I want to reconstruct a 50' section of one of the rock climbs in the United States out of cement and perhaps used bricks. I want to use granite for the hand holds. It would be used to climb on and as a model for sales and duplication in other places. If you have some property you can donate for this project please let me know. The project would weigh around 40 Tons and in the end you would own it. It would be engineered as a permanent structure and would need a concrete foundation and perhaps a building permit, depending on where you live.

This would be shaped somewhat like a boulder and be more aesthetically pleasing to climb on than a traditional climbing wall, however, there would only be one climb on it. The climb I am thinking of is around 5.12.

If you are interested in helping with the construction and or the building materials, that would be even better.

Sign me on, daddy-o.

Show us a portfolio of the your most recent 6 - 10 of these that you've built so we know we're not signing up for a 40 ton eyesore.

I have an engineer, there would be drawings. Here are some references:

PSE&G, Con-Edison, Merk, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, .

I suppose that if it is square there should be four climbs on it. The other three could be done later. I have some very good reasons for this project, other then it will be fantastic to climb on, but I do not want to print them out on the internet. I need some property to do this first and I am sure some companies would be interested in having copies of this as a show piece. However, it may be that the aesthetics of it may only be completely appreciated only by climbers like you and me



600 # Lintel Replacement project 200' AGL. We put red bricks inside the beams.

You're missing the point. Show us examples of artificial rock work you've done in the past. Not construction and structural jobs, but fabricated rock that looks natural and aesthetic. Not bricks stuffed into an I-beam and not a list of references. No one wants to donate land for 40 tons of ugly.

Oh, and learn how to rotate pictures in your image editor before posting them.

"No one wants to donate land for 40 tons of ugly."

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I am trying to do is duplicate the moves and difficulty of climbs that are our of reach, for what ever reason, so that if you put a blindfold on, you would never know the difference.

Now I could make a duplicate, we have the capabilities for this, but I think it may be unnecessary to go any farther than what I have already intended. I want something that is as the original climb, effective, and easy to reproduce. If you do not see any beauty in that, then we are talking about two completely different objectives.

http://vimeo.com/scanlab/bartlett-summer-show-2010-3d-scan

What do would you want, 100 reproductions in your back yard or just 1? How much do you want to make this project, $200,000.00? I am trying to cut costs down to around $3,000.00. I want to come up with something durable and equally practical. And Personally, I don't like working with fiberglass, and I think it is a mistake anyway.

What I want is examples of your work that show your skill and talent at being able to do this aesthetically. Judging by your posting photos of rotting industrial artifacts and your evasive answers, I suspect you don't have the skills necessary to create a pleasing artificial rock structure.

You are right, it will be ugly in comparison to the real thing, there is no getting around that regardless. But the climbing on granite rock will be very durable and very similar. Yet, for what I have in mind, it will look awesome in comparison to what you find in any gym, trust me.

BTW, do you think you could stem up those clay arches or mantel on that ugly cast iron dome?

C'mon, this would take far more money than you can get your hands on.

I think I can get most of the material for free. If no one is interested I will just build it in my own back yard. But I would rather not, I would rather build it in New Paltz.

If we were to pay for the material, it would be around $4000.00 in concrete, and lets say an additional $1000.00 for re-bar etc.

Other construction expenses, $1,500.00

The granite slabs would be around $1,000.00 or $1,500.00.

Total cost would be close to $10,000.00.

Now, if we were to add an additional 3 climbs the additional cost would be around $1000.00 per climb. That is providing we planed out the molding properly in advance.

If I were a gazillionaire...

I would liberate boulders from lands doomed to be developed into oblivion, have them carted to the midtown NYC block I had purchased specifically for the purpose, excavated to a depth of about 20 feet, and create an amazing bouldering park.

Of course, the power would go to my head, and I would eventually contact governments about the purchase of specific boulders on *their* lands... and White Lightening would no longer be in Yosemite Valley, but my little park.....

Life is but a dream...

From the Eldorado Climbing Walls site [ http://eldowalls.com/our-walls/boulders/ ]
an 11 feet tall, 9 feet long, and 7 feet wide cast boulder made of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) starts at $25K.

I called them on the phone already, I don't want to use fiberglass.

The project I have been talking about, with four 45' climbs on it is worth more than 25K. It is somewhere around $250,000.00, between $600,000.00 and $250,000.00. But I am giving it away for some where between $12,000.00 and free. I would sign a contract for $12,000.00, but I would hope to get some some help.

Until you provide examples that demonstrate your ability to do this, it's pretty doubtful anyone would be willing to provide land, funds, or resources. As far as it's value - it doesn't matter what you think it's worth, only what someone is willing to pay.

All the better, then I will just build it for me and my friends here in my NJ back-yard like this guy did: http://www.negativeion.com/sickness/rado/rampBook/ , so we can work out during the week. And I'll send you some pictures if that is the case,

I will just build it for me and my friends

Wouldn't you and they be bored doing the same few routes over and over again?

If I were a gazillionaire...

Shucks TerrieM, why not build a skyscraper where zoning laws would permit with thousand foot routes and convenient belay ledges plus elevator for rapid descent?

now if you can make it like the University of Washington wall that would be incredible.

Another view:


There's also the Marymoor Park Climbing Wall in Redmond:

I'll be happy to donate land for this project....

Provided of course, with the understanding that...

certain sections of this New Cliff will be roped off with No Tresspassing Signs, and access to the other areas of the New Cliff will required a 20 to 30 minutes extra hike.


Also access to the cliff will require a contrabution to one of the newly formed public adovacy groups listed below.

Its_My_Ball_and_Im_Going_Home.org

or

Just_Suck_On_It_you_Bunch_of_Worthless_Twerps.org

My advice would be to work up a good scale model at home before going big.

