UKC

Wasn't quite sure which forum to put this in, but I decided it was indoors and so....
Anyone come up with any good routes inside/outside your house? I've been trying but am a bit lacking in inspiration so I thought some 'guidebook descriptions' of other people's routes might be useful to help - as well as interesting to read about!
Also - do you wear climbing shoes (and do these leave black marks everywhere)? How strong are the little ledges above door frames?

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I have a couple of good old-school 6a fingery routes up our outside walls. Slightly unfortunate that the best ones are on the north face but at least the house is made of gritstone.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

my 8 year old grandson can chimney up the hall doorframe, bridge across to the stair way upright and then swing onto the bannister rail and make it to the upstairs bathroom without touching the floor at any point.
im not for trying it as Ive doubts about the bannister rail holding my 15 stone.
id say it comes in at least a severe.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

In my old house you could traverse 5m out of the back door, tricky moves around the arete above the patio and get into the kitchen window. Prob about V2?

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I have 7 routes on my traverse wall in my gym at home. Ranging from 4 to 7a. I'm not a boulderer so I graded them for climbing! I wear my shoes, I've also worn my harness and practised making hanging belays too!

In reply to Dave Garnett:


Yes mine too. I was going to bolt a couple of routes up the outside but couldn't bear the ensuing UKC shitstorm.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

When we lived in a big stone Victorian house in Newcastle and I was climbing a lot I used to bridge up the stone surround of the front door, climb onto the top and in through the first floor window, which I suppose would get me labelled by the press as an expert cat-burglar.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Not in my house but, years ago when I drove vna forklifts for a living I had several routes on my truck. One route involved climbing up the forklift truck mast, another one involved getting out the forklifts at height and doing a full traverse of the truck. These were harder than they sound as it was a very busy warehouse and i had to dodge the managers / supervisors

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Ive just rebuilt this...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/26ebzuxbmlt4f19/2016-04-24%2009.48.36.jpg?dl=0
and i can go to the bog without touching the floor...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2xkfw0dxh2h85m/2016-04-24%2009.49.05.jpg?dl=0

It can be fun climbing around the house but you do get black marks everywhere..its even worse with axes and crampons..!

In reply to cliff shasby:

Now, if only my parents would let me do that to our house....... I'd love a traverse from front door to my room, where you didn't have to touch the floor at all. Maybe it could then go out my bedroom window and all the way round the house to the back door? When I have my own house (I'd better not rent!) ...

In reply to ClimberGirl:

Had a bouldering wall on the gable end of my old house. At my parents house my brother was often found on the shed roof but I'm not sure of his route.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I used to like wall and house climbing, particularly climbing up cast-iron drainpipes, which I always assumed were quite robust. Then one evening I decided to climb a nice looking drainpipe on an old building I happened to be passing. I got about 4m up, and the whole cast-iron pipe pulled away from the wall, with me holding on to it, and crashed into the road, smashing into cast-iron fragments, and an almighty noise.

I managed to run away, despite a badly sprained ankle, before anybody appeared. Since then, I have never dared trust a drainpipe again (well, at least not for climbing).

In reply to planetmarshall:


I reckon you'd be fine as long as you belayed through the sunroof of your diesel Octavia, avoided top-roping it first, wore Ron Hills, pretended that the pegs were there when you moved in and graded it E0.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

2 different styles:

Bunkbed Bouldering: Climbing from the bottom bunk onto the top without touching the floor or using external features (As done at Calluna on a non-climbing morning).

Baildering: Using winter tools to ascend a stack of hay bales, the only pro being a quickdraw placed on the binding string. Great practice for the real thing, it actually feels like climbing on shitty ice. Done all over Lincolnshire - Favourite route name? Comes The Farmer

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Your post takes me back to being a child, i used to love winding my brother up by climbing all over our bunk beds

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I once picked my 1-year old up from the nursery and the staff said "he's been traversing around the dado rail - it's very odd, we've never seen a child do that before........"

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I had a couple of problems inside the cab of my truck in my last job, both started on the bunk (single prison cell style bed), I only actually managed one of them and only once but considered them quite bold considering the various bits of dash, handbrake and gear stick that were likely to leave some impressive bruises if I ever pushed my luck too far.

Boredom's a terrible thing......

In reply to ClimberGirl:

There was also the full-pub traverse of the Old England in Bristol, which did include getting up the stairs into the poolroom and back downstairs..

Old manager would buy you a pint, new fella just bars you.

In reply to ClimberGirl:

At Uni we stuck a toprope out the skylight in the loft and climbed the outside of our four story house.

The rope was extended from the upstairs banister in the hallway and through my mates bedroom (with him still in bed) using slings and then dragged over the nice sharp edge of the window frame and down the outside. I seem to remember it being a combination of mantles for the window frames with bridging at the top of the frames and then reaching out and pulling on the drainpipe and guttering at the top.

Completely not safe, but awesome fun!

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I climb onto a chair to change light bulbs - does that count?

In reply to ClimberGirl:

My childhood home was 1970s pebbledashed, but the stones came away very easily. In the end there were just a few left, but they were firmly in place and could be used as good holds to get up the slabby end wall. There was always some debate between my friends as to what grade it went at.

In reply to mrsphene:

Yes, cast-iron drain pipes make good climbs so long as the fixings are sound. Also lightning conductors can be utilised at times.

Projecting brick or stone quoins are good too and recessed or weathered pointing can be finger strength testing.

Granite sea defence walls can be excellent if you don't mind multi legged little sea creatures scrambling out of crevices onto your fingers.......

In reply to ClimberGirl:

I've got a great selection of trees that I can climb nearby. One I've gotten so much better at and can get to about 5m without using any handholds! God knows what people going through the park think when they see a fully grown man swinging out of a tree at 9pm at night (usually have a climb on the way home from work).
Another has a brilliantly branch that I do pull-ups, and sometimes practice smearing on the tree from and using toe hooks. Another has the best layback crack I've ever seen on a tree.

Inside the house, I've got a brick post I can cling off of - but it's not that much fun to be honest. I don't wear climbing shoes, usually bare feet. Lots of mud on the walls there...

At the workplace, we've got these really weird feature walls - tiny stone rectangles (about 1/3 the size of a playing card), all tiled together in such a way that the top of each has a little crimp. I'd love to get better at climbing it. I specifically bought 5.10 guide tennies as my new pair of street shoes so I'd have more luck on things like this. :/

In reply to cliff shasby:

I particularly like that someone has attempted to integrate the climbing feature into the room's decor with the use of fairy lights. Took me a while to notice the huge blue structure protruding 3 feet into the room.