Climbing Hold Review Thread

I recently built a home wall and one of the hardest parts was selecting precisely the type and difficulty of holds I was looking for. Online pictures are not always at an angle that really do the holds justice as you can't actually tell how they will fit to a wall. I figured this would be a good place to start a thread with hold info so that people going through the same process can get some better beta.

Note: My wall is 40 degrees, 8x10 with a 1 ft kicker, and I climb around V8/9 and 13- on rock.

Atomik overall: Fast turnaround (3 days if you select 3 day shipping),  massive amount of variety, some holds are very rough, lots of good value sets, some sets are not completely usable at all wall angles.

Atomik 10 Oval Crimps Set #3: I returned these as I did not find them super useful on my angle of wall. Unless you are a double digit climber with impressive crimp strength the majority of these are not that useful on steep walls. The texture of most Atomik holds starts fairly rough and the radius is quite sharp. The center of the holds range from 1/4 to 1/2 pad, but the horizontal radius means your index and pinky are crimping on maybe 6mm on quite a few of the holds. I would really enjoy these at 20-30 degrees or perhaps some of the bigger ones, but overall 5 out of 10 holds wouldn't be something I would consider using and you don't really know what the balance of sizes will be before shipping.

Atomik 10 Small Simple Crimps Set #1: I have a very mixed opinion about these. I love about 6 of the holds. They are sharp, but don't seem to rip your pads. Great for skin farming and crimp strength.  Unfortunately there are a few that I find unusable at my wall angle especially the 2 smaller 2-3pad holds.  These would be great at a shallower angle for open hand movement. I would still buy them again and just hold those in reserve.

Atomik 10 Straight Crimps: These are solid all arounders that range from 1/3-1/2 pad. The more incut holds don't let you get as much of your fingers behind them while the flat ones are just big, solid edges. They are super versatile and you can set the larger ones as sidepulls or for really far moves while the incut holds are pretty solid for a wide range of difficulty. The entire set is usable on steeper wall angles and they would be good at shallower angles as endurance holds or for lower grade climbers.

Atomik 40 Classic Feet (Screw On): These are a huge value IMO. There is a range of shapes and textures that are great for a steep wall depending on how you set them. As a bonus many of the feet can be rotated to be better or worse and the price point is solid. It is a good intro to many different styles of feet and some of the larger feet that appear to have a big radius are much harder than I expected. If you get this pack and perhaps 1 other bolt on pack you could be completely set.

Atomik XL Wide Font Pinches #4: These are listed as "V8" on 45 degree walls, which is kinda weird. V8 for what kind of moves? Anyways, these are for sure more incut than I expected and it becomes key to nail the angle on them. If the are straight vertical then they become quite difficult.  Also, 1 side is more incut than the other so you can just flip them 180 to make them better/worse. Like most Atomik stuff the texture is quite rough, but they seem like they would be very versatile on walls 40+ and you could set them higher than V8 if you're smart.

Atomik 5 Large Simple Slopers: So far I am a bit disappointed in these. The description says: "Our Simple design slopers force the hand positions away from all the "cheats" you get with other styles. No thumb catching or little intricate designs to help you stay on. It's either you can hang on the hold or you can't." but there is a decent groove in all of them which make them incredibly easy to hold even if you cut feet to them. I can actually catch with 1 hand, cut feet, campus the other hand to match fairly easily and I am not the best at slopers. I don't really find them difficult enough so far and might need to rotate them to be worse.

Atomik 12 Round Mini Jugs: These are pretty cool. They have a steep radius so they're more incut for the middle team and less so for the index and pinky. I really like setting them as underclings, gastons, or finishing holds.  Also nice as sidepulls or start holds. At shallower angles they would be great for longer climbs or. beginners. They also kinda suck as feet when set as an undercling. The texture seems a bit smoother than my other Atomik holds.

Escape overall: Good prices, smoother texture, entire sets are usable at all wall angles, holds seem larger than average for the labeled size, fast shipping, great texture/quality, tons of variety.

Escape Dual Texture Jugs: They're jugs, comfy radius, just what you'd expect. Harder than expected when set as a downward angled gaston.

Escape Legacy Incut Pinches 1: 3 of the 5 are incut, 2 are not. I am finding those 2 very hard to set at 40 as a pinch, but more usable at an angle or as a start hold. Given this, I can't say that this set is a good value. The 3 that are slightly incut are very versatile and quite difficult.

Escape Dual Texture Dot Crimps: 4 out of 6 are flat edges, 2 have a slight slope to them. I have set the sloping edges as sidepulls with a thumb catch/pinches but they are still very gnarly. Overall they are what they are, but I probably wouldn't buy again. The texture is great, it's just that the edge size is rather large and with the thumb catch they are much better than what I would want for my wall angle/difficulty.

Escape Simple Feet: Overall a good value. I found them to be mostly larger/better than expected. I sanded a few down to be worse, but most of them can be rotated to be different widths. Texture is good and and combined with the Atomik screw-ons above one could have a pretty solid starter setup.

