How to build a rock climbing wall

Years and years ago my husband got a gumption to build us our own rock climbing wall. He built it along one wall in our garage of the very small rambler we had at the time. He took 3/4" plywood sheets. Marked a grid on them with string. and in each 1 ft square, he drilled 3 holes. The wall was more of a traversal really. He hung a rope from the top rafters and we used an extra futon mattress on the ground for safety if kids were over to climb.

At our second house we got to make a tall L-shaped wall since the garage was deep, like 1 1/2 stories tall, as well as much bigger (two cars and then some). In this garage we actually put some angles and roof boards up as well. Hung the rope from the ceiling and had the futon mattress to flop down for younger folks.

Later in our stay at this house we moved our wall outside and built a very tall, wall, 4 plywood sheets tall up along a huge maple tree in the side of our house. That was a fun climb!

When we moved again, that wall came down and went with us to our house we live in now.

Our current house has indents on either side of the chimney deep enough that we built shelves and hinged one full sheet of plywood on either side of the chimney as doors for access to the storage, yet still providing us with our wall. The Garage Door scaffolding serves as our hanger for climbing belts and shoes (see the photo). Right now a couple of the plywood sheets are down as we use them for various other tasks. But at a moment's notice we can throw them back up and screw some handholds on. It is fun to have some of the family kids over, nieces and cousins, and put up a bunch of what we call "bomber" handholds. The kids go nuts:)