Naturalist Hangboard

For my upcycle project I created an upcycled climbing hangboard from scrap wood and a second hand rope sling. This project was created to fulfil two purposes. The first was my personal need for a portable training device that could also be used to warmup while climbing outside. The second was to aknowledge the opprotunities and exposure the sport has shown me. The enjoyment I get from pursuing hard routes and from the nature that beholds every piece of rock has truly become one of my most fulfilling hobbies.

(Photos from my climbing trip in Bishop, CA)

Climbing has grown into a very popular sport especially in Colorado and worldwide. Many famous climbers such as Tommy Caldwell being Colorado natives. The sport itself gained major popularity in the 1960’s. As a sport that began as a “hippy dippy” activity it slowly gained traction and became a progressive movement/sport. As competitions and climbers started gaining followings the sport began to blossom into a full fledged attraction, boasting famous lines in national parks like Yosemite, and even being featured in the Olympics. This level of popularity did not come out of nowhere however. Indoor gyms started opening in the 1970’s-1980’s and this allowed athletes to focus on specialized training indoors during colder months where climbing outside was either not available or a brutal experience. As these gyms grew, so did the training methods. Hangboards became a very popular way to train. They are relatively simple to make and can be created with curated holds such as sloped holds, small edges, and pockets that fit only a couple fingers. These hangboards are usually made for one of two purposes. The more industrial type that is hung on a wall and is larger in size to fit more training purposes, or a smaller, often single handed, version that allows for portability and can be attached to weights or simply put around your foot with a rope to provide some resistance.

As I began thinking about this project I considered a few aesthetics. The naturalism aesthetic stood out to me as a very honest way to respect the nature that surrounds climbing. As an aesthetic, naturalism represents and emphasizes the accurate depiction of nature, espcially in art. It focuses on capturing the world as it is. I believe climbing as a sport is just as important as it is an activity, similar to hiking. While climbing outside you are engulfed in nature’s decoration and new areas all harbor their own unique take on this decor. The individuals who set routes see a particular rock face and simply imagine, “how can I climb this”. There is no alteration, no carving away rocks to become a perfect climb (for the most part). As part of my project I wanted to pay homage to this notion, and pay respect to the nature that allows for the unimaginable feats of the sport.

Now that there is background on what this project means to me and the history that has gone into the creation of hangboards I will discuss how I went about creating my own personal naturalist hangboard. Shown below is the hangboard I created.

It features two slots, the top being 35 mm deep and the lower 20mm. The slots and edges of the wood were sanded to create softer edges when hanging and also to make the hangboard more resilient to blunt damage. Since the hangboard will be brought along to rock crags I visit I wanted to make sure it would not get too beat up by the environment. The environment also played an important role in fitting the naturalist aesthetic and my decision for how to finish the wood. I used a dark brown oil stain to give it a bit of camouflage while it rests among trees and various types of rock around the country. I drilled two through holes in the top corners to allow the rope sling to be fed through for hanging capabilities.

As far as materials go the two simple yet important items I used have a bit of backstory as well. This project was something I had wanted to do for a while. Without proper space (and the restrictions of living in an apartment) I did not have the ability to buy a large hangboard and drill it into a wall for use. A portable version would be much more useful for my purposes. I began looking for materials last year when I asked my friend who works at Play It Again sports to keep an eye out for any climbing gear that comes in. Fortunately, after a few months a Metollius climbing sling was sold to them. Luckily, my friend was able to set it aside so I could pick it up before anyone else found this gem. The wood was sourced from the Idea Forge scrap wood. This actually was not the first piece of wood I had in mind. I had picked up a piece of wood last semester that realistically was pretty bad. It had a split about three inches from the top that would have required some cutting into an awkward shape for use and overall it was not a quality piece of wood. I found another piece later in the semester that would have worked but was still not quite was I was looking for. Finally, this semester I found the piece of the wood that was used for this project.

During the planning phases of it’s creation I started by drawing a basic design for the locations of every feature I wanted.

The first image was a mockup I had made for the original piece of wood with a split. As seen, the slots and holes were marked to use for the actual construction of the hangboard.

To drill the slots I used a tool that I do not know the name of so I will do my best to explain it. The tool features a guard plate like a circular saw but instead of a saw there was a drill mounted onto it. It had the ability to set the drill stop distance below the guard plate.  This feature allowed me to glide along a sketched line while drilling slots at the desired depth.

For the through holes I used a wood mill with a 1/2″ drill bit to drill through the wood. A simple process but the locations placements were crucial to ensure the board had enough structural integrity to not split as soon as I put my weight on it.

My goals at the beginning of the project were to create a functional hangboard that was able to blend in with the nature relevant to my frequented climbing locations. This meant complmenting the evergreen forests of Washington and the granite canyons bordering Boulder. As far as functionality goes I think I hit the mark well. The sanded slots created a very soft feel to the wood and made it very finger friendly for training. For the artistic goals I had a few gripes. The stain color is not perfect, I would have liked it to have a darker brown color rather than the rustic cabin brown it turned out as. For the slots there were some imperfections on the lower slot that resulted from my mistake of originally drilling the slots at the same depth. To fix this I took 15 mm off of the bottom of the wood to reach the desired 20 mm depth. This resulted in some weird wall boundaries and after some sanding and chiseling I was not able to acheive an even and straight wall surrounding the bottom slot. Ultimaltely, it did not affect the functionality but it did keep it from the perfect look I was going for.

As I continue to polish this before bringing it outside I plan on seeing if a little more chiseling and sanding can change it to look cleaner. If I could go back and do it again this could have all been avoided by simply drilling the right depth for the slot. I guess if an undergrad in engineering has taught me anything, it’s that you rarely get it right the first time. In the future I would like to do this project again at a higher quality. I would buy wood that is meant for the brutal workload I will put a hangboard through and spend more time perfecting my placements to ensure it will work for a long time. The fortunate thing is that the creation was pretty simple. Hangboards are not overcomplicated unless you desire some crazy holds to practice on. From my experience, I believe that some slots at varying depths are about all you need to create a tool that can be used for strengthing your tendons and fingers, and warming up before climbing outside.

Sources:

Figure 1:

De Woodstok. (n.d.). Hangboard Woodbord. De Woodstok. Retrieved February 6, 2025, from https://www.dewoodstok.nl/product/hangboard-woodbord/