This one is popular with almost all races. In most cases you’re looking at a 45 degree incline wall with a rope attached to it and you’re supposed to climb your way up, over, and down some scaffolding on the other side. In some races, the terrain itself is the obstacle.
Grab and hold onto the rope. As you start placing your feet onto the incline, you’ll likely have the urge to lean forward in order to keep your upper body vertical. Instead, however, you’ll want to lean back and keep your entire body as perpendicular to the incline as possible to improve your stability.
How tough it is to get up the incline depends on its angle, the type of rope, and the condition of the incline surface.
Generally speaking, more extreme angles require more upper body strength, and rope grip strength.
How slippery the incline’s surface is will impact how difficult it will be to balance yourself.
The Warrior Dash’s incline was the easiest one. We ran at 10:00 am, and as it was the first real obstacle, everything was fairly dry and clean. Tula (the insanely fast and strong guy to my right in the video) and I reached the obstacle first. As he was slightly ahead of me, I decided I’d try to run up the obstacle as far as I could and then just grab the rope and pull myself up the rest of the way. The biggest worry to me was not being able to grab it, and falling back down.
The Ninja Warrior’s included an incline wall climb as its 11th obstacle, and it had a twist; Spectators were throwing water-soaked foam-balls at people attempting to climb the wall. Although I didn’t really get hit while climbing (I think the kids were busy wondering about all the gear I was wearing), some other runners have said they found the projectile distraction downright annoying, compounding the frustration of attempting to scale that wall in the first place. That didn’t really bother me as much. Plus, they had volunteers lending people a hand to get over the ledge at the top, which I find to be the most difficult part, since the rope ends right on the ledge.
The Zombie Escape’s incline was the most organic one. It was essentially like climbing out of a ravine, with the ground being a mix of soft and textured in some spots and hard and slick in others. This is actually quite a different experience than the regular wooden platform. It was a bit steeper, but still fairly easy and fun. At the top, Fred assisted me getting over the final ledge, as the rope was tied to a tree. During the previous test runs, I just grabbed the tree and hoped it would hold my weight. It was rather flimsy looking, so I didn’t want to end up un-rooting the thing and go tumbling back down the incline.
The Timberjack Challenge had an obstacle called the Bear Trap. They dug out a rather large mud pit that we needed to climb out of. The concept is the same, but it was very steep, and extremely slick. I lost my balance a few times, and eventually tried to use two separate ropes for better stability. I’m not entirely convinced that this actually helped all that much. It required a lot of balance, as well as careful foot placement. Using little nooks and crannies from previous climbers helps tremendously. I could imagine how challenging it would have been for the first few waves of competitors.
Although I initially thought that the Timberjack’s bear trap was technically the most difficult, the Spartan Beast’s incline was rather insane. In part because the entire obstacle, including the rope, was excruciatingly muddy. It immediately followed a barbed wire mud pit crawl, so everything was just covered in whatever muddy clay mixture that happened to be. Having just run 12.8 miles, and done about 120 burpees total, I was ready for things to be over. Gripping the rope alone was tricky. I watched a women to my right struggle with it. She climbed up almost all the way and ended up sliding back down. I knew I didn’t really have much left in me, and in addition to keeping my balance, and pretty much using my arms exclusively to pull me up, I’d also need insane grip strength to not let that rope slip. So I had to get creative. Rather than trying to hold onto the straight, super slick rope, I coiled it up in my right hand, so I only needed relatively little grip strength. Depending on the race, the length of the rope and incline, and with other racers behind you, this may not always be possible, but it may also not be necessary. In this case it was, and it worked out beautifully.
The difficulty of this type of obstacle changes depending on a variety of factor. But to recap, keep your body perpendicular to the ground, keep your balance, and use your arms to pull yourself up as you walk up the incline.
The Incline Wall Climb
This one is popular with almost all races. In most cases you’re looking at a 45 degree incline wall with a rope attached to it and you’re supposed to climb your way up, over, and down some scaffolding on the other side. In some races, the terrain itself is the obstacle.
Grab and hold onto the rope. As you start placing your feet onto the incline, you’ll likely have the urge to lean forward in order to keep your upper body vertical. Instead, however, you’ll want to lean back and keep your entire body as perpendicular to the incline as possible to improve your stability.
How tough it is to get up the incline depends on its angle, the type of rope, and the condition of the incline surface.
Generally speaking, more extreme angles require more upper body strength, and rope grip strength.
How slippery the incline’s surface is will impact how difficult it will be to balance yourself.
The Warrior Dash’s incline was the easiest one. We ran at 10:00 am, and as it was the first real obstacle, everything was fairly dry and clean. Tula (the insanely fast and strong guy to my right in the video) and I reached the obstacle first. As he was slightly ahead of me, I decided I’d try to run up the obstacle as far as I could and then just grab the rope and pull myself up the rest of the way. The biggest worry to me was not being able to grab it, and falling back down.
The Ninja Warrior’s included an incline wall climb as its 11th obstacle, and it had a twist; Spectators were throwing water-soaked foam-balls at people attempting to climb the wall. Although I didn’t really get hit while climbing (I think the kids were busy wondering about all the gear I was wearing), some other runners have said they found the projectile distraction downright annoying, compounding the frustration of attempting to scale that wall in the first place. That didn’t really bother me as much. Plus, they had volunteers lending people a hand to get over the ledge at the top, which I find to be the most difficult part, since the rope ends right on the ledge.
The Zombie Escape’s incline was the most organic one. It was essentially like climbing out of a ravine, with the ground being a mix of soft and textured in some spots and hard and slick in others. This is actually quite a different experience than the regular wooden platform. It was a bit steeper, but still fairly easy and fun. At the top, Fred assisted me getting over the final ledge, as the rope was tied to a tree. During the previous test runs, I just grabbed the tree and hoped it would hold my weight. It was rather flimsy looking, so I didn’t want to end up un-rooting the thing and go tumbling back down the incline.
The Timberjack Challenge had an obstacle called the Bear Trap. They dug out a rather large mud pit that we needed to climb out of. The concept is the same, but it was very steep, and extremely slick. I lost my balance a few times, and eventually tried to use two separate ropes for better stability. I’m not entirely convinced that this actually helped all that much. It required a lot of balance, as well as careful foot placement. Using little nooks and crannies from previous climbers helps tremendously. I could imagine how challenging it would have been for the first few waves of competitors.
Although I initially thought that the Timberjack’s bear trap was technically the most difficult, the Spartan Beast’s incline was rather insane. In part because the entire obstacle, including the rope, was excruciatingly muddy. It immediately followed a barbed wire mud pit crawl, so everything was just covered in whatever muddy clay mixture that happened to be. Having just run 12.8 miles, and done about 120 burpees total, I was ready for things to be over. Gripping the rope alone was tricky. I watched a women to my right struggle with it. She climbed up almost all the way and ended up sliding back down. I knew I didn’t really have much left in me, and in addition to keeping my balance, and pretty much using my arms exclusively to pull me up, I’d also need insane grip strength to not let that rope slip. So I had to get creative. Rather than trying to hold onto the straight, super slick rope, I coiled it up in my right hand, so I only needed relatively little grip strength. Depending on the race, the length of the rope and incline, and with other racers behind you, this may not always be possible, but it may also not be necessary. In this case it was, and it worked out beautifully.
The difficulty of this type of obstacle changes depending on a variety of factor. But to recap, keep your body perpendicular to the ground, keep your balance, and use your arms to pull yourself up as you walk up the incline.
Cheers!