What Does Your Favorite Climbing Hold Say About You?

Updated September 30, 2025 09:25AM

I’ve been a setter for about seven years, a climber for 11, and an extrovert for 33. I love getting to know people and climbing, and when those two worlds collide, I can convince myself that everything will be alright.

Recently, I had the unique opportunity to apply these two strengths and make some observations. I’m not saying these observations are scientific, but they might just explain why you keep picking problems that look suspiciously similar week after week. When you step towards a problem, what really matters isn’t what the setters intended, but whether they gave you holds you like. Your favorites reveal a lot about you —not just as a climber, but as a person navigating life.

Here’s what your favorite hold reveals about you and your Enneagram type—a personality framework with nine different archetypes based on insights dating back millennia. (If you’re not sure what your actual Enneagram type is, you can take a free test here.)

Crimps → Enneagram 1

The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

If crimps are your favorite hold, you live on the edge—literally. You’re either (a) a shortie with fingers of steel, or (b) a masochist. As a crimp lover, you tend to be detail-oriented, disciplined, and, for some reason, have the most hip flexibility in the group. You’re not too sure why everyone is scared of that slab climb (why do their legs keep shaking?), and you might be too familiar with how an 8mm edge feels digging into your finger pads. Whenever the beta is too convoluted, you are the one to remember that no crimp is too small to piano match.

Your friends hate when you downplay how hard a climb is: “It’s just tiny crimps—super straightforward.” Meanwhile, their tendons are screaming. But hey, someone has to inspire fear and admiration simultaneously.

Jugs → Enneagram 2, The Helper

The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive

You like security. You’re the type of person who reads Yelp reviews before picking a restaurant and always carries an extra snack “just in case.” In the gym, you’re always down for a campus board sesh or campus move on a boulder. Your folly is that you often misjudge climbs based on jug placement (“There’s no way a jug would be on a V8,” you say, looking at the start hold).

Outside, you’re the climber who says, “I climb for fun, not grades,” but also somehow ends up being the one logging every send on Kaya. Everyone loves you because you offer an encouraging “Yeah! Nice!” on every attempt. You’re basically the golden retriever of climbers.

Pinches → Enneagram 3, The Achiever

The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious

Pinch lovers are ambitious and unfazed about sketchy clips. “Pump” and “lactic acid” are not words in your vocabulary (or cardiovascular system). Whether you’re latching a hold despite it being “wristy,” biking a roof hold with your toes, or coconut-squeezing a plastic sphere like your sponsorship depends on it, you know how to adapt.

Pinch lovers are easy to spot in the wild because of their unnecessary urge to pinch almost everything. Common examples of prey include 2x4s at Home Depot, a stack of folding chairs, or sides of open doors.

Slopers → Enneagram 4, The Individualist

The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

Congratulations: you thrive in chaos and the unknown. Temperamental, like you, slopers can go from “solid” to dry firing at the drop of a hat. You’re the kind of person who believes in “trusting the process” even when the process is clearly failing.

In the gym, you brush the holds so often the setters wonder if they have a new dual-tex hold (see related personality below). In your friend group, you’re the one insisting the next sloper is “good” even though everyone can see its entire grabbable surface from the ground—and boy, is it slick.

Underclings→ Enneagram 5, The Investigator

The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

Underclings lovers are strong, focused, and can be a bit unhinged at times. You roll up and show everyone that sometimes finger strength means nothing when the hold is flipped upside down. Your betas can be seen as visionary, as you start underclinging holds no one thinks about. Eventually, this leads to more enigmatic moves like thumb-der clings.

Dual-Tex → Enneagram 6, The Loyalist

The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

You chalk your hands every 10 seconds, even though everyone knows it doesn’t help. You crave suffering and attention in equal measure. You love dual-tex holds because they’re cruel puzzles disguised as plastic. If dual-tex is your thing, you’re the kind of person who laughs when your friends slip and then immediately posts the video on Instagram. You find that stepping on the no-tex surface of a hold (or the half-inch-sized part of texture that’s exposed) perfectly encapsulates to others how close you are to an anxiety attack.

Volumes → Enneagram 7, The Enthusiast

The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractable, and Scattered

Volumes aren’t just holds, they’re the future. If you love them, you’re artsy, experimental, and maybe just a little dramatic (or at least enjoy climbing with flair). You don’t climb problems—you perform them. Every climb has the potential to become a dynamic run-across-jump-double-clutch-gaston. The monochromatic setting in gyms is great, but you’d rather be spontaneous (or is it distracted?) in your movement. Many of your sessions feature either the phrase, “It goes,” or your attempt to climb a problem facing out, because why not? You find yourself trying random laches while your friends are resting by their projects.

You’re the most likely to be spotted lying on the pads, staring at the wall. Your spotters can’t decide if you’re seeing the next project or if you’ve finally sprained your ankle. Regardless, whenever you see a visionary move, your friends roll their eyes because they know that to you, “just one more try” actually means eight.

Pockets → Enneagram 8, The Challenger

The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

If pockets are your favorite hold, you’ve accepted that every move is a gamble for your tendons, and you like it that way. In climbing and in life, you’re confident, decisive, and powerful. You’ve gotten really good at deadpoints, and blocked holds don’t intimidate you at all. What most people see as potentially tendon-popping holds, you see as holds without the fluff.

Unbeknownst to you, your friends have started a betting pool on when you’ll finally blow a pulley.

A common tell-tale sign that someone likes pockets is if they carry bags of groceries with a sub-optimal number of fingers per bag.

Mini-Jugs → Enneagram 9, The Peacemaker

The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

Mini-jug fans are pragmatic realists. You like holds that look friendly but require focus (is that hold upside down and blocked?). Like the ever faithful mini-jug, you’re probably the glue of your climbing crew—the one who reminds everyone to hydrate, warm up, and double-checks anchors. Sure, people want to get to the volume-cluster at the middle of the wall, but to get there, they first have to climb through the mini-jugs.

In life, you’re dependable and steady. Without you, everyone knows the session falls apart.

Holds and personalities: In conclusion

At the end of the day, your favorite hold might say more about you than you think. Maybe none of this is true, or maybe the setters really do know you better than your therapist. Regardless, it’s always such a joy seeing all the quirks and betas that different climbers bring to the wall. And that’s what makes this sport so special. It’s a place where diverse personalities can meet under a common complaint: “What were the setters thinking?”