What is Bouldering?

Once regarded as an inferior alternative to roped climbing, bouldering has now come of age as an activity in its own right. Requiring very little specialist equipment and as physical as you want it to be, bouldering is the perfect antidote to the monotony of gyms.

Bouldering is suitable for all age groups and all abilities and provides a positive physical and mental workout in an engaging environment that encourages social interaction.

No specialist equipment is required other than sticky rubber climbing shoes which allow a much higher level of grip and precision to be achieved than regular training shoes. Climbing shoes are available to hire and to purchase in all sizes at Beacon indoor climbing centre.

What is Bouldering?

Bouldering is a form of low level climbing typically limited to a height of 4-5m to ensure safety and practised with the use of a foam crash pad to help prevent injury from falling.

Although a bouldering wall is much shorter than a traditional roped climbing wall, bouldering provides a more intense challenge that focuses on short sequences of athletic movement and is a style of climbing that emphasises body dynamics, suppleness, power and strength. Bouldering is not just a matter of physical strength and can also provide a technical challenge that requires problem solving abilities combined with mental tenacity to succeed.

A bouldering route is referred to as a 'problem' and each bouldering problem is colour coded to allow easy identification. The aim of bouldering is to climb a colour coded bouldering problem of your choice from bottom to top without falling off, using only the specific colour coded holds designated for use on that particular problem. Sounds easy?

The difficulty of ascending a problem (and hence the intensity of your bouldering workout) is simply dictated by the difficulty of the problem you wish to climb. Every bouldering problem is graded according to difficulty, allowing participants of all abilities to choose a problem that either falls within their current ability and can thus be climbed quickly and easily, or to choose a particularly difficult problem that may require hours, days or even weeks before a successful ascent is completed!

Bouldering at Beacon Climbing Centre

Beacon Climbing Centre has extensive bouldering facilites, all bounded by thick high impact absorption foam matting to allow participants to push their limits without fear of injury.

The bouldering at Beacon caters for all abilities and there are hundreds of different colour coded bouldering problems spanning all levels of difficulty to choose from. Problems are changed regularly throughout the year, ensuring there is always a fresh challenge to undertake.

Difficulty Ratings

The bouldering problems at Beacon Climbing Centre use a colour coded grading system, each colour designating a particular range of difficulty.

Pink + Black bouldering problems provide the easiest challenge and are designed to offer amenable climbing for novices whilst white problems should keep even the seasoned professionals scratching their heads and nursing aching muscles!