François Savigny

Inventor of the removable climbing holds

Every modern climbing gym owes something to François Savigny. Although famous climbers often receive most of the attention, Savigny fundamentally changed how climbing is practiced by inventing removable climbing holds and founding Entre-Prises (EP), the company that became one of the world’s leading manufacturers of climbing holds and walls.

His inventions arrived at exactly the right moment. As climbing was becoming more technical and popular during the 1980s, Savigny created the tools that allowed climbers to train indoors, route setters to constantly create new problems, and competitions to move away from natural rock. Today, virtually every commercial climbing gym follows principles first developed by Entre-Prises.

A Passionate Climber with an Engineer’s Mind

François Savigny was not originally trying to build an international business. He was an engineer and an enthusiastic climber who wanted to climb in fontainebleau but that was too expencive to travel too. So he created his own climbing walls.

During the early 1980s, indoor climbing gyms did not exist. The artificial climbing walls that excisted were usually made from concrete with permanently attached features. Once a route had been built, it could not easily be changed. This severely limited training possibilities.

Savigny saw a simple solution: what if climbing holds could be bolted onto a wall and moved whenever desired?

It seems obvious today, but at the time it was a radical idea.

According to Savigny in his 40-year anniversary interview, he wanted to recreate the experience of climbing outdoors while allowing endless variation. That philosophy—rather than simply building a training wall—became the foundation of Entre-Prises.

Experimenting with the First Climbing Holds

Creating the world’s first removable climbing hold was not a single breakthrough but the result of years of experimentation. As an engineer, François Savigny approached the challenge methodically, testing different materials to find one that was durable, realistic to climb on, and suitable for mass production.

His earliest prototypes were inspired by the texture and shape of natural sandstone boulders in Fontainebleau. Savigny hand-sculpted the holds himself, aiming to reproduce outdoor climbing rather than create artificial-looking grips.

Before finding a workable solution, he experimented with a wide range of materials, including:

  • wood
  • natural stone
  • fired clay (chamotte)

Many of these materials either broke too easily, were too heavy, or could not be manufactured consistently on a larger scale.

The breakthrough came when Savigny developed what he described as a “resin concrete”: a mixture of polyester resin combined with silica aggregate. Rather than simply mixing sand into resin, he carefully selected the size distribution of the silica particles to achieve an optimal balance between strength, durability and the rough surface texture that climbers expect from natural rock.

The resulting holds were cast in moulds and featured a single bolt hole through the centre, allowing them to be attached to plywood walls with standard engineering bolts. This seemingly simple innovation meant that holds could be removed and rearranged in minutes, making it possible to create an unlimited number of climbing routes on the same wall.

Founding Entre-Prises

Following the success of the first holds, Savigny founded Entre-Prises in 1985 in Saint-Vincent-de-Mercuze, France.

Rather than simply manufacturing holds, Entre-Prises began designing complete climbing walls that could be installed in schools, sports centres and climbing clubs.

This was a major shift. Indoor climbing was no longer just a substitute for bad weather—it became an activity in its own right.

By allowing walls to be redesigned continuously, Savigny also unintentionally created an entirely new discipline: route setting.

The First Competition Walls

As climbing competitions began moving indoors during the late 1980s, organisers needed walls specifically designed for competition.

Savigny recognised this opportunity early.

In 1986, Entre-Prises proposed one of France’s first artificial competition walls. Only a few years later, the company supplied the wall for the first Climbing World Cup, held in Leeds in 1989.

This marked a turning point.

Competition climbing no longer depended on natural cliffs. Instead, organisers could design routes specifically for spectators, athletes and judges.

The modern competition format—from World Cups to Olympic climbing—can trace much of its infrastructure back to these early developments.

Helping Indoor Climbing Become a Sport

Savigny’s work arrived just before indoor climbing experienced growth.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, climbing gyms appeared across Europe, North America and Asia.

The company also collaborated with many of the sport’s leading climbers, Helping refine wall design through athlete feedback.

A Lasting Legacy

Today, millions of climbers train on removable holds without thinking about where the idea came from.

Yet many defining features of modern climbing gyms can be traced directly to François Savigny:

  • removable climbing holds
  • constantly changing routes
  • modular climbing walls
  • purpose-built competition walls
  • large-scale commercial climbing gyms
  • standardised international competition infrastructure

Few individuals have had such a profound influence on the development of indoor climbing. While famous climbers expanded what was possible on rock, François Savigny expanded where climbing itself could happen.

Without his engineering vision, indoor climbing—and perhaps even Olympic climbing—would likely look very different today.

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