Hardwood climbing holds · cut once
Ridgespine is walnut, oak, maple, and burl shaped into wooden climbing holds and training boards, cut by Caleb McDonald, national champion paraclimber and unapologetic hardwood nerd. Prints and small workshop goods are coming, and custom requests are always open.
Why wood
A burl is the place a tree healed. The grain ties itself into a knot that has never grown before and never will again. Cut it, shape it, oil it, and you’re holding the only one in existence.
That’s the standard for everything on this bench: real hardwood, shaped to be kind to skin and honest to grip, finished so the ten-thousandth pull looks better than the first.
“Wood teaches you to hold on properly. Plastic forgives; grain doesn’t.”
Fresh off the bench
$120
set of 8 · $15/hold
Eight precision edges in four depths, 8–20mm, with a rounded radius that spares your pulleys and a grain that gets prettier with chalk.
from $100
A custom wood hangboard with two edge rows, a jug rail, and depths cut to your fingers. The same board Caleb trains on. The one that hung over his hospital bed came first.
A swirl-figured maple burl shaped into a two-hand feature. Photograph coming; the wood is already on the bench. Nature made the pattern, and it only gets made into a hold once.
The maker
Every piece is shaped by Caleb McDonald, 2026 Para Climbing National Champion, Team USA, and the guy who trained on a hangboard hung over his hospital bed.