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How To Buy Your First Set of Climbing Holds

Buying Your 1st Climbing Hold

After you figure out how to build a home climbing wall, the fun begins! It is now time to start adding rock climbing holds to your new wall and start doing some route setting.

Outside of the actual climbing, having the ability to set my own routes on my home climbing wall is my favorite part of the process. There is unlimited movement opportunities and, unlike climbing gyms, I get to decide the difficulties of all the routes. I love setting new boulder problems for friends and watching them climb them and figure out the beta for the first time! 

kid climbing holds

Before that can occur on your home woodie (wall), you will need new climbing grips. Lots of them, in fact! Where do you start and what kind of holds should you buy?

To help answer that, let's first ask some questions.

  1. Who will be climbing on your wall? Adults, kids, or both? 
  2. What is the ability level of the climbers? Are they all crushers in their prime, kid savants, or kids/adults just wanting to get exercise and have fun?
  3. What is the angle (s) of your home climbing wall? The steeper the wall, the bigger the holds you will need. The more vertical or slabby, the smaller and lower profile.
  4. Do you have a climbing wall with t-nuts that accept bolt-on holds or will you need screw-on holds? No wrong answer here.
  5. Do you want specific colors for your holds, color coordinated routes, or do you want a spray wall with random colors that you can make up routes on the fly?

The answers to these common questions can put you on the right track to getting a sweet set of new climbing holds that you climb on for a lifetime. 

The options below certainly aren't comprehensive but are a good starting place if you just got your wall built. If you still aren't sure what is right for you, Contact Us and we can give you a custom recommendation. 

Favorite Screw-on Starter Pack for Kid's Climbing Holds

 kid's climbing wall starter pack

Our 19-Pack of Seashell Holds are a great way to get your kids inspired to climb! Not only do they look great, while resembling all the crustaceans your kids find on the beach, but they include big jugs, small jugs, pinches, rails, crimps and great footholds - literally everything you need to set a few routes on your wall. This pack could make problems that are easy (V0) to advanced (V5+) depending on the angle of your wall and your route setting desires. 

Don't worry if you don't have bolts drilled, these are all screw-on holds and can attach directly to any sheet of plywood or strong wooden board. Just screw them in and climb away! Under no circumstance should they attach to drywall.

These aren't just for kids, they are high-quality climbing holds that appeal to a kid's imagination but are fun to pull on for adults too!

Favorite Starter Pack for Adults (that want color specific routes)

starter climbing hold pack

This Climbing Hold Starter Pack delivers 30 different holds that appeal to climbers of all abilities and come in a variety of color options. You will need a climbing wall with t-nuts installed as most of the hand holds in this pack are bolt-on.

This pack isn't limited to just adults, there are plenty of big holds that kids can grab onto and climb comfortably. We built this pack using our favorite holds from many of our different lines of climbing holds. This is really an outstanding starter pack and we think you will love it.

Best Way to Fill Up a Climbing Wall (If Color Matching isn't Important)

overstock climbing holds

This is an easy one and involves our most popular climbing holds - the Overstock Box! If you don't need color matching, or just want to spice up a wall and have plenty of different existing colors to match to, the Overstock Box is far and away the best way to add holds without spending a fortune. We sell them by the pound and you get tons of value for very little money.

In the customer notes (after adding to your cart), give us an idea of who is climbing on the holds and we will do our best to tailor-fit your box to your needs. Some examples include; 

  • "This box will be for my 5 and 8 year old kids on a vertical wall. They are new to climbing and need a little bit of everything and some big jugs."
  • "I am a V7 climber on a 30° board, I don't need any jugs but pinches, edges and crimps would be great!"
  • "I have never bought climbing holds before but we just built a vertical wall for our family and need a big variety - help!"

Any info you provide will go a long way in helping us curate your box of climbing holds to put the biggest smile on your face.

Experienced Gym Climber & Just Built My Home Climbing Wall

If you are an experienced climber, you probably already have an idea of what you might want. I think it is a great idea to start with:

  • Climbing Hold Edges - edges are highly versatile and can be useful for climbers of all experience levels. They are simple but offer realistic, creative movement options
  • Thuggin' Jugs - Every wall needs jugs of various sizes, whether it is on a steep wall or to act as the top-out jug (at the very top of a climb). Our Thuggin' Jugs look great, are comfortable, and fit kid to adult hands sizes.
  • Crimps - More experienced rock climbers will want to improve their finger strength by crimping on comfortable but difficult incuts - like our Sneaky Finger Dishes. These are some of my favorite and I am both in love with them and confounded by their difficulty on steeper walls. If you love to crimp, you will love these dishes.
  • Footholds - tiny little edges for your feet aren't eye-catching, but they are crucial to every climb. Unless you are a crusher and can campus through every problem (I sure can't), having a good set of footholds can go a long way. Our 12-Pack of Steep Feet are extremely popular and have a great variety of sizes for every single wall angle. This is a great place to start and you will find yourself using these holds more often than any other.

In Conclusion...

Don't let the number of options overwhelm you, every wall needs more than one set of holds (eventually) but just getting started is what is most important. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to buying climbing holds, just get some holds that look good to you and start climbing! 

Don’t forget, we offer free shipping to the lower 48 on all orders over $49!