Indoor Climbing Gear

You don’t need a lot to get started climbing indoors—most gyms offer rentals for all the essentials: harnesses, chalk bags, climbing shoes, and even belay devices. But the more you climb, the more you appreciate customizing your kit. Owning your own rock climbing gear doesn’t just mean not having to share shoes with the rest of the community. It also helps you progress your climbing ability thanks to better fit and consistency.

From harnesses and gym shoes to ropes and belay devices, this guide covers all the basics for indoor climbing, with multiple top picks based on how you like to pull on plastic. Beginners and experts alike will find excellent gear for training, projecting, and just plain having fun at the climbing gym.

Choosing A Gym Harness

Gyms cater to top roping and lead climbing with permadraws, so you’re harness need not have more than the basic anatomy: waist belt, leg loops, tie-in points, and belay loop. Because any harness will work for gym climbing (including your outdoor harness), we recommend that you choose one that matches your budget and climbing style. Here’s a quick and dirty breakdown of what to look for in a climbing harness for the gym.

• Performance Harnesses: Stalwart sport and comp climbers often seek out low-profile, ultralight harnesses. These slim options reduce bulk around the torso and legs, allowing greater freedom of movement for complicated cruxes and maximum velocity on the speed wall. Thinner, techier materials like Dyneema and little or no foam padding aid in lowering volume and weight, but they can come at the cost of comfort, especially for long hangs, and also tend to be more expensive. Our performance harness picks below include harnesses from across disciplines—yep, even ice climbing—and they all have minimalism in common.
  
• Casual Harnesses: Harnesses designed for more casual climbers generally feature lower price points, comfort-focused features, and less technical designs. These harnesses are great for both beginner climbers and budget-conscious climbers that don’t expect anything too fancy. Despite their lower price points and simpler designs, casual harnesses have all the essential functional features needed for both indoor and outdoor rock climbing.

Best Casual Gym Harnesses

Gearhead® Top Picks

Comfort-focused picks for top roping and leading.

Best Performance Gym Harnesses

Gearhead® Top Picks

Lightweight, low-profile harnesses for indoor grade pushers.

How We Choose Indoor Climbing Shoes

While there isn’t a wrong climbing shoe to wear to the gym, some shoes are more specialized for volume dancing and plastic scrambling than others. If you’re ready to swap smelly rentals for your own personal pair or looking to maximize performance indoors while saving your granite shoes for granite, here’s a quick rundown of how to choose a gym climbing shoe. (And if you want a full deep dive, check out our Climbing Shoe Guide.)

First, find your size. Before ordering a pair of shoes online, you’ll need to know your foot length. Trace both feet on a piece of paper and measure the distance from your heel to the tips of your toes. It’s normal if one foot is bigger than the other by a few millimeters, so record the larger number. You’ll use this measurement as a starting point to compare with shoe size charts. Once you receive your shoes, they should fit like a glove, without any air pockets or painful pressure points.

Now that you know your foot length, here are the main categories of climbing shoes ideal for the gym:

• Entry-level climbing shoes are generally flat and symmetrical. These comfort-focused shoes deliver a forgiving feel for your feet, as they don’t force your toes, heels, and arches into uncomfortable positions like an aggressive shoe would.
  
• Moderate climbing shoes are our workhorse shoes for the gym. We appreciate the blend of comfort and performance offered by these somewhat downturned, slightly asymmetrical shoes. While these all-round performers are neither the absolute best at edging nor smearing, they’re darn good at just about everything. These shoes are great for both intermediate climbers projecting moderate grades and those who want to save their “best rubber” for outdoor projects.
  
• Aggressive and comp-style shoes pair perfectly with pushing the hardest grades indoors. These climbing shoes are designed with the competition climber—and their signature dynamic style—in mind. Soft, sensitive rubber paired with aggressive downturn and asymmetry team up to offer unparalleled control on delicate jibs and slippery volumes alike.

Our Gearhead® Experts picked a few favorites for each type of climbing shoe below. You can read more fit tips in our full Climbing Shoe Guide. And if you have questions, click the chat icon to get customized help from a real live Gearhead.

Best Beginner Shoe

Gearhead® Top Picks

More neutral climbing shoes to replace smelly gym rentals.

Best Workhorse Shoe

Gearhead® Top Picks

More moderate shoes for pushing gym grades.

Best Comp Shoe

Gearhead® Top Picks

More high-performance picks for the toughest plastic projects.

How We Choose A Belay Device

Belay devices are essential for all types of rope climbing. When a climber falls, the rope starts to move rapidly, and hands alone aren’t exactly great at holding on (just think of the last time you played tug of war). Attached to the belayer’s harness, belay devices act as a braking system for the rope, making it easier to stop a fall and lower a climber. Assisted belay devices, also known as auto-locking devices, are preferred for gym climbing—in fact, some gyms require them. Our favorite belay devices for the gym reduce belayer fatigue and improve overall safety.

