A little bit ago I made this post about a card game I'm developing. I was hesitant. I was nervous. I had never done a Kickstarter before. My creative endeavors don't always find an audience.

But, I was blown away by the kind words of the indoor bouldering community.

So here I am today to let you all know that the Kickstarter for this wacky idea of mine is officially live!

If you are at all interested, click over, take a look, and maybe even sign up for a reward. Beta Break: a Card Game to Play at the Climbing Gym by Caleb J. Ross — Kickstarter

The concept is simple:
Two cards work together to challenge you to climb a problem in new and interesting ways. Every draw from the deck is a new challenge.

https://preview.redd.it/v3kd6j7otbyd1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed31aa3f4764bac76298e97f647a3a98c2c32fbb

They are relatively common in my locals

An Industrial Design Student from Iowa State looking to design a new chalk bag that better meets the needs of modern Rock Climbers. Any and all feed back is appreciated!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaUOa58traguQpEB5QAM3p1wGDiSPMJEb3gwGCgXlH_Dfvzg/viewform?usp=sf_link

saw this and had to try it, got about half way up the taped off route before i dropped not knowing i only had one try :’), but i was wondering if anyone could figure out what V this is?

I want to buy my second shoe. My first shoe was an Ocun pearl 20 anniversary. It worked very good but I used it. I only do inside bouldering and I climb around 6a-6c. I usually climb slabs but I would like to have a shoe that is good for everything. Is Ocun Bullit good for this?

Thanks for your feedbacks!

Hi,

TLDR: For whatever reasons (abrasive liquid chalk, incorrect technique, bad day), I fucked up my hands. It hurts more and more everytime I climb. Been following advice since I started climbing (a year ago). Now I need to salvage my hands, next step will be to focus on avoiding this happens again, but for now I need help.

I've been bouldering for about a year, once or twice a week. My hands have been fine almost from the beginning: I do weightlifting so I already had "nice leathery calluses" (not too dry or too thick), same thing on the tip of my left hand fingers (I play the guitar). As my skills (slowly :D) improved, I got blisters on other phalanges and finger tips, but I file the calluses, remove the extra skin and use Kletter Retter cream after each session. My gym uses colour-coded grading, from what I could find on their blog my level is V3 (I'm in Denmark: https://boulders.dk/blog/grades).

About two months ago, I used a brand new bottle of Petzl liquid chalk (used up the previous tube) and didn't think of shaking it - I thought it was a paste like the previous Petzl liquid chalk I used, but it was not, it was very liquid - and I got mostly alcohol on my hands (I think that's what happened). I didn't think of it at the time and climbed as usual, shaking the bottle a bit more every time I used it during the session.

After the session, my hands were a mess, all rips and tears. The hard calluses were torn apart, the skin underneath was bright pink, felt like I lost several layers of skin, large flappers. Not to generalize, but what beginner climbers' hands usually look like (even though I'm still a beginner). I didn't worry, filed as usual, removed the flappers, used Kletter Retter cream. I've climbed a dozen times since then, and it's been worse each time: skin ripped after half an hour, painful red hands, blisters opened again and again. I suspected my skin didn't react well to liquid Petzl then switched to regular chalk and started using finger tape (maybe I don't know how to use it yet, but I don't like it).

It's reached a point where my hands are too painful to climb for too long. I don't muscle up or do overhang routes anymore, only technical climbing, slow and statically (which has been most of my climbing routine for a while anyway, thanks to a good friend who teaches me a lot). My hands still hurt. I know one year of indoor bouldering isn't much, so maybe I'm missing something here. I've been searching posts about this issue, and they all say: file, use appropriate cream, don't wash your hands too often. Some posts suggest moisturising a lot and sleeping with gloves. Would that help?

Should I just be patient, maybe reduce the frequency of climbing so my hands can heal a little bit? Use more chalk to avoid sweat at all cost when I climb? Chalk doesn't stick to my fingertips at the moment... Probably due to worn out skin? I do a lot of routes involving crimps. Or is it just sweat? Are there any products that would help? Get used to using tape? Not remove flappers and tape them to the palm? Use medical glue?

I apologize for the long post, and for the lack of pictures, it would make it much easier to show, next time I climb I will. If my post is redundant, I'll delete it.

Hope you can help though :) Thanks in advance!

If I want to project a tough climb and I chat with someone else who is already there and they ask if I’ve tried their project and it’s easy for me, how do I politely move on without being a show off lol.

Hey everyone, complete beginner here but I've been loving it so far. The only indoor bouldering gym in my city is an hour away and prohibitively costly. This makes it possible for me to only climb once a week (~2 hours on Mondays).

How much progress am I missing out on? Should I stop going for now and take it up later?

I run and lift the rest of the week and will be able to go 2-3x a week next year once my gym membership expires.

I've been climbing for about 5 months *starting from june* but I feel like I could be doing much more. I go anywhere from 3-6 days a week and have been really into it but I just really have that urge to get as good as I can as quickly as I can. I recently got a V6 for my first time so I'm trying to see if I'm on a good pace or if there is more I should be doing? Also if anyone has rec's on a good pair of climbing shoes to get, would love to hear.

Hello Guys, I was looking for any information on the shirt/outfit/tricot of the Olympic bouldering competitors for Japan since I find them to be really nice looking and wanted to buy one for myself. Does anybody know whether or not one can purchase these? Help is greatly appreciated

My gym is hosting a bouldering competition and the divisions are:

• Recreational: v0 – v3
• Intermediate: v3 – v5
• Advanced: v5 – v7
• Open: v7+

I was originally leaning towards Recreational, but I've been climbing a lot recently and got my first v4, after 3 attempts on one my style. I think if I focus on bouldering until the competition and I can improve a good amount, but I feel like I'm stuck between being called a sandbagger or finishing near last in Intermediate

As the title says, I'm currently looking for my first pair of shoes and am around V4-V5 indoor climber. I have a few shoes in mind such as the Evolv V6, Scarpa Vapor S or Vapor V, and Scarpa Arpia V. My feet (US 8,.5M street wear) are narrow with a greek / roman shape and my heel is small so I tried some La Sportiva shoes such as the Kubo, Otaki, and Miura and found that my heel didn't feel that secure and had a bit of volume. This could be due to wrong size so I'm going to go to an REI to mass try on other sizes and shoes. Would like some ideas or recommendations on shoes. Thanks a lot.

For me, I have been climbing for roughly 7 months I would say 8 but I got injured on like my second session after getting a wrist injury and got pretty sick so my first month I basically couldn't climb. But as of currently I flash v5s pretty consistently and project v6-v7 and currently have topped six v7 s and one v8. I go very constantly though since I have a lot of freetime and climb/train roughly 4 times a week give or take a day depending on how I'm feeling. Highest grade on the kilter was v6 50° since that's more universally measurable as far as boulder grading goes. For some context, I weight 120lbs. my highest max hang currently is my body weight added 35 lbs on 20mm ledge for 12 seconds. Very much been enjoying my climbing journey and am excited to see my improvements in the future, just went to my first comp last week which was super fun. Also excited to hear everyone's experience with their climbing journey so far!! :))