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ARTICLE: The Home Climbing Wall Boom: COVID-19 Constructions

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 UKC Articles 20 Apr 2020
Imogen Horrocks on her garden board.

In 2018, an article in The Times explored the growing trend for home climbing walls. Who would have predicted that two years later, a global pandemic would arrive, triggering lockdowns across the globe and sending thousands of frustrated climbers into a home wall-building frenzy. While fingerboards and campus rungs were the first to fly off the shelves, those with the space and resources to do so turned to bigger objectives to keep strong and sane.

We take a look at some home wall examples from a variety of climbers, spaces and projects that have popped up in recent weeks from around the world...



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4
 Franco Cookson 20 Apr 2020
In reply to UKC Articles:

Home walls (and associated DIY) = okay

Bouldering on your house = okay 

Bouldering on a bridge = okay

Going for a cycle = okay

Going for a solo shunt from your house = not okay

I'm confused..

15
 kwoods 20 Apr 2020
In reply to Franco Cookson:

I wonder that, too.

I also ordered a stack of wood and plywood a few days ago.

1
In reply to Franco Cookson:

Even the French are behaving on this one, probably best to do so. 

20
 mrphilipoldham 20 Apr 2020
In reply to Franco Cookson:

Yes, I can’t believe UKC is promoting the irresponsible behaviour of having unnecessary goods delivered during this pandemic. Every drop a courier makes is another likely transmission point.

Bouldering at home is also no safer than bouldering outside, in fact with some of the samples I’ve seen I’d say it was far more dangerous. 

Tongue only ever so slightly in my cheek here, but when actual walking to and pottering around on local crags has been so widely condemned you do have to wonder. 

Sorry, forgot to add.. “you’re shopping for holds while a thousand people a day are dying?”

Post edited at 18:36
42
In reply to UKC Articles:

I haven't got space for a home wall so a pull up bar and suspension trainer/gymnast rings will do. 

Post edited at 20:53
 Mr Lopez 20 Apr 2020
In reply to mrphilipoldham:

Nailed it

Post edited at 20:53
4
In reply to Franco Cookson:

> Home walls (and associated DIY) = okay

> Bouldering on your house = okay 

> Bouldering on a bridge = okay

> Going for a cycle = okay

> Going for a solo shunt from your house = not okay

> I'm confused..

That just may be the most sense you've ever made Franco

3
In reply to UKC Articles:News flash: thousands, make that hundreds of thousands of people die everyday of diseases (other than Covid), hunger and war and it's okay to basically ignore those deaths and go on holiday, drink stupidly expensive coffees and generally live a self absorbed life of over consumption and consumerism of bulimic proportion. However, when the danger is no longer confined to the third world or those at the bottom of the first, suddenly the moral high horses come charging in. Well, much as it pains me to say it, I for once agree with The Orange Man, “build that wall”! 

15
 Phil79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to mrphilipoldham:

> Sorry, forgot to add.. “you’re shopping for holds while a thousand people a day are dying?”

Thousands of people die every day, covid or not, does it stop you going about your daily business normally?

Plus, given the massive (and as yet unquantifiable) economic damage this lock down will do, it makes sense to me to stimulate as much business as possible, providing it can done in low risk way (the possibility of a courier delivery being a transmission point must be so low risk as to be non-quantifiable, providing the normal basic precautions are taken).       

I appreciate we need to stay at home, avoid gathering in large groups etc, but trying to strike some kind of balance seems sensible.

2
 Red Rover 21 Apr 2020
In reply to onehandclapping:

You shouldn't use other causes of death to belittle Covid-19 because most of those causes of death aren't contagious or exponential like Covid-19 is. Things like hunger, heart disease and cancer aren't contagious so they are linear hazards. Most infectious diseases have reached a steady-state where they are just around with occasional flare-ups as the human population has got used to them to some extent and we have learned how to treat them. You can't compare these to Covid-19 which is a multiplicative hazard* in the early stages of exponential growth and has the potential to go through billions of people within a few months. 

There is a point to be made for us ignoring third world mortality but this disease will do untold damage to the third world unless they are very lucky with hot weather slowing it down. It's not the number of deaths now that matters so much as the potential number of deaths. Look up the meaning of the word exponential.

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1251113801384185858

*a multiplicative hazard is one where you can say 'the worse it gets the worse it gets, usually very quickly'.

