When I measured, my ceilings were about ten foot high at the highest point and still nine foot high about four feet from the wall. I figure I could make two nine feet by four feet panels and join them together. An eight by four sheet of plywood at the top of each panel would be the climbing surface. I planned a corner unit, because then it could be totally free standing. It was an apartment after all, and I didn’t want to do "too" much damage.

I built the two wall sections in my kitchen. You can also begin to see why I’m single. Women who appreciate this type of thing are few and far between. At any rate, I used standard wall building techniques except my walls are twelve inch center to center instead of sixteen. The distance between each wall stud is less. This means the wall is more rigid and the plywood is attached better to the frame. Once a wall was complete I would have to flip it over and attach the anchors for the holds. A climbing hold attaches to plywood walls with a bolt through the hold into a T-nut mounted on the backside of the plywood. I drilled the holes for the T-nuts and began to hammer them into place. With the walls complete I moved them into the bedroom.

To make them free standing I had to attach them together at a right angle. I accomplished this with a four by four wood post. The post was eight foot long. When bolted to the walls it made them one big stable unit. I used 3/8” nut and bolts to attach each wall to this beam for safety. I made the final product as close as possible to its final location because the damn thing is very, very heavy. I only had to move the wall a very short distance into its final position.

The next part was really fun! I had two boxes of Metolius climbing holds to affix to the wall. The box comes with enough T-nuts for the holds, but I found them at Home Depot and bought a bunch extra. This adds variation to the wall, by adding many possible locations for the holds. Affixing the holds meant many hours of climbing to place them all. I tried to make one of the wall sections an “easy” wall with the larger holds. The other section is much harder with smaller holds requiring much more balance and finesse. Here is the final result.

I had only a few weeks of enjoyment on this wall before I hurt myself at the gym. I used to tape out routes that I liked. Obviously the routes are very short, but satisfying despite this. The best climbing was, up the right panel across the top and then down the left and back across to the right. This loop could be performed multiple times for a pretty good workout.

It was great to stretch, throw on my climbing shoes and “play” for a bit before work in the morning. Unfortunately, it’s been a long time. Now the wall is the basement of my new apartment, patiently waiting for me to heal.