The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
What do you do when someone breaks in and damages the drywall in the playroom? You do the obvious thing: Make a bouldering wall.
Last fall I started working on converting a downstairs wall into a multi-angled bouldering wall for the kids. It frequently got sidelined by more important projects, but slowly it has made progress… and I brought the video camera along with me.
I picked up two climbing sets, one synthetic batch from Metolius and another real stone set from Rocky Mountain Climbing Gear.
I have more than enough holds, but apparently not enough T-nuts, so I’ve put in an order for them at MEC.
The wall in question is the main load bearing wall, meaning it is strong enough for the job. It’s a section about 8 feet long and 7.5 feet high.
Our research suggested that vertical walls would get boring, so I decided on a more complex, multi-angled wall that eventually will extend onto the roof. We used 4.5″ timberframing screws to attach the header to the joists and 2×6 framing for the joists. It has to hold up 1″ ACX (or Canadian equivalent) so I didn’t cut corners.
Take a look at the progress we’ve made in the video above. Currently we’re at the point where I’m placing the T-nuts, but you’ll have to wait for part 2 for specifics and finishing.
Question: Have you ever thought about installing a climbing wall in your house? What’s holding you back?
