I had taken a break from the blog for a bit . . . my apologies. I got busy with a family vacation within a Vacation in November. First Zach and I went to Germany for 10 days, then we met up with Sam and Renee AND my parents in Iceland (will chronicle in the blog in the next week or so). Immediately after we got back I started working on THIS project, which unfortunately took all of my free time. I was on a deadline to get it completed before the cold weather set in (didn't want to cut wood outside or be in attic with minus temperatures) and my company Christmas party on Dec 6th. Needles to say I had my work cut out for me. Having never taken on a project like this, I dove right in and got r done and I am proud of the results. I recently contacted Alaska Home Magazine to see if they would be interested in featuring our wall in their magazine . . . and well, they were. Below is my write up for the wall to the editor of the magazine. It captures the story pretty well, so I though in the interest of sharing this story online in a timely manner, I would use it for this blog entry. Here goes . . .
My inspiration
for the wall came while planning a trip to Germany this fall. I was looking for activities in Germany
outside of the usual tourist attractions and came across info on via feratta
routes in Europe. A via ferrata (Italian
for “iron road”) is a protected climbing route found in the Alps and other
locations around the world. Essentially
a steel cable fixed to rocks along exposed climbing routes. Climbers attach themselves to the cable and
are able to experience the joys of “mountaineering” but without the risk of
large falls. This sounded like a really fun thing to do on vacation, but
something we knew nothing about. How can
we train for this type of adventure? The need for more “adventurous” activity,
combine with wanting a fun family activity for the dark and cold Alaska’s
winter, led me to develop the idea of an indoor home rock gym.
To see if this
was something the kids [Zach (9) and Sam (5)] were interested in, we took a
trip to the Alaska Rock Gym the first of October. After just a couple of hours in the gym, I
noticed a rapid improvement in the kids climbing ability’s and comfort level
being on a wall 20 feet off the ground! This
initial experience confirmed that rock climbing would be a fun activity for the
family, give us something to focus on when it is too cold outside and the
television seems to be the only option for entertainment.
Renee and I
met in college at Illinois State University and were very active in the Outdoor
Program on campus. We actually met on a
caving trip to Wyandotte Caves in southern Indiana and can honestly say that we
met in a cave! We both joined the Outdoor
Program as trip coordinators and led trips for college students and community
members looking to get away from the flat prairies and seeming endless corn
fields of Midwestern Illinois. Every
weekend it seemed we were leading trips to various parts of the country. Some of these trips included; spelunking,
hiking, white water kayaking, winter camping and . . . rock climbing. Both of us learned a lot about outdoor
stewardship, taking care of gear, and leading outdoor adventures.
Being so active
with the Outdoor Program, I had aspirations of opening a rock gym in my home
town and leading my own trips from there.
That was short lived as I ended up moving to Alaska and got a job as a news
camera man for Channel 11. The idea of an
indoor rock gym however, has always stayed in the back of my mind, with the
thought that one day I could make it happen, even if it was only a small home
climbing wall. Having owned several
houses over the years with high ceilings the idea of a home rock gym never left. Our current house has 18 foot ceilings in the
entry way and gives a good first impression of the house when you walk through
the front door, but seems like a waste of space otherwise. Again, the idea of a rock wall in that
entryway entered the thought process, but turning an idea into a reality is
always harder than it seems.
Soon after the
trip with the kids to the Rock Gym I brought up the idea of building an indoor
wall to my wife. I thought I could get
her to agree to building a somewhat smaller wall along the back of the garage. Renee agreed that some sort of indoor
activity that would help to burn off the seemingly endless amounts of energy in
the kids would be a good idea. It was
actually her recommendation that the entryway with the highest ceilings of the house
be a good location for the wall. I took
that as a “green light” for the project and started planning our wall!
The blank wall
in the entry way is roughly 8 feet wide and 18 feet high. The floor in the entryway at the base of the
wall is 8 feet by six feet. This
footprint provided enough room to belay climbers and the 18 foot high ceilings
was considerable space for a fairly big wall.
I couldn’t find any home climbing wall kits online that I could afford and
I knew it would probably have to build the wall from scratch. I researched
“climbing walls” on the internet and came up with two good websites for information
on the design of indoor home climbing walls and list of materials. Both www.indoorrockclimbing.com and www.metoliusclimbing.com (how to build a home climbing
wall), were instrumental in the success of the project. I am a DIYer and enjoy various projects
around the home. I have constructed a
ton of projects of various types in the three houses we have owned over the
years. I knew I had the tools and skills
to not only build a safe climbing wall, but build one that would be
aesthetically pleasing to look at and not look
like a “home built” wall. The wall after
all would be in the entryway to our hillside home and needed to reflect the
quality of the rest of the house. After gathering
a general list of materials, I spoke with several engineer friend to get their thoughts
on my wall design. My goal was to build
a wall that would be able to support two 200+ guys climbing on two separate
“routes”, at the same time. The plan
included attaching a 2X8” framework for the wall to the 2x6 wall structure of
the house. The entire wall, including a
10 – 15 deg. overhang would be supported from joists in the attic. Engineering was ongoing throughout the
project, but I had a solid basic plan I knew I could proceed to buying
materials and constructing the wall.
The concept is
simple, ¾ inch plywood with holes drilled roughly every six inches to accept
the holds, all on a 2 x 8 frame for support.
