Beginner Tips: Your First Time At The Bouldering Gym

If you're going to the bouldering gym for your first time, you may be wondering what to expect. Here is a step by step video including:
1. Recommendations for whether or not to rent shoes
2. How to choose routes to climb
3. Rules/guide for starting the route/problem
4. Guide for actually climbing the route/problem correctly
5. How to finish a route/problem correctly

✦✦SUBSCRIBE and click the NOTIFICATION icon✦✦
I will be uploading videos weekly

Recommended Articles:

[babayaga]

So helpful! Thank you. I have anxiety and having things cheerily explained with no judgement even if they’re things that should seem obvious eases my worries a TON. So excited to start climbing!

[RoseRoulette]

Thank you so much for this! I signed up for an intro class and was honest with the instructor about being nervous. They were very understanding and made the whole experience more enjoyable!

[dollsNcats]

I cant wait to start ! Signed up out of the blue at my local climbing gym .

[sdemosi]

I went to the climbing gym for the first time in my life a few weeks back. I was recovering from an injury so probably should have sat it out. However what happened was very disappointing.

I had paid for an instruction session and received none. They said they had no climbing shoes in my size (UK 12.5) and so I had to climb in a pair of mid top boots. I managed to fluke myself near the top of the first wall I tried on auto belay and then struggled to do anything after that. I'm not exactly light but I regularly hike and scramble so general fitness isn't an issue. I can do pull ups, which when you weigh over 220lb isn't so bad.

I now understand I was doing lots of stuff wrong and was basically psyched out by much younger and lighter people bombing up the walls. The instructor never told me not to grip holds like a T-Rex and just seemed to think if was funny when I fell. To be fair, I laughed too because it seemed a better alternative to crying in frustration.

At the end of it I was physically exhausted and thinking I would never be able to do this until I found someone to help me out and give me some tips. Except for that one friendly person I would have been too embarrassed to return.

On the day, the instructor said "it's not as easy as if looks" but I said to her, a young lady, that I didn't expect it to be easy given my height, weight, large feet wearing boots, and never having done it before.


Your video is great and many thanks for producing it. I would ask instructors watching this to please be nice to newbies. We're just there to have some fun. We need your help, which is the whole point of instruction. And if we happen to be a large male in our 40s, we're not the enemy.

[RobinsonRDavid]

So what do you do if the route is built for taller climbers? I’m 5’2.5” and the top of the V0 route is easy for taller climbers but difficult for someone of my height.

[Ramneek]

This is the info I was looking for, thank u

[readingwithrebeccanicole]

Thanks so much for this video! This is exactly the info I was looking for :)

[wieldingcolor]

Saraaaahh, as someone who has just startedd climibing, your videos have been incredibly helpful!! Thank you so much, although I do have a tiny request (I hope not arrogant) but I was wondering if you could use music in the background of your videos with a little less volume or use calmer music? it's hard to follow what you say when they music is so slaaay😭 But I thank you again!!

[altairisky]

New to climbing and had a question. All the routes at the place I go to only have marked starting. hand holds(no feet markers) . I've been trying to flying squirrel the route by holding both hand holds, hanging for a brief second before lunching my feet to a hold. My question is.. if I have both hands on the starting hold/s and there is no feet markers, Can i put my feet on other holds of the challenge or volumes? Thank you! love your content!

[korloq]

Thanks, I am going today for the first time

[LetsPlayCrazy]

The fact that climbingshoes cost THAT much to rent for a day is insane to me. I at first thought they were simply a deposit so you don't run off with these cheap ass shoes.
But no... 3-6€ per day. That means 5-15 climbs per pair of shoe. And they don't even fit you well! That is highway robbery.
Especially at the beginning fif you don't know if you want to continue this hobby...
So I will try to do a few climbs with my own shoes next time. I'll let you know what I, as a beginner, think about normal shoes for climbing easy routes!

[jamiewatkins]

Was enjoying it until I see the photo in the background lol why make it exclusive to women? No one treats women any different in the climbing gym your actually making the divide yourself here IMO.

Great videos I must admit though.