UKC

I'm looking at building a training wall in my garage to keep me reasonably in shape while this Coronavirus thing is brought under control and the social distancing rules are lifted enough to get out to the local wall again.

Ideally, I'd build a Moonboard or Tension board or similar so I'd have access to a wide range of problems without having to set everything myself (which seems like a lot of time & effort!). However, the only place I have is my garage, which is only 2.5m floor to ceiling. I think I can _just_ about squeeze 2/3 of a Moonboard into that space - I'd basically be missing the top panel (rows 13-18). I might also have to lose 10cm or so off the kickboard or top if I went with the 25-degree angle option.

Does anyone know if a Moonboard would still be fun to climb if the top panel was missing? Also, I only climb French/sport at around 6c (I give 7as a go but haven't got up one cleanly yet!). Is (2/3rd) a Moonboard simply going to be too hard for me?

If I don't go for 2/3rd of a Moonboard, I'll just have to build something myself and set my own (rubbish) problems and I can imagine getting bored of that fast...

Sounds like a custom job would be way better to be honest. Defining problems isn't that hard and you'll improve rapidly.

The key for a board with limited height is to make it as wide as possible to give loads of options for rising traverses and circuits as well as up problems. 

Personally I'd recommend a good mix of small wood holds and some more positive resin holds for resting on. These guys make ace grips: https://www.hardwoodholds.co.uk/ 

Get it done, you'll get loads out of it! 

If you build your own board and have it as a splatter board, you'll have loaaads of options for making up your blocs. So just buy enough holds that you can pretty much fill the board that you build. And +1 for making it wide.

Just been on the Hardwoodholds site to order more foothold domes and crimps

greatsite!

I have a similar question but in terms of Width. I have a space that's ideal aside from only being 180cm wide. Can't decide if this will just be too narrow to be worthwhile.

Hi, in my experience (I climb about 7b sport) most Moonboard holds are too small.

I'd also consider something like a 10 deg board in the bottom part (height of this part depends on your length) and then a 60 deg part in order to get more climbing space in.

I'd definitely get large holds as well so you can use the board for both power and power-endurance training.

Setting your own problems is great! It makes you think about climbing and might even be more beneficial to your climbing than the physical training

Thanks for the advice, especially making it as wide as possible and for skipping the Moonboard setup.

I think what I'll do is build a 2.4x2.4m wall at a 25-degree angle - essentially the Moonboard spec (minus the top panel) as I had planned, but populate it with random larger/more positive holds. If I get super strong, maybe I'll invest in some Moonboard hold packs later on - at least I have that as an option. I'd have gone wider, but I don't really have the room in the garage. I'm warming up to the idea of setting my own problems - though any tips or pointers to online resources would be most welcome!

Moonboard holds turned out not to be an option anyway because they are currently out-of-stock (though say they expect some more in 6 weeks or so). As I started to shop around over the weekend, seems quite a few places were out of stock. In the end, I was almost panic buying holds! I ordered various packs of holds from 4 different online places and glad I did as so far had only 2 deliveries - fortunately I think I have enough (~50 holds, 10 screw-ons for feet) to populate a wall. I also took Monday off to go round and buy all the timber I needed. I was almost going to get Travis Perkins to deliver the timber, but opted to haul it away myself in my camper van Monday afternoon - glad I did!!! So, I have all the bits I think I need, just in time for the lockdown. Phew. Now I just need to build it...

Just spray holds all over the place and then either mark with tape or a sharpie which holds are in for each problem.

Try and get a random but even distribution of each type of hold (jug, crimp, undercut, sloper) all over the wall.

Or you can try and make a symmetrical wall, with one side mirroring the other. This way you can have the same route running left to right and its mirror right to left - 2 routes for the price of one and helps with left/right dominance.

Give all your holds names and just record the problems using those. I've got a similar sized board and so far this works a treat. Can use one of the apps (Stokt/Boulder Challenge let you set up private boards).