LOLOL!!!! Nice!!!!

"ET Phone Home"....

is that HO scale? or N scale?... can we more foliage on it? I like the Fall, its one of my favorive seasons.

No, I will be lucky to get up it on a regular bases. So it will always be challenging. I hate multiple alternative climbing walls. They make me sick.

We will probably just follow some blueprints and pour it.

I have a better idea. Rather then reinvent the wheel, lets just build it over your corner property lines and see what happens. If it creates too many problems we'll just say: "It fell out of the sky, we don't know how it got there, but we need to climb on it every day.".

My first idea is to have an overhanging slab 30' X 10' X 1'. However now, this may include support walls which therefore can be utilized for additional climbs, perhaps a 10' overhang somewhere on the other side.

P.S. What are you neighbors like?, if you don't know, don't worry, we will find out real fast.

"I will just build it for me and my friends"

I meant ... it should be up there in New Paltz. Of course you are all welcome to come here, but I think it belongs up there with everything else. And I will say why and more on that in the next week or two.

If it were to have an awning or some other kind of covering above it, it would be in demand on a rainy day -- perhaps too crowded.

please consider the Rondout side of the ridge too.

Sounds like a great idea, but you better start building soon -- because at this rate we can name the routes after the Cheshire cat.

Aw, that never works!

The climbs I am thinking about already have names. I want to make copies of climbs that are inaccessible because they are far away on the west cost or overseas or on on private property and places like this. I think we only need the crux and the moves in granite, and we do not need the whole climb. I want to concentrate on practicability not so much aesthetics, I don't care what it looks like so much if we can mass produce a lot of these, and different ones. But I believe once we start climbing on these the understanding of how they look will be greatly appreciated. First I need some property in New Paltz. You guys ask around, OK? Maybe Hardie would be interested, but he did not return my email. He must be busy?

I think this should not so much be about money, honestly, I just want to climb.

You may make a model LarE, after we get the blueprints from the Engineer, OK?

That's a good idea, Perhaps some kind of somewhat transparent to the light tenting material would work if we could roll it out. We can always do that later.

Oenophore was right, the slab is too expensive for me, at least in NJ. Unless I can put it on wheels, somewhere where zoning is not a problem, or indoors.

Looks like I have to use fiberglass after all, if I want it in NJ. I might be able to put it alongside my house now and then.

A few years ago I saw an erectable US Army fiberglass climbing tower being towed on a trailer as a recruiting gimmick. Such a device can bring a climbing gym to almost any flat level surface, so there's no need to designate a fixed place for it, just a flatbed trailer and a vehicle to tow it. Although I didn't see such, it might be nice to include a pop-up umbrella imbedded in its center.

I can't seem to get concrete and Quartz conglomerate [or some other stone] out of my head. I am seriously thinking of re-building my 3 flue chimney to the outside of my house. This would add space to our very small kitchen. We have a 3 story square house approximately 30 vertical feet high. I could make it out of concrete and line a crack with vertical stones to make a vertical crack. This way the town would have nothing to say and I could climb all year on it. I wonder how much bigger than the house I could make it?

I enjoyed seeing the finished product after John Bouchard erected an entire 3 story wall of huge granite blacks for his shop BITD. They used it for dry tooling and rock climbing inside.

They still would need to issue a building permit.


Talk it over with your zoning board.

The side of my house is 35' tall, so I bolted four 2' x 8' 3/4" sheets of plywood through my wall to the other side and painted them to match the asbestos shingles. I made a layback climb out of 2 x 4's, as you can see in the picture. It's around 5.11 or something like that. It cost close to $259.00. It's not done, and it is hard to get psyched on 2 x4's, but I think I'll hate it less then the climbing gym. I built it only because I need to exercise midweek.

Holy, Sh*t. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of Don's neighbor's as they watch him scale his house...

It's like 5.11+. It would be harder if we just used 4 2X4's rather then 6.

It is a lot harder above on only two boards. I just got sick of it and fell off, possibly tomorrow I'll make it. Maybe the paint will help me stick to it. Joshua did it by moving really fast, but I will have to do something with my saw and make it less square near the top when I finish the last few feet. I like to see him fall off.

BTW, all the weight sits on the ground off the 2 X 4 X 16's. The bolts go through the asbestos shingles, through old asphalt shingles, then through some thin lumber, then past an air space and through slats under a plaster finish. I have some 2" washers on the other side under some nuts that are only hand tightened so as not to damage the plaster. I wanted to screw it to lumber in the wall, but that became too complicated.



We have a bunch of those rockclimbing wall hand holds, but I think they are too hard on the finger joints and too much too much trouble to deal with.

Yeah, never understood why you East Coast boys would lieback a 5.6 handcrack :-)

Looks......boring.


So much for eliminating boredom. And only the tiny crimpers are hard on the finger joints - rounded and/or juggy ones are just fine.

This thread started with granite and culminates with wood. Ah, how expectations have declined.

He could always build one of these.....

Or one of these. Might take care of local drainage issues at the same time.

He could always build one of these.....

Sure, anyone can.

Or one of these.

Now I find that imaginative, finding an entire new use for a concrete dam. Such a thing wouldn't be allowed in our paranoid nation.

Hey! He was the one originally talking about concrete, bricks, and granite to the tune of 40 tons......

Still will. Need property and permit.

I will supply concrete, rocks, and re-bar.

$1,300.00 in concrete for a wall 6 X 1 X 40. [I am hoping to get the concrete for less than that.]

$400 in rebar.

$0 - $1,000 stone.

My costs total would be around $3,000.00, but I am hoping I would get some help, but I don't think there is much interest.

any thread that culminates in wood cant be all bad...