Some help please

[climber511]

Just some background. I run the climbing wall at our Village Rec Center. It’s in a town of 2300 people, sits in the Village Rec Center, costs $2 for adults and $1 for students. Open Thursdays only as the facility is multi use. My friends and I built it with grant money, and my wife and I have run it totally non paid since its inception. We’ve been in operation since 1998. We cater mostly to local people who do not climb extremely hard – say 5.11 and below. I set the routes as best I can and do all the maintenance etc. I’ve climbed for 33 years now – mostly outside. You can see some pictures here of what we have – I’m kind of proud of what we have considering the size of the town we’re in and what we charge.
www.facebook.com/Crooksville-Recreation-Center-116699951687401/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

I actually do have a question and can use some help.
I’m in the process of building a wall for a friend – 20’ long and 19’ high with climbing on both sides – multiple angles and features etc. He (and I) are older (being kind here) and climb more trad than sport (maybe 70 - 30%). Therefore he wants more vertical to mildly overhanging than super steep stuff (ARC training is a big reason he’s making this) but there will be a steeper and  roof section built too. We (he) will be buying quite a few holds and here’s where I could use some help. Hold set recommendations with the goal to duplicate outdoor climbing much more so than the more typical young stud gymnastic movement style so popular now. I haven’t bought holds for years and am unfamiliar with many of the companies selling holds now days. If some of you are willing I could use some help buying holds – which company’s offerings do you like for texture, realistic to real rock shapes, etc holds. Be as specific as you are willing to be please – we don’t need alien heads etc.

[willblack]

In terms of buying holds, I would recommend first thinking about your goals. Namely, are you looking for holds that will simulate climbing outside, or holds that will better facilitate getting better at climbing outside? Just because your project is a slightly overhung route with lots of razor holds doesn't mean that you should seek out holds that are non-ergonomic because that happens to be a characteristic of a route you want to climb. Comfort and ability to use the holds repeatedly is much more important than whether the hold resembles your goal route. I would recommend lots of open hand edges and crimps. One downfall of indoor climbing is that many crimp sets are extremely "pinchable" so I would recommend either consciously avoiding this natural tendency or buying some dual tex edges (DRCC is the best). In terms of other edge sets, the eGrips comfy crimps are the best set of crimps ever made, and anyone who disagrees can fight me. A lot of the crimps Atomik makes are decent and very reasonably priced, and the "meats" (meatlets, minimeats, etc) from Teknik are great edges. Pretty much any set from Kilter is worth (and unfortunately priced) its weight in gold and many of those sets have little subtleties characteristic to outdoor climbing but are still very comfortable to climb on. I would specifically look at the sandstone and winter lines and choose based on the positivity you need for your specific wall angle. If I were to design a training wall, I would exclusively use Pockets, Edges, and the occasional jugs and pinches. Atomik makes several good jug sets that will be reasonably priced such as their sandstone line and the dot jugs. It's hard to find a good set of pockets for training, but I really like the eGrips Fossil Pockets for basic med-sm pockets with subtleties similar to those found outside. The Rock Candy guppies are good for med-lg 2/3 finger pockets. Footholds are also something to consider. Atomik has lots of good sets (all difficulties, all angles) for cheap, Teknik's spike feet are great for steep angles, and their no shadow feet are super challenging on a vertical wall. 

I would also recommend keeping your wall design simple. Choose a few angles that are important to you and do those few angles really well. Trying to build too many corners and angle changes will result in the inablity to set varied movement. In contrast, a simple wall with the opportunity to add and move volumes gives you much more versatility. I tend to dislike roof features for training, as I find that anything steeper than 60 degrees is not specific to the climbing that most of us do most of the time. If you want a "steep wall" I'd recommend more like 30-50. Also use lots of T-nuts and make sure you can access the back of the wall to replace those when someone strips one.

[MarkAnderson]

This blog post has some of my recommendations for realistic hold sets.  It may be a bit dated now, but I think most of these sets are still available.

[Chris W]

Three Ball Climbing has a set of granite grips (called Yosemite, I think) that is pretty fantastic. They're my favorite holds on my wall. Their Loki and Thor holds are good as well. My favorite foot holds are e-grips sandstone chips and sandstone rails, which are pretty tiny and pretty thin. I'll use them as hands on my vertical wall as well, but they really are tiny.

I also have two sets of e-grips comfy crimps, which are also great.

[tedwelser]

Hey! 

You are welcome to stop by the Dojo and Beta Fish some time and take a look at the holds that we have.  The dojo has lots of ARC terrain, and later this fall, so will Beta Fish.  My path was to make 1/3 of my holds myself, buy another 1/3 on sales or other cheap deals, and buy the best holds I could find for the other 1/3.  Of those, the best I have are several sets from Kilter, a couple from Urban Plastix, and assorted grips from other companies.  In particular, I have a lot of workhorse holds from Atomik's system wall collection.   

I have a lot of the hold sets on Mark's blog post, and I especially like the sandstone foothold chips from e-grips (I wish I had several sets of them).  Some of the other holds are a bit tweeky on steeper walls, but they really shine as cruxy holds on near vert walls.   But as far as handholds go, I would say that many of the best current designs in holds were made by Ian Powell, and Kilter is the place he is designing now (lots of e-Grips best shapes are Ian designs from 15 years ago).  He has some cool artistic ideas, but mainly, he really understands how the holds will feel when you pull on them.   

Anyways, Kilter has a fun website to look at holds on.  With 360 viewing (if your internet is fast).

[climber511]

Sept 2, 2016 19:13:47 GMT -7 tedwelser said:

Hey! 

You are welcome to stop by the Dojo and Beta Fish some time and take a look at the holds that we have.  The dojo has lots of ARC terrain, and later this fall, so will Beta Fish.  My path was to make 1/3 of my holds myself, buy another 1/3 on sales or other cheap deals, and buy the best holds I could find for the other 1/3.  Of those, the best I have are several sets from Kilter, a couple from Urban Plastix, and assorted grips from other companies.  In particular, I have a lot of workhorse holds from Atomik's system wall collection.   

I have a lot of the hold sets on Mark's blog post, and I especially like the sandstone foothold chips from e-grips (I wish I had several sets of them).  Some of the other holds are a bit tweeky on steeper walls, but they really shine as cruxy holds on near vert walls.   But as far as handholds go, I would say that many of the best current designs in holds were made by Ian Powell, and Kilter is the place he is designing now (lots of e-Grips best shapes are Ian designs from 15 years ago).  He has some cool artistic ideas, but mainly, he really understands how the holds will feel when you pull on them.   

Anyways, Kilter has a fun website to look at holds on.  With 360 viewing (if your internet is fast).

Ted I've been meaning to visit you all down in Athens for a while now - just been stupid busy this summer.  I get your posts on FB and I'm going to try and visit soon.  Thanks everyone - lot's of the info I needed here!!