In my mind it was kind of like building a deck, only my “deck” would be
vertical. I started by building the
first 4 x 18 foot section first. This
part was easy. The panels were built on
the floor of the living room and then raised them up and attached them to the house
with long lag bolts. The panels were constructed
in manageable 4x4 sections and kept light so one person could lift them in
place. The second part of the wall
however, the 12 degree overhang, was a bit more complicated. Engineering and building extra support in the
attic took up most of the time, and added about two weeks to the project. I spent a lot of time up in the cold attic attaching
“all thread” bolts from the upper framework of the wall, to 2x6 support beams
positioned across attic joists. I don’t
know how many hours I logged running up and down the two sections of
scaffolding, climbing up into the attic and measuring or tightening bolts! Tasks that I thought looked easy and take 1
hour, took 4. On top of that, a lot of
time was spent in Lowes, buying materials and fasteners. The “two week” project turned into a month and
my budget had almost tripled! I was glad
when the wall was finally complete, and my wife was happy to finally have the
scaffolding out of the entryway and again be able to use the front door.
The wall has
over 650 ½ inch holes backed with t-nuts, drilled through the plywood to accept
a variety of rock climbing “problems” and is painted and textured to have a
rock like finish. The wall however,
should not be mistaken with a primarily decorative “rock” wall that accommodates
climbing. This wall is a true climbing
wall with a focus on climbing, and ascetics second. I must say, the end results are better than
expected. The combination of texture
combine with the holds and route tape actually make the wall pretty interesting
to look at, even for the non-climber, and truly complements the entryway.
Once the basic wall was
finished, we needed the holds put up so we could climb. I purchased almost 250 new and used rock
climbing holds of various types through e-bay.
During construction, I set up a few of the holds on the middle part of
the wall as a test to ensure everything worked as it should. The kids were able to climb this small
section, but I could see I didn’t have a clue about setting routes and needed
to call in the professionals. The guys
at the Alaska Rock Gym were very accommodating.
Austin and Ted, route setters at the gym, agreed to come to the house
for a few hours and check out this new wall.
They were impressed with the wall when they first walked through the
door. They told me that several patrons
of the Alaska Rock Gym have small walls at home, but this was by far the largest
and nicest they’d seen. These guys got
right to work! Both Austin and Ted did a
great job (I have Austin’s cell number (218) 790-4170, or call the Alaska Rock
Gym at 562-7265), and set on the wall for 3 ½ hours! They keyed into how we planned to use the
wall to what our family’s climbing ability’s was and then used that information
to customize the routes to suit our needs.
The whole process was really cool to watch. When they were finished setting and we were
eating lunch, they both kept looking up from the kitchen table, amazed that a
wall that big was actually is someone’s entryway. I plan on having the guys come back every
couple of months to re-set routes on the wall and we should be able to increase
the difficulty of the routes as our skills improve.
Safety on the climbing wall is a top priority. I designed all of our safety systems after
the Alaska Rock Gym, as well as from recommendations from the top climbing
sights. We have all new equipment, and anyone
belaying must be “belay certified” at the Alaska Rock Gym. The wall has two top rope anchors attached to
the ceiling, constructed out of two inch galvanized pipe. These anchors, like the wall, are supported in
the attic across at least 4 trusses. An
engineer friend, after seeing the set-up, said I could probably support my Ford
pickup from one of those
anchors. Climbers are top roped using a
10.1 mm dry static climbing rope. There
are two 8 “ thick bouldering mats placed at the bottom of the wall for short
falls. Harnesses are required for climbing,
but not for bouldering. If you plan to
climb higher than 4 feet (marked with a fluorescent green piece of trim,
installed 48 inches from the floor), you have to have a harness on. I check all gear before climbers go up. All climbers must adhere to the climbing
commands; ON BELAY? BELAY ON!, CLIMBING? CLIMB
ON!!, and climbing must always be supervised by an adult. As an extra safety measure, the kids are
required to kids wear helmets when climbing.
We have done our homework when it comes to being safe on the wall. Indoor rock climbing is an active sport and
accidents can happen, I think that one has a greater chance of slipping and
getting hurt on ice in the driveway, than falling and seriously injured
climbing on the wall.
The wall has now become
part of our daily routine. The kids love
it and I enjoy spending time with them. They
climb for at least an hour almost every night.
I initially thought the main benefit of having our own climbing wall
would be great workout and kids with mad climbing skills. Now that we have been climbing for a while, I
realize it is less about perfecting the kids rock climbing technique and
ability (although that is coming along as well), but more about just spending
quality time together. Last Saturday,
Sammy (5) climbed for several hours while his brother was at a friends house
and Mom was running errands. He climbed
and talked and talked some more. He went
to the top several times, but he mainly enjoyed swinging back and forth like
Spiderman from the middle of the wall. We both had a great time and enjoyed the
bonding experience. Without the wall, we would have just sat in front of the
television and watched a movie in silence, but with the wall, we really
connected and had a nice time just “hanging out” together and talking. The wall has exceeded my expectations in
providing us with an activity to do this winter and has already provided us
with many quality moments spent together as a family.
We entertain quite a bit
and have gotten many good first reactions from friends. A lot
of the friends are surprised that Renee let me build the wall in the
entryway. I usually get a comment or two
about being worried if this will decrease the value of the house if we ever
decide to sell (don’t think it will). Most
friends however, just want to climb! The
first opportunity to show off the wall was my work Christmas Party, hosted at
our house. We had almost 30 people
attend and almost everyone gave the wall a try.
Even my boss gave it a go! The
entryway, transformed from just a place to drop off boots and coats, to now the
highlight of the party. This held true
for other party’s hosted at the house as well. Several families came over during the recent
Christmas break, and all went up the wall; Mom’s, Dad’s and of course the
kids! People are drawn to the wall, and
love the challenge of climbing to the top.
When we entertain, the party inevitably gravitates towards the
wall. It is great having such a fun
activity at our disposal. Entertaining
is a lot more fun. Kids or adults, they
all want to go up!
