Indoor rock climbing.

[TEMPESTboy]

Hey everybody, just looking for some tips shooting some indoor rock climbing pics. There's a competition tomorrow at my gym and I'd like to take some photos, but there are some difficult situations to get over. First, it's not the brightest of places. I think I'll be limited to my 50mm f1.8 and 135mm f2.0. Flash is also a going to be a problem since the climbers will be on the wall where huge shadows will show up and there's also lots of chalk dust floating around and I've seen pictures taken with a flash where there are specks all over the frame where the light reflects off the chalk dust. Any tips out there!? I'm still shooting with film, so I don't have the luxury to try everything out. I'm just worried about the lighting. Thanks everybody.

[Redo]

I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed with the answers. There isn't enough information, body, lenses, flash etc. in your post to really help you.

The one thing you have going for you is that rock climbing is slow. Take a tripod and/or some bean bags for use with slow shutter speeds.

As to flash you might use 2nd curtain flash. If you don't have that option you can try flashing at partial values for some fill and softer shadows.

Use a number of rolls of film. In the old days I would have said shoot a couple of rolls at the correct film speed and push the rest. I haven't kept up with film technology to know which brands, if any, can be pushed or if labs still do that sort of thing.

Your post is exactly why I bought a digital camera 6 years ago and left film completely 4 years ago.

REdo

[SmartWombat]

The one thing you have going for you is that rock climbing is slow.

What? I've seen competition climbs that totally amazed me.
I couldn't climb that height up a ladder as fast as they were going up !

Definitely the faster the lens the better.

Will you be above the wall?
At the bottom?
Belayed half way up?
Spectating from a way back?

Assuming you can get close enough, f1.8 50mm will be great.