Speaker A
So, I'm in New York City right now, and in this video, I'm going to check out what the climbing scene is like here. New York, arguably the most famous city on the planet, is hiding a climbing secret. Most people know the New York
Magnus Midtbø explores New York City's unique climbing scene, including Central Park's outdoor boulders and top gyms.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- New York City has a vibrant climbing scene beyond just gyms, with challenging outdoor boulders in Central Park.
- Modern climbing gyms in NYC are evolving to integrate full fitness facilities, appealing to diverse training needs.
- Climbing in Central Park is surprisingly difficult and sandbagged, attracting strong climbers despite its urban location.
- Collaborations between climbers and content creators help popularize climbing culture on social media.
- Personalized training programs like MacroFactor can enhance climbing performance through data-driven progression.
What the video covers
- Magnus Midtbø visits New York City to explore the local climbing scene, focusing on both gyms and outdoor bouldering.
- He highlights a unique gym chain that combines climbing and a full gym facility under one membership.
- Magnus warms up at one of NYC's highest-rated climbing gyms, noting the evolution of gyms post-COVID and franchise growth.
- He introduces the hidden outdoor bouldering spots in Central Park, featuring problems up to V13 difficulty.
- Magnus teams up with Josh (After Hours Climbing), a viral climbing content creator, and Darren, a local bouldering expert.
- They discuss the difficulty and sandbag nature of Central Park boulders, including the famous Polish Traverse.
- Magnus attempts some of the hardest boulders in Central Park, sharing insights into climbing techniques and challenges.
- The video includes a sponsored segment about MacroFactor workouts, emphasizing personalized training and progress tracking.
- Josh shares his background as a content creator and climber, and they discuss climbing culture and collaborations.
- The video captures the unique juxtaposition of urban life and outdoor climbing within Manhattan.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to NYC Climbing Scene
- 00:52Unique Features of NYC Climbing Gyms
- 01:44Tour of a Top NYC Climbing Gym
- 02:40Climbing Grades and Warm-Up Attempts
- 03:53Meeting Josh and Darren for Central Park Bouldering
- 05:59Sponsored Segment: MacroFactor Workouts
- 06:50Climbing Culture and Content Creation with Josh
- 08:21Exploring Central Park Boulders and Techniques
- 12:29Attempting Central Park's Hardest Boulder
- 17:12Final Thoughts and Urban Climbing Reflections
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
climbing scene for its huge gyms and strong climbing community, which I'll be checking out in this video, but that's not all. Hidden right in the heart of Manhattan, amongst the skyscrapers,
Speaker A
is a huge network of outdoor boulders, right in Central Park. And this is no gimmick. With the problems going all the way up to V13, there's some seriously hard climbing there. Do I have what it takes to conquer Central Park's hardest boulder?
Speaker A
Oh, and I'm not going alone. A very special guest is joining me. These boulders had a notoriously hard reputation, so I decided to warm up at one of New York's highest-rated climbing gyms. And these gyms are not
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like your normal climbing gyms. They have a pretty unique twist. So, as far as I know, this gym chain
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is all about having fitness and climbing all in one. Here is like a little section. This is like what normal
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climbing gyms have, you know? Um, they have like gym sections like this, but in this gym you also have the upstairs, where there's a ton more. Inside here, there's a big gym as well that you have access to.
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Haven't seen that anywhere. Like usually climbing gyms have like a small gym section, but not this big. Which means you can just have a membership to your climbing gym and not have to worry about a normal gym. So, this is considered one
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of the best gyms in New York City. Yeah, you see just how big this is. It looks very modern. And the last video I made from New York, where I did the best-rated climbing gym, is 6 years ago.
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Uh, and a lot has happened since then. I mean, COVID hit. I think most of the gyms were closed during that period. And then they opened, and they got more modern and bigger. And I think also nowadays,
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there's a lot of big companies buying up smaller gyms and making it into a big franchise.
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I don't know what I how I feel about that, you know? I like them small personal-feeling climbing gyms as well, but also, when you have a lot of money, I guess you can make cool like this, so.
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Green is easiest, white is the hardest. White is, I guess, V9 and up. Yeah, it would be cool it would be cool to do a white today. I guess there's a lot of strong climbers in New York, so
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I'm expecting the white to be hard. Okay, yeah, this one looks sick. Oh, okay.
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Oh. Oh. Oh. The orange? Yeah, I can I don't know if I'm like the best person to show you like the the best way.
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Oh, wait, I actually Yeah, it actually looks pretty hard. The last part. It is so slippery.
