There was a time when climbing was the preserve of the hardy, and well-equipped, few. Armed with ropes and carabiners, intrepid mountaineers would set off, sometimes travelling miles, in search of adventures.
Now climbing is much more accessible. There are indoor and outdoor climbing walls in most towns and cities, all universities have a climbing club and every children's activity centre will offer climbing as an option.
But there is still the need for supervision and ropes, which for many people is a turn-off. Getting together with a group of like-minded people, organising a time to meet and climb, waiting your turn as some other person hovers hesitantly half-way up the wall or rock face - its not always an efficient way to spend your leisure time.
Which is why bouldering is such a great activity. The art of bouldering lies in negotiating routes that never exceed 12 feet above the ground - thus doing away with the need for ropes. As a challenge, bouldering calls for overall body strength, balance and an agility of mind. It is not just a case of mindlessly climbing up and up, it is about choosing a route, and often dangling in mid-air while making decisions about which hand- or foot-hold is within reach. For fitness enthusiasts you can climb, unimpeded, for as long as your muscles hold out.
Holding Tight
It is classified an extreme sport and, when you are holding on for dear life, half way up a rock, trying in vain to make your leg reach two inches further to the nearest viable bolt, you certainly feel the adrenaline rush.
So for adrenaline junkies in Cambridge, the new climbing centre at Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre has become a bouldering hot spot. The city centre facility has always had a climbing wall and, with the nearest dedicated climbing indoor centre being 60 miles down the M11 at Harlow, it was always popular with the city's mountaineering fraternity, but it was limited. One wall, ten ropes, the huge university population and keen climbers from the local climbing, caving and pot-holing club - the pressure on booking the wall was immense.
So, when the council offered to put some money into the facility, it did not take long for the centre manager Liane Shadrack to decide what the money would be spent on.
'We met with representatives from both the city and university climbing club and the caving society to discuss what would be needed to make this a facility that answered their needs,' she said.
The result is a room dedicated to bouldering. The old wall still exists, and if climbers want to use the ropes to climb this stretch of wall they can. But the rest of the room is set out for bouldering. A central column offers four sides of bouldering bolts, set at all different levels of difficulty. A horizontal overhang, 12 feet high, links the central column to a side wall, and the other three sides of the room are designed with overhangs and crags, with all sorts of cleverly-positioned challenges built in.
There is no need for equipment of any sort because the floor is a deep, well-cushioned foam crash-pad. The only danger lies in walking underneath the overhang if someone falls off.
The bolts are colour-coded to reflect difficulty, so climbers can challenge themselves to follow different courses, and these courses are changed by equipment manufacturers Zig Zag every two months to keep the challenge fresh.
As a physical activity, bouldering can be taken up by people of all ages and abilities, and fitness that is specific for the activity will develop as you participate. The first requirement, once you have started bouldering, is to develop muscular strength. Strong legs are needed to hold you on the rock face and to push you up or across the wall. There can be a tendency to rely on upper body strength but an experienced boulderer will use their more powerful legs whenever possible and preserve arm strength for when it is really needed.
Arm and shoulders will come in for a pummelling, especially when you are trying to step across to a particularly evasive foothold and for a few breath-holding seconds you are relying on your arms to keep you from crashing to the floor.
Extreme Yoga
Core strength, balance and flexibility will develop as you get more adept at bouldering. The latter of those abilities is particularly important as you are often contorting yourself into yoga-like positions - although it is difficult to feel calm and zen-like when all four limbs are at a muscle-tearing, full stretch, six feet off the ground. Like all the muscle groups, some extra work in fitness sessions on these areas will pay dividends as your bouldering skills improve and you need the strength to match your climbing ambitions.
And I must mention grip - the more experienced you get, the more your fingers will develop a vice-like strength, as you develop the ability to hold on to the tiniest of bolts with whitened knuckles as you prepare to make your next move.
Bouldering is not just about brawn. There is a lot of mental agility involved as you make split-second decisions half-way up the rock face on which way you will go next. Sometimes the route that looked negotiable from the floor proves just a reach too far. Or the overhang that you confidently expected to scale is putting your arms under an intense pressure that you know you cannot deal with. But it is amazing how, even though you know you can safely jump down, an innate drive to conquer that particular route urges you on.
Equipment needed for bouldering is minimal: a pair of specialised shoes are essential as they help grip the bolts and allow you to use natural rock features that trainers would just slip from. Chalk and a chalk bag to carry it in are also important as you will need to keep your hands dry. All of these can be found at good outdoor activity shops. One word of warning about the shoes - the first few times you wear them be prepared for your feet to be sore. By necessity, they have to be very tight and, until the shoes soften and mould to your feet, it is torturous putting them on. Once on the wall, the benefits are obvious and the gain is worth the pain.
There are more and more climbing facilities being built all over the UK, so if you are looking for a new challenge be bold and get bouldering!
Sarah Juggins - A magazine editor, blogger and freelance journalist, Sarah Juggins writes with authority and accuracy on a range of subjects.
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