Tom Cruise’s iconic cliff-hanging scene in Mission: Impossible 2—all rippling forearms and desperate lunges between Utah’s Dead Horse Point crags, 2,000 ft above the Colorado River—helped cement rock climbing in the public imagination, alongside Alex Honnold’s rope-free ascent of El Capitan’s 3,000ft face in the Oscar-winning docu, Free Solo. My reality? Far more humble. On my first visit to a climbing gym at age 45, I found myself barely six inches off the ground, put in a harness, inching along a beginner’s traverse (a 25ft wall) while my nieces and nephews (aged eight to 15) watched on. That simple 10ft journey left me with burning arms, sweaty palms, and a newfound respect for both elite climbers and children’s natural agility.
That was two years ago. Since then, I’ve fallen into the typical climber’s obsession—binge-watching years’ worth of bouldering world cup videos and spending countless hours at the gym, each time determined to push further than before. It’s a surprising turn for someone who never exercised and started with zero upper-body strength, but as seasoned boulderers say, that’s how the sport hooks you: one day you’re a novice, the next, you’re preaching its gospel. The timing couldn’t be better—2024 has seen bouldering emerge as the year’s buzziest sport. Harry Styles is doing it, Florence Pugh has been doing it, and even Lady Gaga and Zac Efron have been seen chalking up their hands, while in India, new gyms and growing communities are helping the sport climb steadily into our consciousness.
“I’d watched people going rock climbing in the movies, and it seemed really fascinating,” says Minu Rajeeve Payyapilly. The 24-year-old Hyderabad-based IT employee finally decided to try it herself after a friend posted about going climbing on a WhatsApp group. In the past five years, there’s been a proliferation of climbing gyms. In Delhi NCR, there’s BoulderBox, Climb Central, Delhi Rock, and Climb City. Bengaluru is home to Equilibrium, Elevate, Bangalore Boulder, and Urban Climbers, while Mumbai’s climbers frequent Podar Climbing Wall and Girivihar—YMCA Bouldering Gym, Pune residents go to Rock Aliens Climbing Gym, and there’s Fitrock arena in Chennai and Crag Studio in Hyderabad.
Most indoor gyms are meant for bouldering, a discipline where the wall heights are around 15ft. The wall is studded with handholds and footholds and you solve problems, finding a route to the top using only a certain set of holds. The floor is cushioned with crash pads and since the climbing is low, no safety rope is required. The other disciplines that comprise sport climbing are speed and lead. Speed, as the name suggests, is a race to the top. The wall is standard height at 15m or 49ft and so are the holds: 20 handholds and 11 footholds. The overhang is five degrees. That’s the one American Sam Watson climbed in 4.75 seconds at the Paris Olympics, setting a new world record.
Like speed, lead requires climbing high. Unlike speed, the holds keep changing and the overhang can be up to 60 degrees. You wear a safety rope (just in case) that is clipped into the wall as you climb up. Endurance is the name of the game as you fight gravity to pull yourself up on ever smaller holds. “Bouldering is a full body workout that targets balance, mobility, flexibility, and concentration,” says Arun Kumar, sports manager at BoulderBox in Delhi. From building core strength to boosting cardio, the sport engages everything from your arms and lower back to your glutes. The best part? Age is just a number here—bouldering enthusiasts include children aged five to six and it goes all the way up to 60, because anyone can do this. And that common fear of needing to be fit before starting? If you can walk up two flights of stairs at your own pace or manage a 20-minute stroll, you’re ready to boulder. The wall will teach you the rest.
“Some routes are based on height. Some routes are based on technique. Some routes are based on strength,” says Kumar. There’s a route for everyone, a fact to which I can testify. Though it might look dangerous, common injuries are restricted to ankle or elbow sprains; in fact the first thing all climbers are taught is how to fall.
Sayondeep Roy, 27, moved from Agartala to Delhi in 2019. BoulderBox had just opened, and he started going with a group of friends. The photographer has since shot the sport for National Geographic. “When I started climbing, I didn’t really expect it to become that big a part of my life, but it helped me build confidence, made me feel strong, and I don’t mean physically. Climbing is great for developing overall personal, mental, and emotional strength. I love how good I feel about myself when I climb. It also helps me focus, because when I’m climbing, I don’t think of anything else.”
He admits that “climbing remains a privileged sport.” With rates at ₹700-800 for a pass, inclusive of shoes, a monthly pass of ₹4,000-5,000 is required if you want to use a climbing gym consistently. Of course there is the outdoor option, aka rock climbing. Sethan in Himachal Pradesh, Hampi and Badami in Karnataka, and Dhauj in Faridabad have emerged as hotspots. There’s even an annual outdoor climbing festival in Ladakh—Surufest. Founded in 2016, it now draws a consistent 200-250 people, says co-founder Tenzin Jamyang, and has expanded its offerings from bouldering to slackline, kayaking, and mountain biking.
A common refrain from people who boulder is just how much of a community sport it is even though you’re alone on the wall. Dr Melissa Batson was 35 when she started to climb in Bengaluru. The neuroscientist and co-founder of the organisation Climb Like a Woman, who recently moved to Goa, says that the reason she stuck with bouldering was because “the camaraderie, the spirit to lift people up, is really great. Even if you just get one hold higher than you did last weekend, it's nice to have that posse with you.” In climbing gyms, too, strangers will help you solve problems, tackle routes, or stand by and applaud when you reach the top.
Climbing is an endless challenge. You can go to a rock you have climbed a million times and climb it differently, try a new hold, or skip one. You can find a new route on a wall or just climb more smoothly than the time before. It also gives you the body you want while taking the focus off how it looks. “What do you want your body to be able to do?” asks Batson. “Climbing will influence you to do things that will make you overall healthier.”
