The First Semiperiodic Garage Bouldering Competition and Barbeque in Nishiokoppe

This is bouldering

Last weekend, my garage bouldering wall had its first real public debut, in the form of a (extremely casual) climbing competition and (deadly serious) barbecue! Everything went off without a hitch... more or less. Hitches encountered were small and easily surmounted. Well, they could have been bigger. Nobody died.

None of these holds broke and injured anybody. Success!

I worked overtime to make sure I had at least part of the vertical section up on the wall, which I thought would help with developing problems that beginners could do. More than half of the attendees had little or no climbing experience, and having this section proved to be a good idea, especially with the kids.

Preparing to climb. Safety first!

In the context of Hokkaido spring, the weather was fair: almost ten degrees above freezing and not actively downpouring. Although the competition took place in the garage, barbecuing and general grab-assery were slated for the yard outside, so the off-and-on drizzle posed a problem. We solved the problem with several beers, a few feet of twine, a big tarp, and two convenient laundry poles, but due perhaps to the beer nobody actually thought to take a picture of our makeshift shelter. This regret will live with me until my dying day.

Let the climbing begin!

The format of the "competition" was, let us say, "casual". I prepared eight problems in four ranks of ascending difficulty, and originally had the idea of giving each climber five minutes to try each problem before putting the next one up. Since I was trying to cook and mark problems at the same time, I quickly decided that timekeeping was simply too much work.

The green one! The OTHER green one!

When everyone had climbed a given problem, I marked the next one in chalk- the school kind, not the hand kind. This was super-visible and worked great for the first few, but turned out to be a bit tough to erase. I'm not sure if I'd do it this way again.

Which way is up?

Setting interesting and enjoyable problems on a wall the size of mine required some creative thinking. A few of the problems had foot goals- to complete the problem, the feet had to be placed on a specific hold. This worked out well and added a lot of length. Another option was downclimb problems- start at the top and get to a hold near the bottom, which really changes it up.  Adding these variations helped keep it interesting, given that the only others were really short straight climbs and traverses.

Potential for head injury: fun!

I learned a lot from hosting this event, and would like to do it again. A few kids from the village even showed up and tried their hand at climbing; this is where the vertical wall really saw a lot of use.

Pictured: not a village kid

I even cued up music for each of the sets of problems, but I turned out to not have an extension cord. Added that to the shopping list for next time, along with more seating.

This was probably a foot goal problem

Some things I would change for next time: more cameras. We only really had one camera, which means limited pictures and angles.

Sometimes holds need tightening... mid-climb

I'd also give myself less to do at once. I tried to cook, run the competition, socialize, and take pictures all at the same time... it didn't work. Better organization would help things run more smoothly, even if it is just a casual event.

The Magic of Climbing

All in all, though, a great night and a reassuring sign that my construction techniques, although perhaps let's say "unorthodox", were sufficient to create a structure capable of being climbed on all night without murdering anybody. So that's good. Hope next time will be even bigger and better, and thanks for reading!

The March of April Progress

We're getting to that part of the book where everything accelerates and begins to spiral inevitably towards the conclusion like a spider getting sucked into a drain. This is a metaphor, with "The Book" being the construction of Kuraimu V4 (I think) and the sucking pull of plot resolution being the dual forces of 1) my finally being able to clean my house, and 2) my inevitable overuse injury from climbing in my garage every day. Whew! What I'm trying to say here is that things are coming along.

Before. Before THE PARTY that is!!

Amidst a lovely light spring rain/sleet/snow we assembled the second of the two main sections, which astute readers will remember is a 30-degree segment. After a few late nights of hurried T-Nut installation, the big day arrived and my free labor friends arrived to help. First step: moving the damn thing out of my house.

"I'm not sure this is going to work"

"That hasn't stopped me yet."

I have a lot of regrets

That's not a door, that's a window- I think. A big sliding porch-style window-door thing, minus the porch. If you ever decide to assemble a climbing wall inside your house, don't. If you do, like me, make sure you actually figure out how you're going to get it outside before crunch time- I didn't measure anything, and it's only because heaven smiles on fools that I was able to get this thing outside.

