• Sports
  • 16/09/2026
  • Nederlands

Campus as a climbing wall: who dares to boulder?

Anyone walking across the TU/e campus on September 26 could find themselves face-to-face with a climber hanging from a building. Student climbing association ESAC is celebrating its 50th anniversary with 50 bouldering routes along buildings, bridges and other spots on campus. Everyone is welcome to take part – and help raise money for Stichting parKLIMson in the process.

by
photo ESAC

In the Netherlands, outdoor bouldering is not common. The sport involves climbing upward using installed holds, or natural cracks and ledges on rocks. Unlike climbing, bouldering is done without ropes or belayers. TU/e has a bouldering gym and an outdoor climbing tower through the SSC, “but the latter hasn’t been used for years because of safety concerns.”

So says Ben de Cort, vice president of ESAC and a member of the committee organizing ‘Boulderen aan de Dommel,’ known as the BAD group. The opportunity to climb outdoors is precisely what got the fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student excited about helping organize the event.

Works of art

The BAD group came up with more than 50 routes. “Unfortunately, Atlas is too smooth to do anything fun with, and we also have to leave the works of art alone, with one exception. But there are still plenty of challenges. For example, there are routes along Kennispoort and Auditorium, as well as the fortress near the tennis courts. We’ll also be climbing over ‘the KOE,’ the Kunstobject Ontmoetingsplaats Eindhoven, on the Koeveld.”

Ever taken a close look at the emergency staircase of Auditorium? Photo | Ben de Cort

As an aside, but an interesting fact: during ESAC’s 25th anniversary, climbers did boulder on many of the works of art. Ton van den Berg, now a trainer and at the time a student and ESAC member, still has the booklet with the routes.

Parkinson’s disease

Van den Berg is now also president of Stichting parKLIMson. He has Parkinson’s disease himself and wants to make climbing accessible to others with the condition. “If you have Parkinson’s, exercise is essential. Sport climbing turns out to be a surprisingly powerful tool: it promotes balance, muscle strength and self-confidence. Adrenaline replaces dopamine, allowing us to forget about this terrible disease for a while,” the website says.

The BAD committee also hopes to raise additional money for the foundation by selling T-shirts and a special route booklet. It contains 300 climbable routes on and around campus. Those who look closely at the university buildings will discover that there are surprisingly many things to climb.

Read more below the photo.

Climbing on the KOE. Photo | Ben de Cort
New bouldering structure

Fortunately for BAD, the municipality of Eindhoven is contributing €2,000. The money comes from a fund for “street sports.” “We’ll use it to buy wood and other materials to make the climbing tower mentioned earlier safe and expand it. It’s for temporary use on September 26, but we want to reuse it later.”

If this first edition of Boulderen aan de Dommel is a success, BAD would like to bring the event back every summer. “Then it would become an annual event alongside Eplakka in February. Eplakka stands for ESAC plastic climbing championships. Van den Berg was also involved in that event in 1994. We’ll make BAD just as successful as Eplakka!”

Who dares?

Those interested can still sign up until September 19. “Everything will be explained at the opening of the event,” De Cort assures participants. “We’ll make clear where participants are allowed to climb and how they can do so safely. We ask people to bring their own climbing shoes. Participants are required to use a ‘crash pad.’ So if you fall, you land on a soft mat. This makes it as safe as possible, and it won’t be much more dangerous than other sports, such as a game of soccer.”

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.

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