Summary
A Mini Moonboard is one of the cheapest and most compact homeboard systems. Both fun and effective for those who boulder 7B or harder. Can also be worth it for those who can boulder 7A — if they add a few more good holds to the layout. A lot of climbing in a small space with the sound philosophy that no one gets strong by pulling on big holds.
What is a Mini Moonboard?
We've had a Mini Moonboard in our apartment for just over three months, so I thought it would be a good time to write down my intital thoughs on the product.
A mini moonboard is a scaled down version of the popular Moonboard from Moon Climbing. The Moon board was the first commercial board with holds in pre-fixed position and with pre-set problems. In the first version, all problems were set by Mr Moon himself, but now they are user submitted via the app and a group of moderators decide which problems get the stamp of 'benchmark' for each grade.
These commercial uniformily ready-made or half-fabricated boards have, for various reasons, also become popular training tools in climbing gyms so I don't need to explain what they are. I guess everyone has climbed on a Moon board or possibly a Kilter board?
The advantage of ready-made boards is that there are already pre-defined problems at almost every level of difficulty, so users don't have to spend time or money on setting problems themselves, and they also avoid the risk of only setting problems with moves which suits them well. Most climbers also find it difficult to set problems with hard moves, on the borderline between possible and impossible, and mostly only set problems where they can make the move within a couple of attempts. It is hard to aquire new technique without being challenged by imposed demands.
The ready-made boards have the disadvantage that you pay more for the holds than if you would buy them in bulk from some low-cost manufacturer, as you also pay-in to a system with an app, administration of benchmarks and the community of users, product development and so on.
Like on every compact board, the climbing is basic on the mini. Very much about climbing in open positions with moves between flat holds without many tricks that make the problems easier.
Price — approximate budget in 2024
If you do the entire construction yourself and choose not to insert LEDs to light up the problems, you will probably end up with a budget of around €1,800 – 2,000 without crashpads. If you buy the whole kit with lights and pre-drilled plywood, it adds up to just shy of €4,000 with quality padding. If you want to make the wall adjustable with a motor winch, you have to add about €200-600 depending on attachement points.
Construction
The Mini is one of the smallest of all readily available commercial home walls and in its original dimensions fits into most garages or living rooms. It requires only 202 cm ceiling height, 244 cm width and 170 cm depth. Those with no carpentry skills at all can buy a ready-made freestanding wall or hire a carpenter to do it for them. There are several manufacturers of free-standing walls in Europe. Building a mini moonboard to the original dimensions using the instructions on Moon Climbing's website is relatively painless for those with basic carpentry skills. You can also find several instructional videos on YouTube, and detailed descriptions with blueprints elsewhere on the internet.
We decided to install the board with an adjustable angle, because we want to be able to set it less steep and use it for endurance training during high summer; this construction requires a bit of extra experience or a willingness to pester benevolent and well informed friends with many questions. I also have some kind of illusion that I will train at 50 degrees for some specific projects in the area.
I also chose to make the kickboard slightly higher than the 15 cm specified, which of course makes the problems significantly easier to start if you allow yourself to place one or two feet on friction under the footholds. But if you keep both feet on the start foot holds, they are only slightly easier compared to the original dimensions. The effective inclination of a problem is the angle between the lowest placed foot and the highest handhold, not the inclination of the panel!
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| I added adjustable strut support to increase stability. The righ hand side support is also an idependent back-up |
The reason I made a taller kickboard is that I wanted to put in an extra thick mattress so that I don't wake up the neighbour when I hit the floor. I am also getting older and no longer have any desire to hurt myself when falling to the ground. Another reason is that at 50 degrees it is difficult to crawl in to the start if the kick is too low.
After having talked to other owners of the board, many say that they would have added a few cm at the base to make it less likely to dab the heels. (But don't comment on the grade of a problem unless you build up the floor to shorten the kickboard back to 15 cm!)
We also had enough ceiling clerance that we could make the board 10cm higher and still get it in at a 20 degree angle, so I added half a row to the top (a row that so far only has two holds).
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| The board at 20 degrees takes very little floor space |
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| Layout with extra holds |
So far, I am very happy with the approach I took for our build.
Holds (2020 set)
The minimoon board is almost completely devoid of jugs. It comes with three series of wooden holds: A, B and C, which are also used in the '2019 master' and '2024' configurations of the full-size moonboard. The B and C series wooden holds are by far the easiest to hold on to. These are in addition to the set of original yellow holds that are also included in all moonwall configurations except 2024. All wooden holds are secured with both a central socket head screw and a wood screw to prevent rotation.
The configuration uses the best jugs as low undercuts and only has twelve really good holds on the wall, so almost all of the easiest problems are via these holds. The last row has only one really good hold that average boulderers can hang one-armed without feet. Most problems end up on one or two holds that are so bad that the vast majority of climbers are forced to keep their feet on the wall. One thing I dislike about most moonboard setups is that too many problems ends with a big huck for one of the jugs on the last row.
