Simulated ice wall at Warehouse Rock Gym in Oly?

[gwhayduke]

Hey, I'm from New York, but moving to Olympia this summer. I saw on the Warehouse web site that there's a foam ice wall.

 

I've never been ice climbing, but I'm anxious to learn. Is this in any way similar to learning to rock climb in the gym? I understand that it'd be better to actually climb ice, but until I meet some people willing to take me and a car to get there in, I've got to work with what I have.

 

Is the foam actually fun to climb, or is it more just for testing the swing of new tools and so on?

[ken4ord]

Foam is sort of a pain in the ass to climb, picks really stick to it. It fun though every once and a while. Climbing in the gym though is more like dry tooling when they do patches of foam with hooking elements. Pure foam is not at all like real water ice climing.

[Drederek]

I've never seen anyone climbing on it but there are pick marks in it. Unlike ice it has a very uniform consistency so it may be worth a go or two to get a rhythym going. Plenty of real ice a couple hours away on Rainier.

[Janez_Ales]

... or Baker if you live around the border.

 

(Just make sure you add a V-thread to your sun exposed top-rope anchors, screws tend to melt faster than we would like

[Divot]

I dont live far from Olympia, drop me a line, and I'll take you to some ice near my home on rainier.......