Escape Dual Texture Feet: Probably more useful in a gym setting or on vertical walls. I would say that half of them were just way larger or more positive than I would want and I returned them. They would be much harder if one set the smooth side up on a few of them or set the textured side at a wonky angle.

Escape Simple Crimps: I found them to be way larger than the description and redundant for my wall angle. In retrospect I would have kept these and returned the dot crimps, but for some reason did not. Just a bit big. Nice texture and not a bad hold set, but I like the Atomik crimps better at this size.

Escape Legacy Small Edges: 3 out of 5 are awesome. They fit 2-3 pads comfortably and the other ones barely fit or cannot fit. I would say that they were smaller and worse than expected and could be fairly versatile depending on the angle you set them at. The other 2 are a bit too slopey for me to use so far.

Escape Legacy Micro Jugs: Good set of holds albeit a little pricey for what they are. A juggier version of the small edges, which makes them super useful for steep board climbing and precise, dynamic movement. I think these 2 sets work incredibly well as a pair. Ergonomic, but still can be set to be quite difficult.

Tension overall: Expensive, good finish, consistent quality, some are skin friendly while others roll my skin quite badly, great in all temps, edge sizes are harder than they seem (cuz of lack of texture), the blemish holds are usually still awesome/require little modification.

Tension Round Edge (Medium): These are super versatile and worse than you would expect. You can set them in almost any orientation and they are probably the least tweaky feeling hold I have board climbed on. The rounded edge is good on the skin and they are a great finger strength builder.  Cannot recommend them enough. I have duplicated them out of red oak as well.

Tension Round Edge (Small): These are stupid hard for me at my current level and wall setup. If you have a lot of space and climb V8 and above on a board then they're a good choice, but in retrospect I would get more of the mediums and put them at different angles.

Tension 5" Ball (Moderate Incut): Not as tough as a sloper at 40 as I expected. Very expensive for what they are. In retrospect they're more of a pinch so I would have gotten the large pinches instead, but I already had them and Tension is closed right now so I kept em. I might eventually cut them into a rounded pinch.

Tension Large Crimp Moderate and Shallow: The shallow are basically small jugs and probably the only edge of this type I would buy again for my own wall. I just don't necessarily need anything bigger, however, the moderates are pretty good set at an angle, as a sidepull, as an undercling, or as a start hold. I got both as blemish holds and they had very minor flaws that I didn't even bother fixing.

Tension Shallow Pinch (Wide): Pretty hard depending on how you set them. Wouldn't buy again as they are the easiest to make myself.

Tension Small Crimps (Concave): These are the ones that can roll my skin sometimes. The edge radius is weird in that it's not very sharp, but has some bite to it. Overall they are a fairly difficult and polarizing hold among my friends for this reason. I don't use them on that many problems, but when I want a hard, sharp crimp similar in profile to many Granite crimps these are my go-to.

Tension Flat Edge (Small) They're small for the Tension line, but not small in total size.  At 40 degrees they are much more challenging than I expected due to the texture and radius. I don't set them as much as I thought and I would likely not buy them again.

Tension Finger Bucket (Medium): Another polarizing hold. If I meet someone that doesn't like the Tension Board they always point to the finger buckets as being painful skin rollers. I personally don't have this issue with the mediums and like setting these as sidepulls, gastons, start holds, and on compression problems. I personally end up sanding down the outer parts of the bucket to be round instead of pointed. This point sometimes can be used as a really good thumb catch

Paging Marie Kondo

Gumby King wrote: Paging Marie Kondo

The only two types of review we need: 

Joking aside most of the Tension holds spark joy for me, they’re easy on the skin, but they’ve shut down production until further notice, so I went with a Moonboard instead...only about 5% of those holds bring me joy. 

I really like the Escape holds I've gotten, the Factory Seconds they have on their site are the best holds I have found for my home wall. 

I've got a woody as well, and I got Metolius and RockCandy holds for it.

Metolius - Bulk Modular Pack, Modular Sets, Screw-on Footholds - Has some interesting shapes and the holds are cheap, but very low quality. Out of ~30 handholds, I've had 1 hold warp so hard it spins, 1 hold came gummy/sticky, and 2 holds have snapped completely. The screw-on footholds seem to be better, and are pretty realistic for the small granite footholds in the Sierra Nevadas or training footwork.

Metolius Campus Rungs - Average campus rungs. Work well.

Rock Candy - ~60 holds + ~20 footholds - These are cheaper than Atomik (when I was buying them at least), at the expense of turn-around time (1-3 weeks). So far my favorite, they have a large variety of holds that let you train specific stuff or recreate boulder problems or crux sections. No issues with build quality so far, and I've had them for a little over a year.

This is a fantastic idea for a thread. Thanks for the reviews. I'll be building a wall soon so hopefully more people chime in.

