About Climbing
“If you can climb a ladder, you can climb a rock wall.”
Lance Pinn
BKB President
Getting Started at Brooklyn Boulders
On your first visit to Brooklyn Boulders you’ll need to fill out one of our liability waivers before you can start climbing. If you are under the age of 18, your waiver must be signed by a parent or legal guardian. Even if you don’t plan to climb, we require that you fill out a waiver before you go past our front desk.
In order to use the ropes in the gym you must pass our belay test. Just ask one of the staff at the front desk to administer a belay test as soon as you walk in the door.
Children under 14 years of age must be accompanied by an adult at all times for safety reasons.
Brooklyn Boulders offers three basic types of climbing.
You can choose either bouldering, top roping, or lead climbing. Each has different requirements, so if you’re new to climbing read on to learn more about each of these climbing styles and figure out which one interests you. You can also read our pages for beginner and advanced climbers to find out about all of your options for climbing at BKB so that you can get the most out of your next visit.
Bouldering
Bouldering is climbing done on short walls without ropes. Our bouldering walls range from 10 to 15 feet high. All of BKB’s bouldering is above 12 inch thick pads to cushion any potential falls. There is no certification requirement for bouldering.
Examples of bouldering.
Anyone can just stop in, get a day pass, and try it. However, we do require that you wear rock climbing shoes to use our walls, so if you don’t have your own then you will have to rent some of ours.
Top Roping
Top roping is a style of roped climbing in which a rope runs from the climber’s harness through an anchor at the top of a route then back down to a person called a “belayer.” The belayer stands on the ground and takes in the rope slack as the climber ascends, a process called belaying. If a climber falls on top rope, they will be caught by the rope and held in place by the belayer’s weight.
Examples of top roping.
Brooklyn Boulders requires that you become belay certified in order to belay on our top ropes. Anyone can climb the roped walls but, because belaying is extremely important, we require that everyone who wishes to belay pass a certification test to demonstrate that they can handle the ropes properly. If you do not already know how to belay, we offer belay classes every day of the week. Top roping requires you to wear both rock climbing shoes and harnesses, both of which are available for rental if you do not own some of your own.
Lead Climbing
The gym also offers lead climbing, which is a more advanced style of roped climbing. Lead climbing is not for beginners, as it is both more strenuous and more dangerous than top roping. In order to lead climb at BKB you must be lead certified by one of our head climbing instructors. BKB also offers a comprehensive lead climbing class if you are interested in learning more about it.
This New York Times Blog article gives another concise description of what the climbing experience is like here at BKB.