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That's hard for orange. What? Yeah, yeah, of course. Not easy, though. I was feeling pretty warm now and ready to go outside, but first, I just wanted to see if I could get a white, the hardest grade in the gym. Not wanting to waste
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too much energy, I decided I'd just give it one go.
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And with that, it was time to head outside. I was ready for Central Park's hardest boulders, but I couldn't do this alone. I needed some mats, spotters, and
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someone who actually knew where the boulders were. So, I decided to reach out on Instagram to the people of New York to see if anyone was willing to help. And I managed to find someone who you might recognize.
Speaker A
Hey, how's it going? Hey, man. Nice to meet you. This is Josh, better known as After Hours Climbing, famous for his viral climbing TikToks. Together with him and his friend Darren, an expert on the area, we were going to first tackle some
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of the park's most popular boulders before finishing on the hardest boulder in all of New York City.
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So, lately I've been getting back into training hard, and right now I would say I'm in the best shape I've been in at least a couple of years. One thing I've learned from training for so many different challenges is that
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working hard is not really enough. You need a clear plan, and you need to track your progress in order
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to make changes along the way, and that is what I love about MacroFactor workouts.
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Instead of giving you random workouts, it builds a personalized program based on your goals, experience level, schedule, and the equipment
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you actually have. Then, as you train, it uses data-driven progressive overload to tell you when to add reps or weight
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based on how you're actually progressing. The recommendations are evidence-based and everything is logged in the intuitive workout tracker, so I can see exactly
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what I've done and how I'm improving.
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And if I don't like an exercise or want to train differently, I can customize the program, swap exercises, or even build my own workouts from scratch.
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Check out MacroFactor workouts through the link in the description and use my code Magma to get a 14-day free trial.
Speaker A
So, have you done a lot of bouldering in Central Park before? Uh, not really. I'm not really even that good at bouldering if I'm being honest.
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I'm more of like a content creator. I just boulder for my content. Boulder, right?
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On a good day? You know, people compare me and you every once in a while.
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Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we both climb hard, we both film content.
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Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're both young. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
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I'm just slightly bigger online, you know, just slightly. Yeah, I know. I've been looking up to you for a few years now.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think many people know that there's bouldering in Central Park.
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Or like especially like people that don't climb. Like it's the most random thing that like climbers are even out here.
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Right. Oh, there's a lot of people here. Oh, this is beautiful. But yeah, the most famous line here is Polish Traverse. You start right here and you traverse all the way out to the right. It's pretty sandbag.
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Pretty sandbag? Would you say that most of the boulders here are pretty sandbag? Uh, well, in this part of Central Park, yeah, everything here is Yeah, there we go.
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Oh, you collabed with Jason Momoa.
Speaker A
I haven't. What? That would be a great That would be a good collab. Do you have any like other like dream collabs? Like somebody that like you would like I mean, I used to think that would be
Speaker A
cool to do something with Jared Leto, but he's in a lot of controversy right now so Really? Oh, think that would be Yeah.
Speaker A
Magnus, can I borrow a little bit of your chalk? Go for it. This is This is going to be a before Magdust and after Magdust.
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There you go. Nice one. All right. Glad I could help. Okay, so this is the V10.
Speaker A
You go to this or Uh, Magnus, you go with your right hand first. Oh, you go right hand Uh, they go to right hand to the and then they bump.
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I think Daniel Woods tried it and thought it was V12. Really? He thought this was V12? Daniel Woods?
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I think so, yeah. How Like it feels more natural going up left. We have to start like this then.
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How the heck do you start this? Okay, this is a hard V10. Damn, dude.
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I think you're just getting your butt off the ground is the crux. Flash it.
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I lied, actually. I'm actually a V10 climber so Yeah. That's what it says on your Instagram, right?
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Yep. Yep. I actually do climb V10, though. Yeah, you Just like how you prank other people.
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that we're only doing a video Central Park, but this is actually an exposed video.
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We're exposing Josh for not being a V10 climber. Yeah. Claiming to be a V10 climber and no, no.
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This is This is real. I climb V10. How old were you when you started YouTube?
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Uh, pretty old, 27. And what is performing like the best on your channels? Like is it YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok?
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Uh, like TikTok. Well, I've seen you climb with like OnlyFans models and stuff.
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Oh my goodness. That's That's embarrassing. He knows. But Is that what gets the most views or No?
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Uh I [music] want to learn how to do the wheelie on a motorcycle. I don't know.
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Uh this is cool. The fact that we're in the middle of New York and then there's boats [music] there's bouldering.
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That's me. Money is the same as Of course, yeah. All right, so yeah, I'll just Yeah.