This is how we party in Hokkaido

You can see here, as in the first picture, the unnatural blue glow of my garage. I picked up a string of Christmas lights on the cheap to provide lighting inside the garage at night, figuring the soft glow would serve to illuminate the wall without causing issues with shadows, glare, or excess heat generation. It works quite well, although I wouldn't mind a bit of heat right now. The blue glow pulsing out under the door also serves to keep curious children away, but the tradeoff is that it attracts curious ravers.

hup

hup hup

We hoisted the wall section into place (it fits!!) and then kind of stood around for a bit considering what to do next. Since the angle of the wall is shallower than that of the A-frame, there's a gap between the two. I filled it in with some supporting beams, but these had to be cut first since I didn't actually know how long they'd have to be.

Then I had to get behind the wall to secure everything.

Who likes spiders???

Luckily, as it turns out, I was able to get through the gap and into the dark and webby netherworld of Behind the Wall. I wasn't sure how this would work before we actually did it- if the gap wasn't big enough, the plan was to get the wall raised up with me behind it and then scramble out over the tiny gap at the top. Which would have made for a pretty funny picture, I'm sure.

Welcome to... the Netherworld.

Here I am behind the wall, taking a selfie while waiting for more screws. I had to climb up the back to screw the supports into the top beams of the A-frame. You can see the supporting beams of the garage itself in this picture, but the wall isn't attached to them at all- I didn't trust the structure of the garage enough. You can also see the gap I was planning on squeezing through to get out. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

After securing everything (for now) I got back out and we were done. The 30 degree section will need more beams supporting it, but since I can get behind the wall at will I can do that any time. And the result...

Tadaah!

Both sections of the wall, loud and proud. I put a few holds up on the left side, for testing purposes only. I promise I didn't climb on anything before the wall was properly supported.

Birth in Reverse

Here's the gap between the two sections. Once everything is squared away and I don't need to get behind the wall any more, I'll put a small section of plywood here as a transition. This will provide for cool arete moves and let me use some of the terrible slopers I have that would be unusable anywhere else.

Nothing sadder than Christmas lights in daylight

Here you can see the gap between the top of the 30 and the A-frame crossbeam. After adding a few more support 2x6s in here, I'll put a short roof section here. This roof section will actually be slightly MORE than horizontal, with a slight angle down from the top of the 30. This should provide some interesting potential for underclings and the like.

And there you have it. These two pieces form the main bulk of Kuraimu V4, and I'm excited as hell to have them up. The next step, after finishing the transition and mini-roof, will be to add in the proper roof section- more on that later.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next time for A Very Special Edition of Fantasy Gyms. Stay loose!

Stress-Testing for Fun and Relaxation

This weekend, a new milestone was reached in the construction of Kuraimu v4- an adult human being hung on the wall and didn't die. Multiple adult humans, actually! Not only that, but nobody sustained grievous bodily harm and the wall didn't break. Things are looking up!

Pictured: Me, alive

It all started when I invited my dear friends and climbing buddies over for a pleasant lunch breakfast-y burrito-things. If it doesn't taste good, I always say, just add more sriracha.

No, it doesn't include the honey.

Once I had my guests fed I sprang my trap: T-nuts, and lots of them. 

Pictured: T-nuts and Element Formula K-2

holds, aka bugs

Just like that, I had a work party going, making good progress on the 200+ T-nut installations I still have to do. Between the three of us, we finished at least fifty of the little buggers, along with a good number of beers. We eventually called it a day and turned to focusing solely on beer, but that didn't last.

Hmm...

We had a big, structurally-complete segment of climbing wall lying around. Our eyes kept returning to it. The framework that eventually hold the wall sections up hasn't been built yet, so I hadn't planned on doing much with the wall other than getting it ready... but we soon decided to have a test. If the wall itself wasn't strong enough to hold up climbers, we reasoned, wouldn't it be better to know now, when reinforcing would be easier? When you've made a decision, it becomes easy to justify.

So we hoisted the wall up against the, uh, wall. The wall of the house. We did so in a controlled and thought-out manner.

I didn't make this face for the camera.

Functional Stength

And then we had a wall, propped up in a very secure and not-at-all life-threatening manner.

Note the highly technical support 2x4 wedged

against the bottom

So now the critical moment came... would the wall hold? Or would there be a cracking noise and a visit to the hospital? This thing weighs well over 200 pounds, a thought that was at the forefront of my mind as I got into position. And...

Yes, I know I already used this picture.

Success! I was able to get all my weight onto one hold, with a minimum of flexing. The wall felt surprisingly stable. I had my (taller, heavier) friend get on after me.

"I'm scared"

I'm now going forward with a great deal of confidence, knowing that this thing is capable of staying rigid. More testing will have to take place, of course, but for now I'm thrilled with this weekend's experimenting.

Stay tuned!