Handle bars from hand rails

Whatever your budget for holds, you will always want more. So, how can you get some standard work horse holds on the cheap? Mass production with wood. Of course, available materials make certain holds easier to make with wood than others, and because of the expense of ‘real holds’ made from plastic, the holds we most want to make for cheap are the ones that are least interesting and most expensive: Jugs.

Basically, you will need to make two types of jugs: handle bar rings and directional jugs. We made three slightly different handle bar rings.

(1) partial hand rings (2) full hand rings (3 matching handlebars

The design for all three handle bar styles is basically the same: a chunk of handrail between 6 and 14 inches in length, a spacer at each end, and counter sunk holes for lag screws or standard bolts at both ends.

Lowes has round (pine) and oval (poplar) handrail. Both seem plenty strong enough for the task. It comes in multiple lengths; I have tended to use 10ft lengths, the most that will fit in our van. Avoid knots and warped sections.

(1) For the partial hand rings I used a single layer of 3/4 inch plywood cut into small rectangles. This means that adults can not get their full hands around the rings, while kids can. (round pine)

(2) The full hand rings have double layers of plywood and are plenty roomy to get a super juggy grip. (round pine)

(3) Monster matching handlebars use sections of 2X3s as spacers and the oval poplar hand rails.

Mass production Steps:

1. Clamp the handrail, mark lengths with a pencil.
2. Near each section end drill the counter sink holes (~one inch flat bit).
3. Use circular saw or hand saw to cut lengths along pencil marks.
4. Cut spacers from plywood, molding or 2X3s.
5. Sand corners of handrail and spacers with a disc sander (clamp drill in table).
6. Glue spacers to handrail ends with wood glue, clamp with weights for a couple hours (ideally leave them overnight).
7. Drill holes for lag screws or bolts slightly larger than the hardware.
8. Fit washers and bolt to t-nuts, or drive lag screws through the wall surface and into the framing.

SAFETY NOTE: make sure that both ends are either in a t-nut or lag screwed fully into the 2X6 framing. This limits the location options, but this is not such a problem since these holds are mainly just random jugs for warm ups and beginner problems.

More Mojo in your Dojo

How can you get the most out of your home bouldering wall while keeping plenty of extra cash for other key climbing supplies, like chalk and beer?

Mass production of standard holds. Over the next several posts I am going to write up some strategies I have used to get more climbing potential out of our home bouldering wall. Later I might write up some posts about wall design and construction. For now, let’s focus on holds, and three principles to guide us:

1. The more the merrier. Ideally, every available space for a hold will be filled. You want to take full advantage of the space you have constructed.

2. Diversity is good. You want to have a wide array of hold types and sizes to maintain interest and stretch your imagination.

3. Consistent distribution. You want a variety of hold types in all parts of your space, so that hard, medium, and easy problems can cross all areas of the wall.

When do you have enough holds? When you can no longer fit any more holds on your wall. Our dojo is not there yet. Check out this shot.

The prime climbing area on the 30 degree wall is mostly filled with holds. We can squeeze a couple more around the edges, and we need some small footholds added throughout, but besides that, the area is pretty well filled. Notice the hold diversity. We have made an effort to spread small, medium and large holds; downward pulling edges, sidepulls, underclings and pinches; as well as vary how positive the holds are, though we have few true slopers because they take a lot of space and are hard to make at home. The distribution of types is pretty consistent, though at the edges we have placed more of the ‘likely to be used in that spot holds’.

In contrast, check out the relatively sparse distribution in the “kids” area, with the near vert walls and roof. Density could easily be doubled here. Also note that while the slabs hold some variation, the roof defaults to jugs, especially handle bars. The simple reason for this is access, we make the whole wall accessible to the widest range of abilities that we can. Clearly, we have room for improvement. We need more medium and small holds, more directionals, complex shapes, and footholds in this area.

Gym climbers may debate which hold manufacturer is best: SoIll, Etch, Pusher, Metolious, Straight Up (from long ago). But for the home climber, these companies are nice, but none of them can compare to Lowes or Home Depot when it comes to price.

The Dojo

The Dojo in Spring 2014

Since these photos were taken I have added two sets of Kilter holds, moved several of the holds from 50 degree wall and on to spaces where they are more available for traversing.  I also added some footholds to make better rest stances at both ends of the room and on the pillar in the middle.
Finally, I build the campus board downstairs.

