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“Bouldering is the poetry of climbing” – Lynn Hill ‘Climbing Free’

Bouldering is simply the practice of climbing on indoor walls, natural outdoor rock surfaces, buildings, trees or anything else you like. Bouldering is done without any ropes, harnesses or other equipment beyond a pair of climbing shoes, some chalk to keep your fingers dry and a mat to protect your falls from reasonable heights. Bouldering is a cheap and quick way for most people to climb or get a workout without the need for a partner, expensive equipment, or time to set up ropes and gear. Bouldering is considered a technical and demanding form of climbing, but also a game to be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities.

All climbers boulder either as a form of training for bigger routes and mountains, or as a lifelong activity in itself.

Grades?
Bouldering has several grading systems used to denote the difficulty of a problem. We use the simplest ones in the centre, called V-Grades. These start at V0 (relatively easy) and increase in difficulty until around V15+ at which level only a few people in the world can climb.

*Don’t worry if you can’t climb a V-Graded problem the first times you try bouldering. It will take you a while to get used to the techniques and abilities required for different styles of problems. We also have problems graded simply as ‘Easy’ and also ‘Kids’ problems. But if grades aren’t your thing, then just forget about them and have fun!

Problem, what problem?  
A bouldering problem is a sequence of holds which a climber tries to complete. Outdoors these will be a line of natural holds. At The Arch, each problem is set by experienced climbers and follows a particular colour of holds. The starting holds are marked with coloured tape with a problem number and a V-Grade. If the starting holds are close to the ground, then the problem is called a Sit Start, and the problem begins sat down on the mat to start. A problem finishes either on a finishing hold marked with the same coloured tape as the start, or the top of the climbing wall if no finishing hold is marked.

You can use holds of the colour indicated for your feet, your hands and body. You can also use any feature of the wall within reach, like corners, aretes or other walls. Often solving a problem needs thought and technique, rather than strength so don’t give up! Use the problem topos around the centre as a guide to finding problems suited to your ability.
 

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