Climbing walls [updated August 2023]
I'm a big rock climber, and so far I've work on three rock climbing walls at MIT. Here is a bit about each, starting with the oldest one during summer 2022.
REX 2022 Climbing wall: Pirates and sea creatures
Each year, my dorm East Campus builds a large fort on campus to welcome incoming freshmen. In 2022 I worked on the making a 2.5 story top rope climbing wall. I started working on the CAD in Solidworks during the spring semester, and fort construction happened over the summer. The design consisted of 14 4'x8' panels and 2 half size panels of plywood with 2x4 supports on the back to drill holds into.
 |
| The climbing wall from behind (and our roller coaster on the left) |
I emailed many, many climbing companies and gyms around Boston for spare holds. The companies were generally unwilling to give away free stuff, but we got many donations of old, worn holds from two local gyms, Rockspot and Central Rock Gym. These are the same holds we used for the later two walls as well.
 |
| Cataloging the holds |
The wall was built into corner of the fort and had supports at the top to anchor the ropes. Originally we had plans to add lead climbing (clipping a rope to carabiners as you climbing up), but only had time for top rope. We worked both on rope and ladders to set routes on the wall.
 |
| Setting routes on the pirate ship wall |
2022 Fifth East indoor boulder wall
After the summer 2022 wall, we had all the these holds left over and nowhere to put them. Despite living a literal 3 minute walk from the nearest climbing wall (the MIT on-campus boulder wall, built by students in the 90s), we decided to use an empty room on my floor of East Campus. By far the most difficult part of this project was transporting each panel up four flights of stairs, and the best solution we found was to rig a pulley system with a human counterweight to bring them up most of the way. The panels were brought up in early September, but we didn't start construction until finals week in December.
We started with the support structure and joists, then attached the panels. The wall was designed to maximize the room space (214 sq ft) while not blocking access to the window and using the full size panel instead of cutting them down. In the end, it was a little closer to a boulder cave than a wall but still fun to climb.
Several months after the build, during the 2023 spring Campus Preview Weekend (CPW), I met with a manager from MIT's Environmental Health and Safety department and the wall was deemed sturdy and safe enough to be climbed on by prospective MIT students. By a stroke of luck we had built it just barely far enough away from the fire sprinklers in the room.
 |
| Setting new routes on the wall |
REX 2023 Climbing wall: French Revolution
This year's fort included a bouldering wall on the front face to have two vertical walls and one adjustable wall on the underside of the drawbridge. I was mostly involved with the electrical side of this fort this year (see my post about lighting), but I also helped construct and set routes on the climbing wall. With it being a boulder wall this year (climbing smaller heights without ropes), I was most concerned about setting routes in a safe fall zone onto mattresses.
 |
| Planning and setting routes |