The original yellow holds are slippery when they are brand new (urethane plastic) but become easier to hold when used for a while. The birch plywood holds have more friction than hardwood holds and can be climbed on from day one.
Those who have a problem with thin skin should keep in mind that birch plywood holds wear out skin faster than pure wooden holds, but less than plastic holds.
Style of climbing
Unlike the original moon board (at least the layouts I've tried), the problems on the mini are generally a bit more static with a higher percentage of moves done with full control. On many problems, you absolutely have to keep your feet on the wall, partly because the holds are poor and it is difficult to hold the swing, and partly because you are constantly climbing so close to the ground that a foot slipping off a foothold almost certainly brushes the crashpad.
Thanks to the short kick and lack of good footholds on the first four rows, the mini board feels much steeper than the full-sized moonboard. The first two moves are usually done with the feet on the kick-board, where the slighly sloping standard feet require a bit of tension. The next move is often done with the foot on a very slippery wood hold or a small yellow plastic hold requiring even more tension.
Of all the commercial boards I've tried, the mini is probably the one I find most fun to climb! All killer, no filler. Perfect holds and short problems, often just 2-4 brutal moves that require total concentration.
My better half, on the other hand, favours the Kilter board by quite a margin. In the best of all worlds, you have a friend who has a mini you can test before buying. Or read a lot of reviews online.
This video displays the typical style for the easiest set of problems. For more videos, check the instagram accounts mentioned in the section Community below
Training effect: does it work?
All boards are naturally limiting in style, and the minimoon board more than most perhaps. It is, as the name suggests, small. But if you want stronger fingers and being able to do harder moves outdoors, I think the mini is better than all the sets I tested on the full-sized moon board, and of course miles better than something like a indoor bouldering wall or the Kilter board. (I have not tested Kilter's home version, which apparently has some holds that are not jugs). The Mini is also a little more demanding than the regular moon board when it comes to body tension. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to practice really long dynamic moves on the mini board.
I was never someone who responded quickly to strength training and that didn't improve with age, but I think the mini, like all boards, should provide a very quick initial training effect for those who can already climb, as long as they don't get injured. It is difficult to do more than one-and-a-half sessions a week with short limit boulders, at least for middle-aged amateurs (which is probably the target demographic for this type of product). This is another reason to add more holds or make the board tiltable, if it is going to be your main training apparatus for parts of the year.
Grades, grades, grades and benchmarks
This section may make your eyes bleed and you may think I've gone mad, but there is a point to this endless discussion of grades. Namely: what level is required to make it worthwhile to invest in this home board?
My impression is that a mini built to specification (15 cm kick and 40 degrees overhang) requires a minimum level of around 6C outdoors/ 6B on the moonboard or 6C/7A on the kilter board (@ 40 degrees) just to be able to make individual moves without dabbing on even the twenty easiest problems.
Since the holds are mostly poor, a relatively high level of skill is required to climb the easiest problems. The easiest way to get from sitting on the floor to the top, using any footholds and hand holds requires about the same effort for me as doing a boulder around 6B+ outdoors, and about the same grade on a kilter board set at 40 degrees. The lowest grade that can be assigned to a problem on the accompanying app is 6A+, and there are about 40 benchmarks with a grade of 6A+. There are more problems in the app in this difficulty but there is significant overlap between the problems as they are all forced to use the restricted set of 12 good holds.
My opinion is that it is not worthwhile to build a 40 degree mini moonboard for those who cannot boulder at least 7A outside or do the most popular 6B+ benchmarks on the 2016 set on the moonboard. Even those operating at that level should be prepared to buy a suplimentary set of better holds and put them in the big gaps left in the pre-defined grid. I think that's a better investment than buying LED lighting.
If you want to set up classic circuits of 20-25 moves to train strength endurance, a considerable amount of skill is required to use the mini-moonboard without additional holds. Even the easiest problems are quite difficult to back down. It is very difficult to set 20-movement circuits that flow nicely and are easier than French 8a.
If you set up a minimoon board at 25 degrees, you can probably subtract about two letter degrees in difficulty. Climbing a 7A at 25 degrees overhanging feels about as difficult as a 6B at 40 degrees to me. So setting up a mini at 25 degrees can be an alternative for those who lack the prerequisit level for a mini at 40 degrees. It also makes sense for those who are training for outdoor bouldering, as there are few areas with quality problems ≤ 7A on steep faces.
Community
Many users of the mini emphasise the social aspect of the board and its app as one of the best things about the board. As there are fewer users compared to the Moonboard or the Kilter, it becomes more natural to exchange betas, tips on problems and so on.
I am a total leech who only repeats popular benchmarks without giving anything back to the community. Though sometimes I post a brief comment that the problem is supersoft and that everyone else who has logged without demanding downgrade should be ashamed of themselves, not mentioning my tall kick and the fifteen dabs on the pad, on the appartment's white walls and on non-included holds, of course.
There are a number of users who puts up tons of usefull beta on instagram. @the.chalk.board is tall and well organised and often uses reasonable beta. @dolphs_minimoonboard is tall and insanely strong. @ita_board is short, strong and bouncy.
