The best climbing holds for bouldering: what to look for.

Texture: grip that stays consistent

Good bouldering holds have texture that gives reliable friction without being so coarse that it tears skin over a long session. Bouldering involves many short, powerful attempts on the same holds, so texture that feels fine on one go can become painful by the tenth.

Consistency matters as much as coarseness. Chalk and rubber build up in texture and change how a hold feels, which shifts the grade of a problem without anyone touching it. Holds that clean easily with a nylon brush and a mild citric acid solution keep their friction for longer; wire brushes and pressure washers strip texture permanently. See the hold care guide for the full procedure.

Shapes that work across wall angles

The most useful bouldering holds work in several orientations and on more than one angle. A rounded sloper or a ball-shaped pinch can be set upright, sideways or as an undercut, on a slab or an overhang. A highly directional shape that only works one way up on one angle gives far fewer setting options per hold.

Wall angle changes what a hold does. A small edge that is comfortable on a vertical wall can be unusable on a steep overhang, while a sloper that is positive on a slab becomes very hard once the wall tips past vertical. Buy with your steepest and least steep panels in mind.

A full size range, from jugs to crimps

Bouldering needs depth across sizes within each hold category, not just variety across categories. Jugs make up the largest share in most bouldering gyms because most climbers operate below V4 (6b) and need positive holds. Edges should run from comfortable three-finger edges of around 12–16 mm depth down to small crimps of 5–8 mm for advanced problems.

Several sizes of the same shape are often more valuable than one each of many shapes, because a setter can reuse one movement idea at different difficulties.

Footholds are half the problem

Dedicated footholds are the most commonly under-bought part of a bouldering set. Hard problems are often defined by what the feet can use, and small foot chips let a setter add precise foot placements without handing climbers an extra handhold.

On steep walls and training boards, footholds take a large share of body weight and are kicked constantly, so they need to be solidly fixed and checked regularly.

Durability under falls and heavy use

Bouldering holds take dynamic loading from jumps, cuts and falls, plus regular handling during resets, so they need to resist cracking at the bolt hole and losing texture. Commercial PU holds typically last 5–10 years in a busy gym with regular cleaning. The main failure modes are texture wear, bolt-hole cracking from overtightening, and T-nut failure.

Fixing practice affects durability as much as the hold itself. Standard holds should be tightened to 20–25 Nm on M10 stainless steel socket cap bolts, staying near 20 Nm on thin-walled crimps and small edges. Large macros need multi-point fixings tightened progressively in a cross pattern to 20–22 Nm. The fixing and installation guide covers bolt length, T-nuts and inspection schedules.

Dual texture helps climbers read a problem

Dual texture means a hold has a coarser, grippier finish on the zones a climber is meant to use and a smoother finish elsewhere. It is a route-setting tool, not decoration: it tells climbers where to pull and where the body has to move around the feature.

For bouldering, dual texture reduces repeated falls on misread problems and lets setters build more consistent grades. It is most valuable on intermediate and harder circuits. For beginner problems, where comfort matters more than precision, single-texture holds remain a sensible choice.

Macros and volumes for modern bouldering

Modern bouldering uses macros and volumes to change the terrain, not just add grips. A volume can create an arete, a corner, a compression feature or a mantle on a flat panel; a large macro can carry coordination and friction movement that small holds cannot. Commercial gyms commonly allocate 15–20% of an initial hold budget to macros and volumes.

Rockcity makes its VTF ABS macros in-house in Hull. VTF stands for Vacuum Thermo-Formed: heated ABS sheet is formed over a mould to create a shell as rigid as fibreglass (GRP) under climbing load, at approximately half the weight and far less brittle. Rockcity's flangeless design is Patent Pending WO2025/191268, its macros carry dual-texture control zones, and they were used at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic climbing competitions. Lower weight matters for bouldering gyms because large features become practical to lift and reposition at every reset. Rockcity ceased GRP macro production in 2025.

Rockcity also makes birch plywood volumes in Hull, in full-textured, Iconic dual texture and Safari Print finishes. Its PU holds cover jugs, edges, crimps, slopers, pinches and pockets in the competition colour palette. The plywood volumes guide explains how to set with volumes.

Colour and readability

Bouldering gyms identify problems by hold colour, so colours need to stay distinct at the 3–5 metre distance from which most climbers read a problem. Strong, pure colours such as red, blue, green and yellow read best at distance; subtler neutrals work better as supporting colours. Rockcity's competition colour palette covers around 20 colours.

Buy enough holds in each colour to set complete problems, especially footholds, which are easy to run short of in a single colour.

Hold types and their role in bouldering

A balanced bouldering set covers each of these types, weighted towards the grades your climbers actually climb.

Bouldering at home vs in a gym

For a home wall, versatility matters most. Home walls are usually small and often have one main angle, frequently a steep overhang, so choose holds that work in several orientations, lean towards positive jugs and pinches on steep panels, and buy more footholds than you think you need. The panel should be at least 18 mm birch plywood with M10 T-nuts; OSB and MDF are not suitable. Avoid washing PU holds in a dishwasher, as the heat can warp them.

For a bouldering gym, depth matters most. A commercial wall runs several grades and colour circuits at once and is reset frequently, so it needs multiple holds per category, per size and per colour, plus macros and volumes to vary terrain between resets. High-reset and competition panels are typically 21 mm birch plywood or thicker. The commercial gym buying guide covers category ratios and ordering in more detail.