Bunker bouldering (IJmuiden)
The bouldering gyms have been closed since last December (nearly 6 months) and there hasn’t really been much of an opportunity to do any climbing indoor or out. The weather hasn’t been great either and I’ve largely spent my time indoors. I came to know about the bunkers in IJmuiden recently through a friend and decided to check it out. The bunkers are a vestige of the war and now a tourist attraction. IJmuiden lies to the west of Amsterdam and northwest of Haarlem. It is easily accessible by car and hard to miss. The city hosts a port and is home to a lot of steel plants. The clouds of gas rising from the chimneys stretches upwards connecting the sky to the ground. Large shipping vessels pass by or are moored along the dock. The whole setting seems to belong to a time many decades ago.
Getting back into bouldering gave me an anxious feeling. I hadn’t really done anything the last months to keep myself in shape and I was worried about the drop in my technique. I felt good and though I did not check, I didn’t think my weight had really changed. I still felt strong and that gave me some confidence. Without practice it was difficult to find my center or to have a feeling of confidence when holding myself up on the wall. Moreover, my skin had gone soft and I had lost all my callouses.
There are 4 bunkers spread across the beach not very far from each other with a number of routes on the walls of each bunker. The ground is sandy and provides a soft spot to land on. However, the ground isn’t always level and you can expect bushes growing everywhere. Luckily they are only as tall as your knees and are not really a problem. The bunkers are about a couple of meters tall and a crashpad is highly recommended. The texture of the surface is mostly concrete with some bits of metal sticking out. The bunkers are worn from the weather, expect to find sharp/ hard surfaces. Lastly, they are not the best maintained. The walls have graffiti on them and there is trash strewn about the base of the bunker. I also found shards of glass from broken bottles around the bunkers, making it a bit scary to put your bare feet down.
The routes on the bunkers range from 4-6 and can be checked here. The walls are mostly vertical and do not have much variety in their shape. The boulders are not difficult at all. The problems are rather straightforward and vertically up. It is more a test of strength than technique. Barring the large obvious holds which are usually slits or holes on the walls of the bunker, the other holds can be very heavy on the fingers. Concrete is quite hard and the cracks can be sharp. The flat walls also offer very little for footholds. But this does not increase the difficulty significantly.
Bouldering after a very long time was a liberating experience. It felt good to use my muscles again. I did not find the problems challenging, rather I found it good practice to get back into bouldering. I hadn’t lost a lot of performance and I feel like I am very close to where I was before the break. There are enough problems here to fill a few hours. I managed to survive the session with minimal damage to my skin and I am happy to not have any injuries (something I’m concerned about while climbing outdoors). In conclusion however, the bunkers are not appealing enough to return to. I prefer the variety and the range of difficulty in problems offered at a bouldering hall.