Yeah, right! Its a bit of a long-term dream, maybe even longer than I am thinking 
I think first thing is to actually get out there and take a look 
I think Nowra and Point Perp days/weekends will be on the cards in the near future too.
Highly recommend point perp, first and only place I’ve done trad. Scary fun.
Nice hit list JP. All classics!
Building a climbing wall at home. I’ve never built anything that needed foundations, its nerve wracking but also pretty nice to see it come together. I’ve got a fairly grand design of 2.4w x 3.6h at 40deg (moonboard style) connected to 3.6w x 2.4h at maybe 5deg for fun traversing, connected to 1.2w x 2.4h vertical for toddler fun.
First phase is moonboard. I’ve dug a foot well about 30cm deep to bring the whole structure down below 3m height and not need council approval. The kickboard will sit down in there, and the wall proper will start from about ground height. The materials were all delivered today, and the first foundation hole got a bit of work at lunch today.
The materials are:
Frame - 90mm x 45mm all over. Frame, studs and ribs (no idea of the jargon here).
foundation connectoring - concrete hole will be 700mm deep, 200mm square. Stirrups are pryda high wind 600mm 90x90.
Posts - rougher header 90 x 90 - I had no idea what rougher header was until this week. Its more than nice enough for this.
Ply - Had hoped to go 19 or 21mm, but local place that isnt bunnings only had 17 and i hear thats about the minimum, so I went with it. CD grade, also had no ide what that meant til this week.
The plan is to start with easier holds on teh 40deg wall and slowly build up to the school hold sets… I play around on the board at local gym and while I can pull a move on it, its not going to be much fun and probably an injury maker to start. Anyone have thoughts on holds? I’m thinking uncarved bloc (theirs and the brands they stock) and big red. Would like to stick to Aus made.
I will have pics on instagram as I go. Any input here would be super welcome!
I have nothing to add here but interested to see the results. What is your IG handle?
If you want to increase your contact strength, I recommend a hangboard with a pulley setup to take off some weight. Helps increase finger strength on small holds while reducing injury risk. So rather than struggling on a crimp for 2 seconds and risking an injury, add 5-10kg on a pulley and hang it for 10 seconds. Amazing what 5kg off can do. Better results than just hanging bigger holds for longer. Then use your woodie to mix up your specific movement strengths and also stamina.
Checkout hangboard pulley setups on YouTube.
I don’t have space for a woodie but have a good hangboard setup and some gym rings for core training. I’ll add some photos when I can.
This is exciting and makes me want to get back into climbing so we can session. I used to love the moon board and some of my ticks on it are the most satisfying indoor climbs I’ve ever done. Also twinged a pulley on it before so important to work up to, your plan for holds sounds about right.
Definitely stick some train apparatus to the side if you can.
Thanks for those tips, Diddy. I do a similar sort of thing at the moment with a hangboard, but aided with a pulley sounds good too.
Sean, you’re def invited to the grand opening
I watched the series of old dog new tricks on epic tv last night, cool story of a bloke at 49 deciding he’ll climb 33 or so before he turns 50.
On instagram I’m jahnpahwa
wall is coming along, frame is done, put a heap of beams in to keep it together, then more in to give a screw down point for the edge of each ply sheet, and then 5 lengths of 2x4 across the back of it to stop any “pull flex”, and also to mount the roofing panels onto. Bought some roofing today, will screw it on this weekend.
I ended up setting the uprights at the mid point and the top of the wall straight into concrete and I think theyre stiffer for it.
I can climb on the frame now and it feels great, but if i stand on the ground and yank sideways, i can feel some flex so…
Still to do:
get some triangulation bracing on the longer uprights - can only do this on one side as the other side is close to the fence, i think it will still make a good difference though
Drill the holes in the ply, bash in t-nuts and mount the ply
Screw on the roofing panels. Also need to think about a gutter at the bottom of it, or to build up a little earth werks at the flow off point to make sure the water doesn’t flow back into the footwell that I’ve dug
Set the sleeper to hold the ground level where it is at the edge of the footwell
cover the base of the footwell with river stones, maybe also the groundlevel under the wall… or tile it.
get a massive landing pad (thinking a little aths high jump pad)
bolt holds on and climb.
That list is still long, but I think I can do it all this weeked except for the landing pad. I’m getting a bit sick of it, tbh, but its close and it should be good.
All of this is done except the last 3 tasks, will get some holds today or later this week for a burn. Putting it all together yestersay i learned 2 things that seem important. 1, decking screws with square drive are so much better than philips head, 2, hand sawing ply seems to leave a grippy residue on the blade and makes it bloody impossible… trimning the wall at height took forever and with my head 4m or so up, the swearing, pleading and dejected tones were on display for neighbors far and wide.
The roofing was defo not a highlight, but its on and should be waterproof, hopefully not rattle too much. I used those suntuf one shot screws, they work.
I’m getting the hint that a climbing thread on a bike forum may not be the best fit, and this is becoming a bit of a diary! I won’t drag it out too much longer.
Updates:
Climbing wall is done, I’ve got a couple of volumes on and they make it way more fun, and they were fun to build too… I might do more and more to keep 3d thrills flowing (and helps to use hard holds in easier positions until i get stronger). I’ll keep on getting more and more holds, but I think I’m at about 80 or so and its fun. We had a good downpour with good wind the other night and it stayed dry so that was a win. I think I’ll paint the face though, it will stress me out if i dont.
climbing: I’ve been sick this past week but went out toward nowra yesterday and climbing at tianjara falls, which is pretty compact sandstone with heaps of features and maybe more interesting breaks than I saw in the blueys. Anyway, feeling weak and coughing all over everyone I think I stayed pretty conservative and efficient and ended up climbing well and set some new benchmarks with an onsight of a 20 and a flash of a 21. They were both about 18-20m long and 8 or 9 bolts, and 2 star in the guide, and both were a good time.
Pics of the wall! Pics of the wall!
I dont know how to make them appear here 
I tried cyclebucket or something a year or more ago, but it didnt work and then i gave up. I will post one of the current wall set up on IG tonight though
Then view the source of the gram post and find the jpg and link it here as an image ala.
youre gonna need to slow it right down Geoff.
I can honestly say that I don’t understand any of those steps, but am v impressed that you made it happen, and seemingly pretty easily
Does this mean people who don’t follow me can see this now? It looks like its a facebook window that its opening. Anyway, I don’t mean to turn this into a photo posting discussion, I’m happy to be a pic-less contributor here and had resigned myself to that ages ago, but if its really easy I’ll get on board.
I just put a current pic up!
ctrl-u, view source
ctrl-f, find
type jpg
in the wall of text you’ll have jumped to a url. select from the starting http to the ending .jpg, paste that between the img tags.
DID IT! heck yes. i can make anything happen if Blakey spells it out for me!
thanks heaps mate. I will save those instructions somewhere useful
i knew you could do it
Thanks Blakey, sorry JP, was in between dinner cooking and watering the garden so missed your request.
Impressive. That looks sick. The volumes are cool too—can probs get some toe/heel hooking involved.