some shelves on the next wall so I can't have a 45 degree wall on the right side because I wont be able to use the shelves and it will make servicing the water heater a real pain.

The first pic is a possibilty because the 45 is in the middle, but its only 4ft wide so I'm not sure if thats enough.

Also, keep in mind that I want my wife and 8yr old son to be able to climb on this wall as well, and I really think they would both struggle on anything greater then 15 degree at first. So I may have to build the wall as I have done in the last pic with 25 and 15 degree walls and add volumes to increase the difficulty. Also, I could definitely add a roof to the entire 16 ft as was mentioned above, but I'm not sure if its ackward to go from 25 to roof..

Another point I want to make and I've posted a vid below to possibly show you. I would think you could make even a 25 degree wall very difficult by just setting the route harder with smaller holds.. am I wrong about this? That video I've posted below of Adam Ondra struggling to complete the route seems to be a fairly small angle, but maybe its the way they took the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeR47AQ05Jo

Skitch - I'm maxed out bc I'm new so I can't post any more for few days so I will have to edit this post. You bring up a good point... the holds are ridiculously expensive. Yes, I've researched a lot of different hold companies, prices and reviews and I know I'm gonna end up putting some money in this. But again I'm trying to get my wife and son involved in this sport and the climbing gym doesnt have family rates and its $42 per person per month. So for me I would rather invest that into something I could climb everday if I like. I know I wont make it over to the gym everyday after work with lifes busy schedule.

Update: What do you think about the wall I've posted below. The main wall is 25 degree and the huge volume is 45 degree. This gets the 45 degree up off the ground high enough that I can still use the other wall for storage. What do you think about this wall in terms of route setting and fun factor?

You should check out this thread: mountainproject.com/v/what-…

Hi Will,

I think the point David is making about the steepness is more a matter of fun rather than difficulty. You're right about making a less angled wall difficult, but basically the only way to increase the challenge is to go to smaller and smaller holds. Straight up crimping on a small wall gets old pretty fast which is why a lot of folks will say that the more vertical walls don't get used as much, myself included. A steeper angle will give you more options to be creative with.

Also, as a beginner if you go to smaller holds before your finger tendons develop more strength (this happens slowly), you'll injure yourself.

Another thing to consider is that this wall won't be terribly tall, so you'll primarily be traversing. Try and think of how that will play out in terms of route setting and actual movement.

I'd try and maximize the 45 degree section as wide as possible with lesser angles on one or both ends. Then you can set routes that climb back and forth through the steep section creating a nice challenge.

Finally, if this doesn't end up playing out as a route wall and ends up more for training, the 45 section is where you'll most likely do more of your workouts.

Good luck with your project.
Jason

Will, I like that last plan the best. I do understand your concerns about making sure beginners can use it as well- I'm planning a personal garage gave, but I'd like for the neighborhood kids to be able to give it a shot as well. Put some big jugs on there and they'll be fine.

I like versions 10 & 11 best. 15° is about the minimum steepness I would ever recommend, even for kids. At 15° it will feel about like vertical and it will be better for dropping down. 25° to 35° is a good sweet spot. I love my 45° section as well.

If you go with option 11, you may want to change it ever so slightly so that both the vertical and horizontal dimensions are an even 8'. Just to save a cut. It will only bring the bottom of it down 3-4".

Love to see what you go with and some progress photos. Have fun!!

Are you building against the back or a side wall of your garage? If it's a side wall, measure for the garage door tracks to make sure the top of the 45 is not too close to them.

Manfre wrote:Are you building against the back or a side wall of your garage? If it's a side wall, measure for the garage door tracks to make sure the top of the 45 is not too close to them.

Thats the backside of the garage. I've made the sketchup model to spec so I've already taken into account the garage door tracks, but I could see how if this was a side wall the tracks would be an issue.

Thanks

Any progress on your wall, Will? I'm in the process of building one as well so I'm interested.Keep us updated!

Tony Monbetsu wrote:Any progress on your wall, Will? I'm in the process of building one as well so I'm interested.Keep us updated!

I'm having to move and modify some shelves to another wall in order for the rock wall to fit, so no I haven't began the actual construction yet. I went and priced everything out... 2x6x12 from the lumber yard are like $7.84 which seems high to me but oh well.

I keep switching between my last posted design vs making the entire wall 25 degrees and adding volumes as needed to increase difficulty.
This would really simplfy the design. I need to mock it up with string this week, make a decision on the design and start building.

I'll post up some photos of before, during and after.