About

About North Market Lane

North Market Lane is a small editorial reference about the first steps of indoor rock climbing, written for people who have never tied in or stepped onto a bouldering mat.

The focus is narrow on purpose. Indoor climbing has a vocabulary and a set of floor habits that can feel opaque on a first visit. These pages explain the parts that are consistent across most facilities: how holds are gripped, how movement works, and the etiquette that keeps a shared wall safe.

What this site is

A set of plain-language articles. The material is general and informational, drawn from widely shared climbing knowledge. Photographs are sourced from Wikimedia Commons under their respective Creative Commons licenses, with attribution in each caption.

What this site is not

It is not instruction, certification, or a replacement for the orientation your gym provides. Equipment, grading systems and facility rules vary, and the staff briefing at your specific location always takes priority over anything written here.

Regional focus

The examples lean toward indoor climbing as it is commonly practised at Canadian facilities, where most gyms run an orientation and require a belay test before unsupervised roped climbing. The fundamentals themselves apply broadly.

Corrections

If something reads as inaccurate or unclear, the contact form on the home page reaches the editor. Notes are reviewed for future revisions. The date of the most recent revision is shown at the top of each article.