PS I'm not talking about where climbing fits in as this has been done to death and if somebody hasn't stopped climbing by now they aren't going to. I just work in the modelling of uncertainty in complex systems etc so I can't help myself when I see this kind of thing!

Post edited at 09:59
4
 mrphilipoldham 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Phil79:

Phil, I'm of exactly the same train of thought as yourself. Like I said, tongue in cheek. Pointing out the double standards exacted by some of the bile on here towards those wishing to go for a little potter on their local bit of rock. 

2
 AJM79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to onehandclapping:

There's an incredible amount of hypocrisy involved in all of this.

An estimated 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide yearly yet we're happy to continue contributing to this,.

Alcohol effectively shuts down the NHS twice a week but no-one bats an eyelid.

The country has consistently voted against funding the NHS for at least the last decade yet now they're happily pouring money in through charities

Traversing your local crag is frowned upon yet pulling hard on a 40 degree board above the same bouldering mat is applauded.

What a load of bulls@#t.

9
 Red Rover 21 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

Air pollution and alcoholism aren't contagious. It's not the current number of deaths that matters it's potential deaths, which for something that can spread exponentially (not linearly like air pollution) is a very large number. Here is a useful comparison from the US. 

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1251113801384185858

I'm not commenting on where climbing fits in but you can't compare an exponential disease to a linear and often self-inflicted one such as drinking too much.

Post edited at 09:50
6
 Phil79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to mrphilipoldham:

Ahh sorry, missed the tongue in cheek bit...

 AJM79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Red Rover:

I never said alcoholism just general drinking on a Friday and Saturday night and just because it's not exponential doesn't mean we're not contributing to avoidable deaths. I understand we need to protect the health services, no-one is denying this, what I'm trying to get at is the hypocrisy which seems to be so prevalent at the moment.

1
 Red Rover 21 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

I agree that we shouldn't be drinking ourselves silly and putting a burden on the NHS that way. Sorry if I over-reacted. I see people all the time saying 'we don't lock down for traffic accidents which kill more than Covid-19' and I can't help reacting to it. My work involves the modelling of complex systems, in particular trying to take into account uncertainty in prediction so it's a pet topic of mine!

2
 daWalt 21 Apr 2020
In reply to mrphilipoldham:

> those wishing to go for a little potter on their local bit of rock. 

ah yes, the old adage: everyone else does, so I don't need to.

3
 Richard Horn 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Franco Cookson:

> Home walls (and associated DIY) = okay

I read somewhere that a particular hospital under normal circumstances sees on average one serious eye injury every two weeks, but in the first week of lockdown admitted six serious eye injuries from DIY accidents. Wear goggles!

Post edited at 10:09
 AJM79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Red Rover:

Fair enough - I promise I'm not an alt right conspiracy theorist.

No wonder you're quick of the mark, it seems that overnight everyone's become a specialist in modelling and epidemiology. Out of interest, are you a specialist in models or does your specialist field involve complex modelling?

 Red Rover 21 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

No problem. I do have a bee in my bonnet sorry! I started off as a chemist then did a PhD in Biology/Computer Science now I build computer models for chemists in a branch of chemistry where uncertainty is huge and everything is non-linear and poorly understood. It's hard not to see everything in terms of what I do now! it would be nice to switch off for a while.

1
 Lemony 21 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

> Alcohol effectively shuts down the NHS twice a week but no-one bats an eyelid.

A&E != The NHS

1
 AJM79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Red Rover:

No worries, there's plenty of distorted statistics and poorly understood half facts flying about at the moment, I suspect most people with a working knowledge of these things are losing their s@#t over the levels of ignorance being shown at the moment.  

 AJM79 21 Apr 2020
In reply to Lemony:

You can be pedantic if you want but all that time and money spent on A&E isn't being spent elsewhere, this is before the drains on mental health services, ICU beds being taken up, and the added pressures from diseases and cancers caused by alcohol use.

If you want to argue about the wording I'll not bother replying again but if you think that this isn't a serious problem for, not just the health service but also the police force then I'd be interested to hear why.

2
 Iamgregp 21 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

You're not wrong, but like I always say, if alcohol were to be discovered today, such is it's standing on the harm index, and the physical and emotional addiction it can lead to it would undoubtedly be banned and classified as an illegal narcotic.

