James Ingold // Regina, SK // Canada
When did you build your wall?
I built my wall about a week after Regina Climbing Centre closed down due to COVID. That was about as long as I could wait to do some climbing.
How long did it take you to build?
The whole build was finished in the course of a weekend.
Not including holds and padding, how much did it cost you to build?
The build cost somewhere between $150 and $200, most of the cost going into t-nuts and plywood.
Did anything in particular inspire your wall design?
The inspiration in this case was having no other place in my house to put it!
What was the most difficult aspect of the design and build?
The build was pretty easy, just putting some extra 2×4’s between the stair’s stringers for stability. That is, of course until I realized the door to my basement couldn’t open unless I made a cutout for it. That’s when I had to start measuring a bunch of angles and doing my best to cut them cleanly with a jigsaw.
What would you do differently?
|Due to how narrow the wall is, I would have liked to change the spacing of the boltholds to have more density in the middle, perhaps with a random pattern.
What is your favorite aspect?
I’m quite proud of my safety solution. Being above the stairs to my basement, even padding would be dangerous as you could roll off the edge or slide quickly to the bottom risking ankle injury. So I strung a rope between some bolt hangers and wear a harness with a Climbing Technology Roll n’ Lock. I hardly feel any drag when I’m climbing but it will reliably catch any falls.
Any words of wisdom to aspiring homewallers?
It may not be an ideal space, but there’s always somewhere a wall could go.
