From the garden of Cam Wilson's suburban Canberra home, his shed looks just like any other.
But when he opens the door, there are no tools or bikes to be found.
Instead, the walls are covered in wood and hundreds of colourful little footholds.
In other words, it's a boulderer's paradise — and it's just a stone's throw from his couch.
From a shed to a gym in five days
Mr Wilson first embarked on the ambitious project to build his own home-bouldering gym a few years ago.
He'd become hooked by a contraption at his gym called a MoonBoard, where the arrangement of the wall can be changed via an app.
"There's an app which you can change the climbs on, and there's thousands of climbs to choose from," Mr Wilson said.
"I got a bit hooked on that and decided I'd like one at home, so I just decided to build one."
Mr Wilson started off creating the wall in "pretty much" the same way as you would build a deck or a stud wall.
"I enjoy a little bit of simple woodwork, so I made hundreds of holds, and some of them I got from gyms for very cheap," he said.
From there, it needed "a couple of hinges and some chains to hold it up".
"And I needed a roof over it, so I thought, 'Oh well, I might as well put some walls, and they became spots for holds," Mr Wilson said.
"And then there was a roof, so I thought I might as well stick some holds on the roof.
Mr Wilson's project took him around five days to complete — although he adds to it whenever he gets time or inspiration.
"My climbing friends certainly think it's pretty cool," he laughed.
Mr Wilson said he tries to visit his climbing room about two to three times a week, and it's an activity his son enjoys sharing with him.
He uses the walls he's built to practise technical footholds, trusting his feet to know how to stand on tiny things.
"I came into the sport pretty strong and fit, and so I was just able to muscle my way through everything early on," Mr Wilson explained.
"But I've realised over time just how important it is to be able to rest on your feet and learn good footwork."
As well as practising in his climbing room, Mr Wilson also climbs outdoors at the weekend.
"I've made a whole new set of friends who I climb with pretty much every weekend, and get to get out in these beautiful places and try hard and sometimes fail ... and sometimes succeed," he said.
Olympics has brought bouldering to the world stage
Mr Wilson is far from alone in his love of bouldering.
The sport has been growing in popularity in recent years, in part thanks to the inclusion of sport climbing on the world stage.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, which were held in 2021, bouldering made its debut alongside lead climbing and speed climbing.
And this year, two Australian athletes travelled to the Paris Olympic Games to compete in sport climbing — Oceana Mackenzie and Campbell Harrison.
Mackenzie made it to the final of the Women's Boulder and Lead event after finishing sixth overall, and will compete for gold around 6:15 pm AEST today.
Harrison, who debuted at the Paris games, finished 19th overall at his event.
He's the third Australian to have ever competed in sport climbing at the Olympic level.
Among amateurs, the sport's popularity has also exploded.
Data from the national AusPlay survey estimated over 100,000 Australians participate in sport climbing, while a further 350,000 are involved in outdoor rock-climbing, abseiling or caving.
Bouldering a physical and mental challenge
Anthony Scott said he got into climbing around seven years ago when his daughter began bouldering.
"I had the choice of sitting down and watching or getting involved myself," he said.
At first, Mr Scott found the heights the most daunting part of the whole thing — bouldering is done without any ropes, so Mr Scott, aged in his 60s, said he was cautious about not pushing it too far and knowing when to pull out from a "dangerous" climb.
But the "buzz" and "satisfaction" of making it to the top and conquering a new climb quickly took over his fear.
And he became "hooked" by the sport which requires not only physical fitness, but mental agility.
"Some people describe it as playing chess on the wall," Mr Scott said.
"Often the people who are the best climbers aren't the strongest, they are the ones with the best technique, the best technical expertise."
The social side of the sport had also hooked him.
"Compared with going to a normal gym, where you might just work out by yourself, here you're working with people," he explained.
For Bec Courtney, the general manager of Canberra climbing gym BlocHaus, the best thing about bouldering is the diversity of people it's open to.
"We have people who have never climbed before ... we have lots of different ages and people from different backgrounds," Ms Courtney said.
She agreed with Mr Scott that the social side of bouldering also helped to encourage newcomers — and she even welcomes four-legged friends at the gym, too.
It seems for the sport, the only way is up from here.
