• It is summer, which if you live on the east coast, that means it is hot and muggy and the outdoor rocks sweat just like you and me.  Getting your climb on in the A/C is certainly a lot more comfortable than climbing outside with no shirt and booty shorts only to still leave a puddle next time you try and beach whale a top out.  Sorry, no nipple friction to had.
• It opens the sport back up to the folks that may not have access to a home wall or even hangboard.  Whether climbing was their only form of exercise or socialization, this is good news for those that need to get out of the house and get moving again, especially those that can’t or won’t for any number of reasons otherwise.
• The gyms can start to bring in some cash, and this one may not be on everyone’s mind if you already only pay a monthly EFT.  Gyms and gear companies operate on a veeerrryyy thin margin and any disruption could always lead to permanent closures.  The fact that we have not seen many shut down entirely is more likely a tribute to the community to keep their memberships active while still quarantined so that they would not lose their favorite spot. 

Cons:

• It is accurate to say that we do not yet know the full reach or impact of opening facilities like climbing gyms in terms of how conducive these places are to promoting the spread of a virus.  We are currently all taking part in an experiment.  My local gym in Birmingham has been open since May 29th with no incident.  I chose not to start back until it seemed to be panning out favorably, this most recent week.  My former home gym in Baltimore is in a much hotter area for infection and has only just opened their door on June 29th.  It is my opinion as an observer (and not as a scientist) that so long as everyone choosing to attend their gym follows the rules laid out by the facility and is honest about who they have had contact with and their symptoms, then we should be A-OK.

2) Climbing With a Mask

• The goal here, depending on your mask type, is to stop contamination from coming in to your mouth and nose and/or stop or limit the spread of contamination coming from your mouth to others.
• Worn properly, this method works.  Yes, it gets it’s own bullet point.  If this is the cost to get back to training and seeing friends after work, then I will gladly pay that toll.  The alternative is shutting the gyms down again.

Cons:

• The simple fact is that this is difficult.  If a mask to limit the expelling of air that might contain a virus from an asymptomatic carrier, it will limit the air going out of you mouth (CO2) and block the air that you need to come in (O2).  For bouldering a few moves, this is probably not an issue since the activity is anaerobic and only a few breaths are taken.  For anything longer than ten (10) moves or so, like a route, you may find that you are not getting enough air.
• You have to work harder to get the same volume of air to pass through a layer of fabric.  We need that oxygen to fuel our muscles! (High power masks have been shown to increase perceived effort. The same effect hasn’t been shown with cloth masks, but there hasn’t been much formal research yet) (most studies have been completed on participants while at rest, not engaged in activity)
• Carbon dioxide stacks up and can’t get out so your next breath in has a higher CO2 concentration making each subsequent breath less and less efficient. Depending on the type of mask or fabric, residual CO2 could range from 1% to 3%, prolonged exposure can lead to dizziness and nausea, so take ample rest.
• It is hot too and I am sweating more, specifically around my face region.  Again, a small price to pay for getting closer to “normal.”
• With the above, as the mask saturates, it becomes less effective. Christa Janse van Rensburg, a professor of exercise science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa recommends using a synthetic fabric mask for exercise, and to have replacements if you’re gonna be huffing and puffing more than 30 minutes.
• Even with a mask, you better be social distancing.  It’s fabric, not a forcefield.

• As far as I have seen, all climbing gyms are requiring booking a block of time to come in and get your crush on.  I have also seen a maximum time of only 2 hours.  Some gyms are being very strict on this rule where a set amount of people are in the gym and then there is a brief cleaning period between session for the staff to get the counters, bathrooms, benches, railings, etc, wiped down and disinfected before the next block.  The holds on the wall are obviously left alone, but they are trying.
• Since time and capacity limits are in effect, this gives the greatest possible distribution for accessibility so that one gym rat isn’t holding a space from someone else, thus, equal opportunity to get that session in.
• This forces you to get serious if you are training.  I started back this week and have been using some pre-planned sessions to make my time as efficient as possible.  With a warm-up for my shoulders, hands, hips, and back (I’m old, leave me alone), a quick power session, short rest, a volume session, then core, and I clocked in at 1 hour and 45 minutes.  I socialize lightly between burns, but the gym still has not been very crowded.

Cons:

• Climbing can be a wonderful individual sport, but it grew from social roots.  The gym became not just a place to climb and get strong, but where you could hang out and meet new folks or catch up with old friends.  Being thrust into a situation where it’s either climb or chat because the clock is ticking puts pressure to perform and to fit as much in as possible on the individual or pair.  We will find our balance, but right now there is a sense of urgency that we need to overcome.
• What if I miss my time?  Life gets in the way with work, traffic, kids, etc. and we have lost the flexibility that we once had.  Running just 15 minutes late is losing an 1/8th of your time.

