Eden Richman Week 8 - The Future of Indoor Climbing

 One of my greatest pet peeves is when people ask me if I have ever done "real" rock climbing. This annoys me because it is always after I say that I have only climbed in gyms and not outdoors (which I actually got the opportunity to do this past summer). I understand that people seem to think that indoor climbing is easier than outdoor, but in reality, it is just different. Routsetters (people who make the climbing walls) can set routes that imitate outdoor rock styles, or they can set routes that specifically train different skills and muscles. Recently, especially in competition climbs, setters will make routes that would never appear in nature. Although it can't replace the feeling of climbing in nature, indoor climbing can be super fun.

    The newest advancement in the indoor rock climbing world is electronic training walls. These walls have holds that light up using LEDs to show a certain route. To change the route, just connect the wall to your phone via Bluetooth and select one that you like through an app. Then the lights switch to the holds on the route that you selected. Some of these walls, including the one at my gym, have a switch that adjusts the angle of the wall, so you can go as low as 15 degrees to 45 degrees all in the same wall. Another feature of the walls is that you can mirror a route on the other side of the wall, so you can train both sides of your body equally. 

There are many companies that sell these walls such as TensionBoard, MoonBoard, and Grasshopper. The walls vary in size, but an average electronic training board is 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, so many people actually buy them and keep them in their houses. These boards come with hundreds of routes already set in the app, and the amazing part is that anyone can set a route and share it with everyone else on the apps. You can also filter by a certain route setter that you like, and there are professional competition route setters that will submit their routes on these apps, so you can try out their routes right from your own gym. 

    One major con to these walls that I can think of, is that they will eliminate the feel of each climbing gym. Every gym has its own route setters with its own styles, and one of the great parts about going to different gyms is experiencing new types of routes. With these new boards, the gyms won't have their unique vibe, and I will be able to practice the same exact routes but just in different locations. 

Have you ever gone rock climbing? what do you think about these walls?

This is a video of me warming up on the tension board