Climbing overall is considered to be a sport that we think of it as a single-person sport because we can only see one climber on the wall, but often we don’t see the full picture and people that are helping this climber to reach the top. One of those people can be a person supporting that climber with the rope, and we call that belaying, but there are ways to climb alone and we will present them to you in this article, and answer that important question which is “Can you go to a climbing gym alone?”.
Climbers need a person to belay the rope for them as they climb higher, but there are some ways to climb alone without the help of anyone else. The most common method is to use the auto-belay device when your local climbing gym is somehow modern, then you should check if there is a special device that can support you with the rope as you climb higher. You can also sometimes see self-belay techniques but they often can be too hard for any beginner.
Many people struggle to find a replacement if their climbing partner is out. Let’s say that you often climb on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but your buddy needs to take a break for a day or two due to some reasons, and you don’t want to get out of shape, then it’s good to look for other options to climb or for a replacement for your climbing partner.
Maybe you are in a worse position and you don’t have a climbing partner yet. If you don’t know how to get your partner into climbing check out our new article for tips to convince him or her to try out climbing with you “How can I get my partner into climbing?“. You don’t need to be sad if you still couldn’t find anyone to join your climbing adventure, because we have prepared great solutions for you!
Auto belay device
That device was invented to help people who don’t have a partner to climb with, it’s a great solution for many lonely climbers. The device itself is located at the top of the wall, but you can connect it to your climbing belt while still on the ground. When you will climber higher and eventually fall, then the device will notice that you are falling and will start to reduce your falling speed it put you on the ground safely.
It’s good to not test it if you are only slightly above the ground because it needs some time to notice that you are actually falling, so try to climb for more than 10 feet before you will test how safe it really is. They are very common to see in every climbing gym, and they’re growing in popularity.
Even when you have a second person to climb with, it’s good because you both can climb at the same time without the need to stay on the ground, so you can do your climbing workout a lot faster.
Many people argue about if the auto belay device is helping the climber to climb easier because it works similar to a winch and that can reduce your body weight by pulling you up, but what many people don’t talk about is that when a climber gets supported from the ground then he needs to carry the tensionless rope’s weight. So it can be the difference in additional weight due to the belaying method.
You can do bouldering alone
Many people never heard about something called bouldering, which is a special type of climbing in which you climb 15 feet tall walls, with the mattresses on the ground to prevent you from injuries. You can do this with the most basic climbing gear like shoes or chalk, and that’s all that you will need to bring and start bouldering.
Bouldering starts to get more popular over time and if you think that it is an easier version of climbing you will be surprised. Often at the climbing gym, you can see a small area with holds and a crash pad on the ground, and yea that is called bouldering.
There are special gyms for bouldering where the whole area is prepared for bouldering. You have to know that climbing gyms need a special building type due to the height of the climbing walls, but bouldering doesn’t need that so it’s more likely to find a bouldering gym in the city center rather than a climbing gym.
In summary – Can you go to a climbing gym alone?
If you use the methods that we have described above then climbing alone can turn into reality for you, but remember that is way more funnier to climb with someone else and share the love of that sport.
Try out those climbing methods if you struggle to find a climbing partner, but in the long term it will be good to find someone, and that’s why we created an article about “How can I get my partner into climbing?“, so make sure to check it out.
