Dry Tooling

In them most basic terms, dry tooling is rock climbing except with ice tools. Instead of using your hands and feet for purchase, you use your ice axes to hold on and feet to keep you supported. You hook the tips of your ice axes onto handholds, and place you climbing shoes on the holds this allows you to work your way up and traverse the wall.

We require climbing helmets, rock shoes, gloves, and ice tools. We have tools, shoes, and helmets available for rental.

Are you curious about dry tooling and the vertical world of ice climbing. Then let us know we offer instruction from 2pm-8pm M-F. See our membership/pricing page for rates.

If you want to learn how to move on ice but you don’t have a convenient frozen waterfall, dry tooling is the way to go.

When you place your weight on an axe that’s hooked onto a small ledge of rock, you need to be extremely careful with how you move. If you tilt the axe in the wrong direction, shift it from side to side, or pull on it in the wrong way, the axe is going to come loose and you’re going to fall.

In this way, dry tooling is very similar to ice climbing. For people unfamiliar with the sport, or who just want to get better, it’s a great way to get used to the feel of ice climbing without some of the associated risk.

We are the only climbing gym in the Northeast with a dedicated Dry tooling Wall year round. With the growing popularity of dry tooling and ice climbing we believe folks need a space to train and or seek instruction. As passionate ice climbers we hope to provide a great avenue for that with plans to constantly grow and make improvements to our space.