Best Belay Device

Gearhead® Top Picks

Gym-approved assisted braking devices. 

How We Choose A Gym Climbing Rope

If you only top rope or boulder at the climbing gym, you don’t need to bring a rope. Climbers who want to lead climb at the gym will need to bring their own rope. Here’s what to look for:

• Length: Look for a dynamic single rope that’s twice as long as your gym walls are tall. Wall heights vary from gym to gym. Some climbers will split a 70m rope into two dedicated 35m gym ropes. But with more gyms building taller and taller walls, you may need a 40–50m rope. A longer rope offers more versatility, especially if you plan to climb at multiple gyms or take your rope outdoors.
  
• Diameter: Rope diameter impacts rope handling and weight. Larger diameters move more slowly through belay devices, weigh more, and last longer, while smaller diameters have more slippery handling and generally weigh less. When selecting a workhorse rope for the gym, we prefer one with a moderate to large diameter (9.5mm or more).

 
When To Retire Your Rope

A bright new rope won’t last forever—and we don’t just mean it’s lovely just-flaked-for-the-first-time color. Every rope has a maximum lifespan determined by the manufacturer (typically 10 years), but few ropes will go that long before retirement. The more often you use your rope, the shorter its lifespan. Inspect your rope regularly for signs of excessive wear such as a frayed sheath (a little fuzz is normal), flat sections, core shots, or stiff handling. When a rope exhibits any of these signs, it’s time to phase it out. If it’s been a while since you bought your line, here’s a loose guideline of when to replace your rope:

• Major fall or acute damage: retire immediately
• Frequent use (weekly, year-round): 1 year
• Regular use (a few times per month): 1–3 years
• Occasional use (10 times a year): 4–5 years
• Rare use (once or twice a year): 7 years
• Never been used: 10 years

Best Gym Rope

Gearhead® Top Picks

Workhorse ropes for all your gym sessions.

Essential Gym Climbing Accessories

When rope climbing in the gym, you only really need a harness, a belay certification, and climbing partner—most gyms can lend you a belay device if you forget yours in your outdoor bag! However, there are a few small luxuries that can improve your experience ten-fold.

• Belay Glasses: These mirrored specs let a belayer keep eyes on their climber without craning their neck. This essential not only prevents neck pain but also improves belay technique. After all, it’s a lot easier to feed out slack when you see a climber reach for the rope.
• Belay Gloves: Top roping at the gym is generally pretty gentle on your hands (that’s because the thick diameter ropes set up for top roping move slowly through most belay devices). When lead climbing, however, belay gloves make lowering a climber easier and less painful, especially if you’re climbing on a rope with a thin diameter. Belay gloves come in full- and half-finger varieties. While full-finger gloves give us valuable protection on colder days outdoors, we generally choose the fingerless option for the gym. Whichever length you choose, look for a glove with some extra padding on the palm. We also like gloves that are quick to take off when it’s our turn to climb (look for a loop on the fingers to aid in removal) and can easily be hung from a carabiner on our harness.
• Crack Gloves: If you’re lucky enough to climb at a gym with a built-in crack system, you may want a specialized pair of protective gloves for practicing crack technique. Crack gloves cover the backs of your hands with a flexible protective material, which reduces pain while hand jamming. Crack gloves are by no means necessary for gym climbing—you’ll only want a pair if you’re exploring crack technique.

Gearhead® Top Picks

Belay gloves and crack gloves for protecting your hands.

How We Choose A Gym Pack

It’s hard to complain about the approach when we’re indoor climbing—though a packed parking lot on weekday evenings can get our goat from time to time. Because the gear list is small and the walk short, we don’t put too much weight in technical features for our gym pack. If it can haul all of our gear, we’re happy. Our favorite indoor climbing packs offer plenty of room to carry everything we might need (rope, chalk bag, harness, two pairs of shoes, sweatshirt in case the AC’s going hog wild, etc). And for the rope climbers among us, we look for packs with a built-in rope tarp to keep our line organized for easy knot-free flaking.

Best Gym Pack

Gearhead® Top Picks

More backpacks and gym bags for hauling indoor climbing gear.

Apparel For Indoor Climbing

One of our favorite things about climbing indoors is the the community. So many people come together in the gym, and it’s an amazing opportunity for a who’s who of the local scene—who’s climbing what, who has the coolest beta for the tricky V5 on the new set, who’s expressing their style on and off the wall. Unlike outdoor climbing, where the forecast often dictates our wardrobe, the gym lets us think style first. From the roomiest pants (with a drawcord ankle, for ease of footwork, of course) and strappy crop tops to graphic tees and matching sets, here are a few favorites we’re repping at our local gym.