Different indoor climbing walls

I know there is a plethora of climbing wall companies out there, just wanted to hear people's opinions as to their preferences for and experiences of different walls.

As a climber:

What feels best? (Texture for gripping natural features, smearing, how solid the wall is, etc)

What looks the best? (Colors, form, how apparent shoe rubber is..)

Other comments?

As a gym employee/owner:

What was the experience like working with the wall manufacturer?
Upkeep/maintenance?
Overall satisfaction?

Much appreciated!

I HATE the heavily textured Walltopia walls. All else being equal I would always choose a different gym ether than climb on the cheese grater.

Brush your hand against the wall, instant road rash. Don't even think about falling.
You can smear anywhere, which in theory opens up more setting options, but in practice, it hinders the setters ability to force movement and is a net negative for route quality.

I'm all for Eldo Walls.

I love Walltopia. I think their model is great. I also love the use of colored holds instead of tape. It is possible to provide a quality product with tape, such as done at Movement, but very few gyms get it right. On the other hand, I dont think I have been to one gym who uses colored holds that I did not like.

bump for more input

+1 on colored holds vs tape. Full padded floors is great. Maybe community brushes. Also a good varity of grades on all walls. Example: an easy, short, slab wall should have high grade climbs and an over hanging cave should have low grade climbs.

I hate textured walls.

Textured walls are, really, overkill - rough sandstone provides less friction. Also, texture is really good for accumulating shoe rubber, blood, etc.

Our gym's owners and managers recently decided to switch over to the colored hold/route scheme. It also coincided with setting becoming so much worse. That was, most likely, combination of various factors. The gym is small, think mid 90s ghetto homebuilt style, does not have a lot of wall space. Previously, there were holds used on a few taped out routes, now it is typical to have one hold per route. It becomes extremely crowded on the walls without having much to climb. What I find even more annoying with this approach is that with, obviously, limited budget for purchasing holds gym's routes become very limited due the selection of particular holds since typical purchase does not give you a selection of textures and shapes, again something that can easily be accomplished with the taped approach.

Perhaps in short - huge wall space, huge purchasing budget - colored hold for route approach is good. A beginning climber will most definitely appreciate this - since figuring a route is very easy. For a more advanced climber taped approach works better in my opinion since it allows for a better tuning of a route with a much wider selection of holds.

+1 for tape. unless you are a mega-gym the size of an airplane hangar with an unlimited budget, taping the routes allows a greater variety of holds to be used.

SOFT TEXTURE AND ZILLION HOLDS. new and old clients intuitively start to build their own problems.

The first gym I climbed in had plywood walls, covered in paint with sand mixed in. The gym I'm at now is rockwerx, with a fairly slick paint over what seems to be textured plaster on the plywood. Originally I preferred the paint and sand, because it made smearing so much easier, but now I've gotten used to the slicker rockwerx texture and I'm fine with it.

Mostly what I like in climbing walls is interesting shapes. Good route setters can do a lot with a flat wall, but having stem boxes, dihedrals, and different angles and shapes around the walls helps prevent climbs in the gym from feeling too same-y.

Walltopia.... the best IMHO.

screw the slick, dirty, tape marked places, this is 2015!!! support the best gyms!

When it comes to walls only two things count. Good quality holds and great route setters, everything else is aesthetics. Best wall I ever trained on was simple plywood at set angles, 10, 25 35 50 degrees but the problems were amazingly set.

Vertical Solutions does amazing work.

Euan Cameron wrote:When it comes to walls only two things count. Good quality holds and great route setters, everything else is aesthetics. Best wall I ever trained on was simple plywood at set angles, 10, 25 35 50 degrees but the problems were amazingly set.

+1 I have been on some super textured made to look pretty walls and find they just get in the way of a good route setter. The more complex the angels and stuff are on the wall the more restrictions you have setting routes.

But than most gyms are not really designed for real climbers. Alot of them are made to try to get random people to come in who will never touch real rock. So it makes sense to make something to attract them.

Spend $$ on good rout setters and set new routs regularly

+1 for Vertical Solutions. I climbed in Ogden and it was weird at first but I grew to love it. I have since moved away and really miss it.

I used to think texture was awesome until I left a fair amount of myself on the wall when I fell. Taped routes are fine if they are set regularly. I love watching newer people come in and try to do a 5.12 mantle off of a foothold on a 5.8 route because the tape has been stripped from the route.

I would love to see an overhung wall that emulates what I actually see outside versus catalunya. Sure a huge massive sweeping overhang allows for more route setting area. But, I have yet to see an overhang that looks like one I would encounter outside.

chockstone.org/TechTips/Ove…

painetworks.com/photos/hd/h…

Something similar to those in style. I guess what I'm saying is I've never really "conquered" the overhang in a gym. The route just stops. I guess it is hard to cram a 100ft climb into a 50' wall.