Plywood climbing volumes are large, hollow geometric shapes bolted onto a climbing wall to change its angle, profile, and terrain. They create features like arêtes, slabs, overhangs, and platforms without permanently rebuilding the wall structure. Rockcity plywood volumes are designed and manufactured in Britain, featuring a high-end fine texture finish for consistent friction on hands and feet. All Rockcity volumes are designed and measured to work in unison — any shape can combine with any other in a route or boulder problem. This interchangeable system is used at almost all IFSC World Cups, World Championships, and both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Volumes are available in three finishes: fully textured, dual texture Black Ice (textured grip zones with smooth gloss no-go zones), and dual texture Monocolour (same control, clean uniform look).

Rockcity produces 12 distinct volume families, each named after aircraft profiles that inspired their geometry. Paras are parallelogram-shaped for angled surfaces and slabs. Rects are rectangular for flat add-on faces. Shards are triangular wedges for sharp features and edges. A-12s are right-angled triangles for directional angles. B-2s combine two triangles for complex twin-face features. F-117s are triangular profiles with three faces for multi-directional movement. SU-57s are diamond-like shapes with multiple faces. T-Rones are rectangular profiles with triangular side faces. Transformers are half-wedge shapes designed to combine into paths. X-Wings have four faces and one large in-cut edge. V-Wings are oblong shapes with in-cut detailing. Limpets are pentagon shapes with five different faces. Each shape is available in multiple sizes to suit any wall height and angle.

Dual texture is a surface finish system used on Rockcity plywood volumes to give route setters precise control over where climbers can and cannot grip or stand. High-friction textured zones provide reliable grip for intended hand and foot placements, while smooth gloss zones create deliberate no-go areas that are impossible to use. This forces climbers to follow the setter’s intended sequence rather than finding unintended beta. Rockcity offer two dual texture styles: Black Ice, where the smooth zones are a contrasting black gloss finish that creates clear visual boundaries; and Monocolour, where the smooth and textured zones are the same colour for a cleaner, less visually noisy look. Dual texture panelling on Rockcity volumes is widely used at World Climbing events and is considered the most complex setting tool in the market for controlling movement at scale.

Black Ice is Rockcity’s signature dual texture finish for plywood volumes and climbing holds. The textured part provides reliable friction for intended hand and foot placements, while the black gloss part — the “black ice” — is smooth, zero-grip, and impossible to stand on or hold. The contrast between the coloured textured zones and the black gloss zones creates clear visual boundaries on the wall, making it immediately obvious to climbers where they can and cannot use the feature. Black Ice was first introduced on Rockcity’s competition macros in 2018 and quickly became iconic in elite sport climbing. It is now available across the full plywood volume range in all 12 shape families. The finish is designed for fast resets and heavy commercial use while maintaining readable, consistent boundaries set after set.

Plywood volumes are one of the most versatile tools available to route setters. They change the terrain of a flat climbing wall instantly — adding angle, height, and three-dimensional features without any structural rebuilding. Setters use them to create arêtes, corners, overhangs, barrel features, and compression problems. Volumes can be used alone for clean movement (smears, mantles, body positioning) or paired with climbing holds and macros to build complex features and modern competition-style problems. In commercial gyms, volumes are regularly moved and repositioned to refresh the wall and keep regular climbers engaged. On competition walls, they are often stacked, overlapped, and combined in large numbers to build dramatic stage features. Rockcity volumes are designed so that any shape works alongside any other, making fast, modular set-building possible for route setting teams working to tight deadlines.

Rockcity plywood volumes bolt directly onto standard plywood climbing wall panels using T-nuts, which are the same fixing system used for climbing holds. Any climbing wall with a T-nut grid can accept volumes. They are light enough for one or two people to carry and reposition but structural enough for constant daily use in commercial gyms. Volumes work on walls of any angle — vertical, slab, and overhanging — and can be stacked to create large combined features. Rockcity volumes are used across indoor bouldering gyms, lead walls, speed walls, and competition stages worldwide. They are available from UK and EU warehouses, with factory direct custom orders for out-of-stock items manufactured in Britain within a few weeks.