How to Attach Climbing Holds to a Wall

How To Attach Rock Climbing Holds

Attaching Bolt-on Climbing Holds

Let's start with what NOT to do... don't tighten as hard as you can! Over-tightening can quite literally break, or at least damage, your new climbing holds. Hollow-back holds, which are partially hollow on the inside and are considered more "premium" holds, are particularly vulnerable to this.

To tighten, you only want to snug a hold up as tight as it takes to keep the hold from spinning or moving under the climber's weight. Unless you are an experienced route setter, or extremely careful, I would recommend only tightening holds by hand - with a T-wrench. 

American holds and t-nuts use a 3/8" bolt that screws into a 3/8" t-nut. To select the proper length, you want to push the bolt through the hold you are attaching and you want the bolt to stick out 3/4" - 1" off the back of the hold.

4-Steps to Attach a Climbing Hold Using a T-Wrench:

1. Use a 5/16" T-wrench, push the 3/8" bolt through the bolt hole on the climbing hold and match the bolt to the threaded t-nut inserted in the wall
2. Get the bolt started while being careful not to cross-thread. If you feel a lot of resistance, back it out and start again. 
3. Once the bolt is started, you can tighten until snug. Check the hold with your weight to make sure it does not spin. On large holds, you want to pull on the out edges where there is the most leverage.
4. If it is a larger hold and/or has a hole for a set screw, use a drill to put in a screw. This set screw ensures the hold won't spin on you while climbing.

Steps to Attach a Climbing Hold Using an Impact Driver

Again, this is not the recommended way to attach holds unless you are experienced. If you over-tighten (which is easy to do with an impact driver), you run the risk of breaking a hold. So use extreme caution!

1. Insert a 5/16" bit into your impact driver
2. Push the bolt through the climbing hold and line it up with the t-nut. I like to start threading the bolt by hand (to prevent cross-threading).
3. Use your impact driver to finish the job. Don't tighten beyond the clicking noise you hear from the driver. Once you hear that noise, stop! 
4. If it is a larger hold and/or has a hole for a set screw, use a drill to put in a screw. This set screw ensures the hold won't spin on you while climbing.

Technical Specifications

If you are really wanting to nerd out on proper torque specs for climbing holds, we would recommend the following. Small holds can take 25 Nm of torque, medium holds =30 Nm, large holds = 35 Nm, XL holds 40 Nm.