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And you can take it off the video. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, no worries.
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Yeah, let's see how YOU DO UNDER PRESSURE. YEAH, I'VE BEEN WANTING this forever. I've [music] been in the field [singing] with whatever they throw at me. Brush it off, pick myself up, moving on to the better.
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Hey. [music] Ain't no errors, baby. It's a new era. I wake up early feeling rich like I'm Cash. I get to the paper, boy.
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That's your exit. What [music] is your reach, Josh? Oh. Oh, I have a little bit on you.
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Actually, I have a lot of on you. Like an inch, maybe? You have a How tall are you?
Speaker A
Uh like 5'11" 6 ft. In the video, 6 ft. 6 ft. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah, I'm actually like 5'9", I think, but Okay.
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Yeah. You say 5'11"? Yeah, yeah, because like nobody would expect me to lie about 5'11", right?
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But is that on your dating apps as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like Josh, professional climber, V12 climber. That This is off camera, right? This This This isn't going in. Yeah, right?
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he's not recording. Oh, okay, good, good. Now, it was time for the final boulder, the hardest boulder in all of New York City, which only two people had ever climbed before.
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So, it's down here. It's kind of secret. Like I would never have been able to find this on my own.
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The sit start to this boulder was V13 and the stand V11. So, we thought we'd start with the stand start, but after cleaning the boulder, we encountered a slight problem.
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It is really bad if we fall and land on this. That's going to destroy our ankles.
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we should have uh one person always just like Well, one person spotting, one person like moving the pads.
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[music] Come on. [music] [music] All right. All right, this just does not feel good at all.
Speaker A
Come on. Yeah. Come on. Where's that uh Yep. Come on. Find it, dude. Spot him.
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Come on. You okay? rock. Yeah, we should probably push that. [music] Come on, man. So solid.
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Oh, yes. Nice. Come on, dude. Come on, man. Yeah yeah yeah. [clears throat] Move up.
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Just make sure there's no gap. Come on, dude. Oh. Dude. No, it's not the spot.
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Uh, it was a little bit lower. Oh. [music] Oh, I got you. Come on.
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Yes. I'm moving back. Come on. Where the Yeah, yeah. Do you ever see yourself competing again?
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No, not in the IFSC. Not IFSC, yeah. It's just that the level is crazy high.
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I don't think people watching my videos probably think that, "Oh, you're close to that level." But, it's miles.
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You know, it's like, running the 100-m sprints in in 11 or 10 seconds. It sounds the same pretty much, but the difference is just huge.
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Uh, have you climbed with any World Cup climbers? I climbed with Zander Waller. That was the closest.
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Cuz when you do, you realize just that Yeah. Doing the hardest boulders in your gym is a lot of playing around on them, you know?
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He's like doing eliminants. But, I am doing a video at the World Cup in Salt Lake City. I want to do a video with the Japanese team, kind of behind the scenes to see how they train and why they're so
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much better than anyone else. And then, maybe another video where I like try some of the boulders or something.
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I'm so curious on how you're going to do on that. That is going to be like a very like I I will be tuning in on that one, for sure. [laughter] Come on.
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Come Come Let's get it. You can back that back. Come on. All right, I got him over here.
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Let's go, man. Ooh. Holy And you saw the top right there. Dude, but it feels so far though when you look up, you're just like, "Holy crap." I don't know if it comes across like just how big it feels.
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I mean, I think That move? So strong. Come on. Come on. Come on, we got this.
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Just make sure it's Oh, where's the foot? There you go. Left to left. Left?
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Yeah, it's right there. Come on, man. Come on. Ooh. [laughter] I'm chilling. Yo, good spot.
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Yeah, that's good. Thank you. This boulder was super hard and pretty sketchy. [music] Everyone was really struggling on it, me included. And with all of us getting tired, [music] it just felt like none of us were going to get it.
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Come on. Nice dyno. Come on. I know what you did. Holy crap, that's scary.
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That's good though. You're so strong up there. It looked like today just wasn't our day.
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[snorts] Come on, man. Oh, yeah. So solid. Oh, it's perfect. Come on. Make sure you have him spotted.
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You got it? Yep. Yeah, nice, dude. [music and singing] Holy crap. Good job, dude. [music] Dude, that was strong. That was uh also very brave.
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Yeah, I kind of just like went for it.
Topics:Magnus MidtbøNew York City climbingCentral Park boulderingclimbing gyms NYCoutdoor boulderingAfter Hours ClimbingMacroFactor workoutsbouldering difficultyclimbing trainingurban climbing
