Social Climber: Vertical Rock-Climbing Wall Treadmill

climbstation

If you’ve always wanted to try rock climbing but can’t stand the danger, or if you’re an avid climber and those stationary climbing walls just don’t cut it for keeping you in shape, it’s your lucky day. This crazy-looking contraption is actually a climbing treadmill. It takes (most of) the danger out of climbing, and it’s a little more stimulating than a stationary wall.

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The ClimbStation tilts between 15 degrees and -39 degrees, giving you a huge amount of flexibility for your climbing workout. It’s also intuitive and can change speeds based on your climbing speed; if you’re zipping through the program it’ll speed up. If you need to slow down to select your next move, the ClimbStation will slow down or stop. You’re always kept in the center of the climbing space so you don’t have to worry about slipping too far down or waiting for the wall’s rotation to catch up with you. And if you lose your grip and fall, you’re never more than a few feet off of the ground, so you’ll walk away injury-free.

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The attached touch screen lets you set the ClimbStation’s angle and choose between 12 difficulty levels. Made in Finland, the ClimbStation is being marketed to fitness clubs, amusement parks and traveling ride operators. It can easily be moved with nothing more than a regular car trailer, so getting it from school fundraisers to dubious parking-lot carnivals to town events is simple. But if you want to own one of these bad boys you’ll have to come up with around 30,000 Euros (about $44,000)

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See more in Home & Personal or under Gadgets. December, 2009.