• Less people in the gym means less potential contact with potential asymptomatic carriers.  We get to maintain our 6-foot social distancing, particularly for the gyms that are only encouraging rather than requiring masks.
• The users get to decide what is really important to them.  I expect that the serious user groups will be booking their times and the casual groups will make a decision whether or not this is still worth it.  I don’t really feel that the community loses at this time, based on the 80/20 rule of business (80% or profit comes from 20% of your user base).
• Again, if this is what it takes to get gyms open, I will respect the decision and change my training and habits accordingly.

Cons:

• The climbing gym is a social scene.  So far, my gym has never fully booked out their time slots, but I am not seeing the people I normally would on any given night, only a couple of the regulars.  Like with the time constraint point, this takes away the organic nature of meeting, climbing, and chilling in the gym.  Perhaps the users will come around, but if the slots aren’t even full after a month of being open in the south, then some of the magic has been lost.  In larger cities, I expect that there will be an over-booking or waitlist and what if your partner doesn’t get in the door?

• In large gyms where there is plenty of wall space, this may not be felt as much if there are enough of each grade with the limited attendance.  This could, in theory limit the contact of climber to climber because if each top-rope only has one line, and you do not climb that grade, you will not be exposed to that line.
• This also limits the work time of setters who, if they are salaried or session paid, still get to make their money, but get in and out of the gym much faster reducing their exposure and the gym’s user capacity when the doors open.
• Less routes or problems being put up, hopefully, would increase route turn over to at least keep it interesting and fresh.

Cons:

• Less routes means more people touching the some holds because there are less options at each grade.  I would think that the notion of spreading out would limit possible contact.  Even if you climb 5.13 in the gym, you are probably warming up on some moderates and if we all touch the same 5.8 warm-up then the notion has been lost.
• There is also likely to be lines for moderates.  If I’m looking for a nice 5.9 warm-up or cool-down and someone else tops out at the grade, and there are only so many to begin with, there will be overlap of usage and lines.  Hell, I already experienced lines when we were at full capacity, and with a time constraint this can be frustrating.

• Coal miners get black lung and gym climbers get white lung (citation needed).  Cutting down on the amount of chalk floating in the air can only be a good thing for our breathing and good for gyms that pay wild amounts of money to keep their HVAC units working.
• Viruses like to stick to the things we touch and it is super easy to touch all the chalk in your chalk bag/pot at once, pull your hands out, blow the excess chalk off and now it is everywhere.  Getting this possibly contaminated matter out of the air, especially with an airborne disease.
• You use less chalk, plain and simple.  Powder, chunk, and block chalk gets wasted all over the place, whether in the air, spilled on the ground, or filling on the fleece inside your bag.  Get a reusable chalk ball, fill it at home, and cut down on the potential contact and spread of of virus and chalk messes on the gym floor.

Cons:

• Honestly, none.  There are plenty of people, mostly boulderers, that claim they can only get a good coat of chalk from powder.  Is it EASIER?  Yes, it is faster and more efficient for the initial coating at the start of your session.  But, taking a little extra time to get your hands dry at the cost of less waste and less chalk dust in the air is a fair trade.  Still worried about getting your base coat down, your hands getting and staying dry, AND staying disinfected?  Then buckle up your harness and cinch down your shoes, because the next piece is about to unstuck your nuts.

Pros:

Note to the reader: I swear this is not a paid advertisement, but science is damn amazing.

Coming soon…

Pros:

• When I watched a round table discussion by the SCC in late April, they had a doctor/climber on to discuss the transmission of the virus and how to protect yourself.  A question in the Q&A portion that came up was whether or not the various brands of liquid chalk were suitable to kill the virus.  At the time, the highest alcohol content in liquid chalk was 60% (Metolius Liquid Chalk) and that was not enough to kill any type of virus.  He was unsure that any kind of formula could or would be developed that would both a) have a high enough alcohol content to kill harmful viruses and bacteria and b) still be effective as a chalk base.  Chemistry, much like baking, is as much art as it is science, and plenty of R&D went into liquid chalk the first time around to get the right mixture to dry quickly and stay on your hands.  For the several months of quarantine, the folks over at Friction Labs have been working to defy the odds and create a new formula that can handle the call to action, and they have succeeded.  At 80% alcohol content they have a brand new “Secret Stuff” formula is approved to kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria just like any other bottle of hand sanitizer.  Metolius has also been rumored to be working on their own formula with an 80% alcohol content.

Cons:

• Cost is really the only barrier.  A tube of “Secret Stuff” is $19 for a 75mL, which is equivalent to about bag of their 2.5oz. block chalk running at $10, so roughly twice the price.  Metolius Liquid Chalk sells for $9.95 for a 200mL (6.75oz.) tube compared to $4.95 for a 4.5oz. bag of Super Chalk, roughly 1.5 times the price.  As far as cost management, Metolius is your friend, but as far a performance goes, Friction Labs is what I’m reaching for.
• Both companies have not set release dates for their products.  “Secret Stuff” is currently available for pre-order, but no hard date.  The Metolius equivalent product so far has only been reported by REI Q&A.  Black Diamond has not released a any statement on their White Gold or Black Gold product line, but they use a 70% ethanol base rather than an alcohol base so more study needs to be done for that particular product.

Conclusion