However it wasn't discovered today, it's been part of our culture for thousands of years and whilst the government does what it can do encourage people to drink responsibly it's never going to be able to close pandoras box so ingrained is it in our culture.

Like I say, you're not wrong, I just think bringing up alcohol as an example of strain on the NHS during a pandemic is whataboutery, a wee bit.  

More general reply to all here... Also.  Technically.  The government isn't really on board with carrying out DIY during the lockdown.  They gave a specific example saying that it would be ok for someone to go out to buy material for a broken fence damaged by weather, but not ok if they went out to buy paint "simply to paint a kitchen".  What they're trying to say is, essential maintenance is fine.  Home improvement is not. 

Frankly I don't see the difference, needed a bolt for a counterweight for my hangboard so I went and bought one.  If people want to build a home wall I say go ahead.  Just don't stick a nail through your hand!

Stay safe all!

EDIT: Actually the guidelines said it's ok to go out to buy tools to fix your fence, but not to buy the paint for your kitchen,  So does that mean we are ok to build home walls as long as as we have all the material and tools delivered.

Hang on, what about if I already had a home wall and it got damaged in bad weather, would I be allowed to fix that?

How about if my kitchen got damaged in bad weather, but my fence needed painting?  

I'll stop.

Post edited at 16:45
1
 Rad 22 Apr 2020

Unfortunately, I don't see climbing gyms opening any time soon. For that reason, I think it's entirely appropriate for people to think about expanding what they can do at home. Hopefully, we can be allowed back at the crags sooner rather than later, and when that happens we're probably going to need to practice social distancing measures and otherwise be good citizens.

The discussion about whether we should worry about using shipping and other resources at this time is an interesting one, but I think this can be decided organically. For example, Amazon prioritized shipping of PPE, food, and essential supplies. Going directly to a third party can produce faster shipping and employ more people. We will need to spend money and employ people as soon as possible to limit the damage to our economy and the people who have lost their jobs. Spending money on a home climbing wall is one way to do that.

2
 LeeWood 22 Apr 2020
In reply to AJM79:

> There's an incredible amount of hypocrisy involved in all of this.

Too right ! But the hypocrisy is present in the cv19 crisis too

> An estimated 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide yearly yet we're happy to continue contributing to this,.

And now it's well documented that air pollution contributes to cv19 deaths. It's also well documented that as a whole, cv19 deaths relate to basic health of the population. The hospitals are full because of government negligence in protecting us from known risks, the virus is revelator in it's capacity to highlight humanity's bad habits.

https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/article-of-the-week/covid-19-and-the-e...

 LeeWood 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Red Rover:

> You shouldn't use other causes of death to belittle Covid-19 because most of those causes of death aren't contagious or exponential like Covid-19 is. Things like hunger, heart disease and cancer aren't contagious so they are linear hazards.

You are right to draw these distinctions but the real panic relates to commerce. Linear diseases are acceptable and manageable because they are well documented and more predictable. They also boost the economy because the hospitals and pharmaceuticals all benefit from sick people *at known rates of incidence*

The virus by comparison is not understood and is costing the NHS (and the economy generally) in it's scrambled attempts to cope. Pharma has no drugs to sell for this one.

In all events we should not belittle these already known causes of ill health because many are behind the rate of cv19 deaths - air quality, smoking, diet. Had we acted upon known 'linear' risks to health we would not have an epidemic now.

 Red Rover 22 Apr 2020
In reply to LeeWood:

OK fair one. I suppose some linear risks are contributing to non-linear ones in a non-linear way. But you get my point, you can't say "don't worry about [exponentially growing risk with billions of targets], [steady-state condition] kills more". Not that you were saying that. 

Post edited at 10:38
 LeeWood 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Rad:

Rumour has it that walls will open in mid June (15th onwards) and I know all BMC workshops have beeen cancelled till June - that is what Amii from the BMC told me. 

Sav

9
 Oceanrower 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

Rumour is wrong.

1
In reply to Oceanrower:

We will have to wait and see. 

I don't have a home wall and I hope rumour is right.

How do you know rumour is wrong? 

Do you work for the government? 

S

Post edited at 14:28
9
 Oceanrower 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

> How do you know rumour is wrong? 

Two reasons.

1 - All wall are independent. Not a single one owned by the BMC or the government. There isn't a chance they're all going to open on the same date, let alone a date you've plucked out of your arse.