The Dojo in Winter 2010.

Wet and cold have kept us indoors. Thankfully, I have had time to make improvements to our bouldering dojo, including new carpet and some new holds, including the newly minted PVC roof route.

Here is a detail on one of the little holds we added recently. Pumpy. Standard 3.5 inch PVC with 180 grit glue on sanding discs. This section is about 5 feet long, with intermittent patches of texture.

Here is a section demonstrating current hold density in one section.

Winter Bouldering

The conditions are not ideal. We got in a couple of good days in early December, but since then the Athens area has been too cold and snowy for fun bouldering. We have gone exploring in and around Stroud's run, but have only found a few mediocre formations. We had plenty of fun hiking though.

Sunken Boulder

The sunken boulder is located just off the Rockhouse trail, headed east, towards the Blue Ash Rockhouse. After passing some minor boulders on the southern end of Crumley ridge, the path turns left, heads north, and overlooks the Athens Mall to the east. The sunken boulder is the obvious boulder in the little clearing just after the clear view of the Mall. The boulder includes three distinct and high quality lines. Although the stone is a bit sandy, it is not problematic. The boulder faces East, so it gets morning sun and will be shaded after about 11:00 in the morning.

1. The rightmost pic shows the moderate face with the giant chicken head. It is a fun but brief moderate.
2. Next is a sit down problem on the body tension packed arete. Technical footwork.
3. The center of the face is powerful and includes a nice deadpoint. The face is fun with a standing start, and seems possible to start a move or two lower also. A low start would really increase the difficulty.

The holds over the lip are leaf magnets, so bring a broom and clean off the summit before your send attempt. There is some chalk on a giant jug to the left of the face route, which could be the start of a brief mantle exercise, but does not rank as an obvious line like the other three problems. If the stone were bullet hard the left jug would be the start of a brilliant traverse.

A couple different attempts on the deadpoint move from the face route.

Overview map: COAD to Sunken Boulder

This map shows the approximate location of notable bouldering areas between the southern terminus of Copperhead Ridge on the west, and Crumley Ridge to the east. Most of this area falls inside the Cucumber Tree drainage, and is accessed by parking at the Cucumber Tree Connector Trailhead.

How to get to the parking:  take East State Street to the east from 33.   Turn left on the road that has a traffic light and leads to Walmart on the right.   The OU credit union is on the left side of East state street, but will be on your right once you turn onto that road and head north.   You will pass some trailers, a house on the right and come to a small (8 car) parking area next to a small barn.  The trail leads up the drainage from there. After 10 min it comes to an intersection with a footbridge on the left.   Cross the footbridge to the left and then stay left on the main trail for about 10 min.   You will pass the emerald in the woods to the left and then turn the corner to the COAD boulders.  The dark green line on the map marks the trail.

(1) The COAD boulders are on the western side of the south end of Copperhead ridge.
(2) The emerald is a bit downhill from the eastern flank of Copperhead ridge.
(3) The lions head wall is at the top of the basin, and is best accessed above, just off of the Athens trail near the juncture with the Basswood Connector.  This wall has a vo warm up, high ball that you might not want to top out.  To the right are a couple of pocket starts, then a crimpy V10 well to to the right.
(4) The sun cave is a shallow rock house is east of the lion's head, and is clearly visible from there and from the major U bend in the Rockhouse trail.  These problems are marginal in quality except for a couple of easy slabs on the right.  The problem in the linked post is a fun slab on the righthand edge of the rockhouse.
(4.5)  Upper tier?  at about the location of the B in Boulder Cove on the map above is a tall, very easy and well featured boulder problem.  There are a few more moderate problems nearby.
(5) The commitment area is uphill from another major bend in the Rockhouse trail, marked by a low wooden bridge.
(6) Big momma and several other features mark the left side of the Rockhouse trail.
(7) The boxcar boulders are downhill from Big Momma.
(8) A crimpy corner problem marks the next major turn in the trail, with several small problems nearby.
(9) The mini- twinkie is high on the ridge after a fair bit of hiking.
(10) Pass a break-down and several small features around the southern end of Crumley Ridge for the sunken boulder, overlooking the Athens Mall to the east.

Long Autumn

Fall has lasted a nice long time in Athens. The walking sticks are enjoying the extra hunting period on the western slopes, under the fallen leaves.