I can add a review of jugs I got for my 42 degree board for my kids:

Atomic divot jugs - got the large bolt ons and they are such nice holds. Great for V0 climbing, for kids, and as down climb holds. I really love these for their comfort. I put a few into a warm-up for myself and like just campusing on them. Got these as a "deal of the day" for half price, which was just fantastic imo 

Atomic large basic jugs - got the screw ons so I could have more options with placement. Also great for the kids but slightly shallower than the divot jugs, so a little harder for them. These are really nice jugs, but I prefer the texture and divot of the divot line, and would use the divot jugs for down climb holds over these.

A couple hold sets I got earlier this year that I liked. They are on a 40 degree wall.

Urban Plastix ribbon crimps: https://settercloset.com/products/ribbons-m2-half-ribbons-crimps-up089?_pos=1&_sid=81848e8c9&_ss=r&variant=13142215753781

-These crimps have an extremely skin friendly texture. They aren't exactly "training holds" because with the wavy-ness you really want to hit a certain part of the hold. This could be either a benefit or a drawback. The benefit is it has been good practice to  hit a crimp with 3 fingers in exactly the right place. The drawback is I miss and try to pull anyway and they can be a little tweaky feeling. But, I find I use these holds the most of any that I bought.

Kilter sandstone XS 1: https://settercloset.com/products/sandstone-xs-1-steep-feet-k147?_pos=1&_sid=4fd1b6528&_ss=r&variant=14235337916469

-A large and really varied set of crimps, that have been great for my spray wall. No two are really the same, and there's only one that is too bad to use at 40 degrees. Many of these are really small, but also really in cut, so quite fun. Nice texture too. A couple are kind of rounded edges as well. They take up little space too, so they are quite easy to fit between other big holds if you are trying for high hold density.

Teknik meatium edges: https://www.teknikhandholds.com/products/meatiums

-These were recommended somewhere else and have been interesting. Depending on how they are oriented they are either a really thumb catchy edge, or kind of sloper edges. With the really rough teknik texture I haven't really loved them in the summer heat, but they have been really useful to add tension-y or body position dependent type moves, where you can't just crimp harder to do the move. So, I don't love them, but they do add some really nice variety. I am considering sanding down the texture on these the next time I reset the board. Anybody else do this kind of thing to holds?

For factory seconds, I'm under the impression that Habit Climbing is the best place to get them from. Way better prices than most big places including Escape, often in great shape, and generally will give you what you're looking for if you put it in the comments. I've been less-than-thrilled about some of the factory seconds I've gotten from escape but Habit has been super solid every time, with way faster turnaround times, and they're cheaper. Highly, highly recommend.

I recently built a home wall with a 40 degree, 15 degree, vertical walls and a small roof section. It's amazing how pricey plastic is, but it's fun to shop and slowly grow your collection once the wall is up. Your money goes a lot further with smaller incut edges and mini jugs than with large features. The larger slopers and jugs are fun and add nice variety, but its tough to spend $30, $40 or more for one hold when you can get 10 crimps for the same price

Metolius: I got a big variety of grips and overall they aren't my favorite. The texture is a bit slippery and the radius of small edges fairly rounded, making it easy to dry fire off smaller holds in less ideal conditions. Some of the Incut Edges and various jugs are nice. The Solution mini jugs are good for easy warmups or circuits on a 40 degree board. Most of the holds have a more "natural" style, with strange or irregular grips, and honestly I've come to prefer more simple or symmetrical hold designs. The Wood Grips holds are excellent, I'll be adding more woody holds to my woody. Definitly get a pack of the screw on feet for your kicker.

Atomik: As mentioned, good prices with fast shipping times makes these guys a home wall go-to. Also a good selection of t-nuts, wrenches, etc. The medium Basic jugs are great, not too incut, can be made easy or hard on 40 degree. The Medium Edges are also great, I'd recommend a set or two. Ditto for the Simple Pockets, positive and tendon friendly, good for the steep wall. XL Golfus (Vertical) slopers are not my favorite but they do force some interesting split finger pinch grips and hard squeezing on 40. XL Wide Font pinches are WIDE, they can be jugs if your hands are big, but for smaller handed folks these won't even be pinch-able. The Yaniro edges are smooth textured almost like wood and can be painful because of the fingertip "smushing". There are only 2 or 3 of the set that are usable holds on 40 degree, best suited for a less steep board. The XXL Steep Wall Sloper is a great larger hold (more like a jug if oriented horizontally). The screw on feet are a great value and many are positive enough for a steep wall.

Teknik: Some of my favorite holds, for the aggressive texture and simple, finger-friendly shapes. I got the Zip Grip Starter pack which I would highly recommend. Good incut edges and mini jugs. I also have the Bully Jugs, which are nice and comfy, love 'em.

Entre Prises: Just got a few sets. Medium Switchblades, these are not positive and will be almost unusable on a 40 degree, but good for the 15 degree wall. They would be great when placed onto a small volume on a steeper wall. The dual tex and flat shape makes it impossible to pinch unlike many edges. XL Scander pinches, again, extremely challenging on the 40, best suited for a less steep wall. Large Drifters, these are very nice jugs and pinches. Overall the quality from EP seems great, they even threw in a few screw-ons for free.