.

2. It's my job to know these things...

1
In reply to Oceanrower:

I didn't pluck the date from my a**e  and the date was a general one for all gyms to open not just climbing ones. There are many walls in London so I don't mind which ones open first. 

There is something going on with climbing walls. 

Post edited at 14:56
6
 Oceanrower 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

I'll be gentle here. "All" gyms are not "climbing" gyms. I could wipe down a weight machine or stepper in seconds. You try wiping down a 15 metre route.

Yes. There is something going on with climbing walls. They're shut. They will be amongst the very last things to open. Somewhere near airlines would be my (professional) estimate.

Any chance you could show any citation, any at all, for your rumour? If not then I'll go back to the pulled out of arse scenario.

Post edited at 15:02
In reply to Oceanrower:

I didnt say that all gyms were climbing gyms. The date in the leaked traffic light scheme was for gyms and leisure centres in general.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/finance/other/so-what-is-the-coronavirus-traffic-...

I was trying to get a non tabloid source. 

I was referring to the link below when I said about something going on with climbing walls.

 https://gym.vertical-life.info/articles/covid-19-risk-mitigation-in-climbin...

S

Post edited at 15:14
 Oceanrower 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

I dont think I,ve ever seen as many maybes, possiblys,  perhapses (along with several unlikelys and a "No, it's not") in a single article.

In fact, did you even read it? Pretty much every person in that article that was asked to comment said, basically, no chance!

I'll take a very, very large pinch of salt with that.

It's doesn't even warrant rumour. It hardly warrants speculation!

Post edited at 15:22
1
In reply to Oceanrower:

To answer your question....

.... Yes I did read it.

Did you see other link below?

I have found this link from The Guardian and I don't regard the Guardian is a tabloid like the The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Star and The Daily Sport. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/05/the-traffic-light-exit-str...

S

Post edited at 15:44
2
 Oceanrower 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

What? You mean the one that doesn't mention any dates at all? Yep. Saw that a few days ago. Want to try again? Where does this rumour you've made up come from?

Post edited at 15:40
In reply to Oceanrower:

The date comes from a tabloid.

What about this from the Metro. 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/coronavirus-lockdown-uk-traffic-light-system...

When I meant the other link I was taking about the link from Vertical Life. 

S

Post edited at 16:17
1
In reply to Oceanrower:

When I said the link below I was referring to the link from Vertical Life. 

1
 Iamgregp 22 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

Oh now come on. I won’t have you say that....

The Daily Sport isn’t even a tabloid 😂

In reply to Iamgregp:

Is it just pornography and gossip then?! 

 Quarryboy 23 Apr 2020
In reply to Franco Cookson:

I've literally had this thought about 600 times since lock down, with increasing frequency.

1
 Iamgregp 23 Apr 2020
In reply to Mountain Spirit:

Just the former I think!

In reply to Iamgregp:

I agree.

I wouldn't even wipe my b***side with it!

Post edited at 13:43
 Twiggy Diablo 24 Apr 2020
In reply to UKC Articles:

As a follow on it'd be awesome to do an article on how to get the most out of a home board setup, including setting (i'm thinking something akin to a small moon board, rather than a symmetrical system board).

its probably lack of vision/creativity but I'm struggling to select routes that push me in quite the same way as a moon board does and i'd be interested to know it's possible to codify this a bit.

In reply to Twiggy Diablo:

Get your friends to make up boulders for you remotely! I posted a photo of my board on Instagram and asked people to screenshot it and circle holds in Instagram stories. I saw other people doing it so thought I'd try it. I received a variety of problems which were very different in style to the ones I make up.

I'll have a go at writing an article if I get the chance.

 Twiggy Diablo 24 Apr 2020
In reply to Natalie Berry - UKC:

Once my friends stop seething with jealousy i will ask them 😂 They might draw something on the picture, but it probably wouldn’t be a  route

In reply to Twiggy Diablo:

I got one of those too! 

 David Alcock 28 Apr 2020
In reply to UKC Articles:

On a lighter note, check this Darwin Award contender out. The comments gave me a laugh. 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/526138960814145?view=permalink&id=2936990...

 Twiggy Diablo 08 May 2020
In reply to Natalie Berry - UKC:

Thanks for writing the followup we talked about Natalie - some great nuggets in there!


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