The Wall Walkers Journal
Entry 005 — The Wall Never Stops Changing
From fortnightly resets to fresh climbs every week, Wall Walkers has evolved through experimentation, member feedback and a commitment to making tomorrow’s wall better than yesterday’s.
One of the questions we’re often asked today is:
“How often do you reset your climbs?”
Today, the answer is every week.
But it wasn’t always that way.
When Wall Walkers first opened, we generally reset routes every couple of weeks. At that stage, it made sense. We were a brand-new gym, we had a much smaller membership base, and quite frankly, we had plenty of other things demanding our attention.
Why People Keep Coming Back
As the gym grew, so did our understanding of what made people come back.
It wasn’t just climbing.
It was discovering something new.
- A climb that wasn’t there last week.
- A movement you’d never tried before.
- A problem that took you twenty attempts to solve.
That’s when we realised the wall couldn’t stand still.
If we wanted our members to keep improving, then so did we.
Every Route Setter Starts Somewhere
Looking back at those first routes, I’m genuinely proud of them.
Not because they were perfect.
They weren’t.
They represented the best we could do with the knowledge, experience and equipment we had at the time.
Every route setter starts somewhere.
Every gym starts somewhere.
We were learning together.
How Limitations Shaped Our Style
One of the biggest limitations in those early days wasn’t creativity.
It was choice.
Our hold inventory was much smaller than it is today. We had plenty of crimps and jugs, but very few of the large feature holds and macros that have become common in modern climbing gyms.
At first, that felt like a disadvantage.
Over time, I realised it actually shaped the way we set.
- Body positioning mattered.
- Footwork mattered.
- Reading the climb mattered.
Without relying on giant holds to create movement, we naturally leaned towards more technical climbing.
In many ways, our style became a little more reminiscent of outdoor climbing than we had originally intended.
Expanding Our Route-Setting Vocabulary
As the years passed, we continued investing in new holds.
Every new shipment expanded our vocabulary as route setters.
- New movements we could create.
- New ideas we could explore.
- New experiences we could offer our members.
Lessons You Learn by Doing
Then there were the lessons we never expected.
When we first opened, many of our climbing volumes were fibreglass.
At the time, they seemed like the obvious choice. They were lightweight, easy to move and looked fantastic.
What we didn’t appreciate was how much we’d want to experiment.
Modern route setting is constantly evolving.
Ideas change.
Routes change.
Sometimes all it takes is adding one small screw-on hold to completely transform a climb.
Fibreglass doesn’t particularly like that.
Wood does.
It seems obvious now, but it’s one of those lessons you only learn by actually building and resetting climbs week after week.
Our Members Shaped the Wall
Perhaps the biggest influence on Wall Walkers hasn’t been our equipment at all.
It’s been our members.
We’ve always asked questions.
- What did you enjoy?
- What didn’t you enjoy?
- What would you like to see more of?
Those conversations have influenced almost everything we’ve invested in over the years.
- More holds.
- More variety.
- More density.
- Wooden volumes.
- Different styles of climbing.
The wall you see today isn’t the same wall we opened with.
Not because the first one was wrong.
Because we’ve never stopped learning.
Something Worth Missing
Every Tuesday, routes come off the wall.
Occasionally someone walks in and says:
“You took down my favourite climb.”
I always smile when I hear that.
Because it means we built something worth missing.
Now it’s our job to build something even better.
That’s why the wall never stops changing.
Because neither do we.