So I built a Bachar ladder this weekend. It is one of the old school training items, which much like campusing has often timed been left at the wayside as plastic bouldering gyms become more common and whiny complaints about tendonitis are more the norm. It was named for the soloist John Bachar and like the campus board is a phenomenal training tool. They stand in many ways as the unholy union of brutal training tools for all those people who wish to become exceptionally strong. Where the campus board is great for developing dead pointing ability, explosive pulling strength off of tiny holds, and due to ballistic loading, some exceptional gains in tendon strength the ladder is targeted towards the world of power endurance.

My first bachar ladder was about 18ft long, had a rung about 16 inches, and was made from $30 of 1.5inch dowel and 12m of retired climbing rope.  It took about two hours to make.  However, within a week of it being built, a 260lb male proved the point that the soft dowels can’t actually sustain too much dynamic load.  Some repairs to that kept that ladder functioning for another couple years, but eventually we proved the point that dropping onto rungs, or swinging on them too much could snap them.

My newest ladder was made with roughly the same specs, and also from retired climbing rope.  The difference this time round was that I went and bought oak 1.5″ dowel.  This cost me a couple hundred dollars, but the advantage is that they seem to be pretty bomb proof.  For a home ladder, it likely doesn’t matter what type of dowel you use.  However, if you have heavy friends, or larger neighbours, I would recommend spending the money on hardwood doweling to build your rungs out of.  If you don’t have nice high ceilings, you could easily hang it from a tree and anchor it to the ground (or a household pet).

Construction aside. Build one. Then get on it. The aim is to pull hand over hand with no feet from bottom to top in as smooth a manner as one can make possible. I aim for either working on pure one arm pulling power, or use this as a tool to build that elusive push/pull combination that is so crucial to being an effective and powerful climber.  Once you hit the top lower down through lock offs. Here again is a chance to work on a number of different angles of loading for your lock-offs.  Once you are at the bottom, hover above the ground and then head up for another lap. If you can make a couple laps you get to watch your pulling power vanish in a rather amusing way. Plus, here finally is a great way to start developing that explosive power endurance that is so hard to get without just climbing lots.

Workouts to try:

1: Power Endurance Training
A tabata protocol modified slightly.
Do 20s of climbing then rest for 10s with both hands on a rung and a foot on the ladder.
Try to get through the full 4min (8 sets).

2: Training for explosive pulling: Speed Climbing
As aforementioned, speed climb up… however rather than lowering slow, speed climb down. Then repeat for as many rounds as possible. When your speed dies hop off, take a rest and do it again.

3: Lock off strength
Get to the top in whatever manner you can. However on the way down skip rungs and hold your lock offs as tight and long as possible. If your rungs are as far apart as mine this is going to force you to train a far higher one arm lock-off than you would otherwise train.

Ah well. I am off to campus… and maybe attempt a few more climbs with the broken rung.