A climbing trainer comprising a movable climbing training wall surface defined by a continuous belt rotatably disposed about a pivotable frame and controllably actuated to rotate at a selected speed, the pivotable frame and support being selected to provide a desired inclination of the climbing training wall within a range including positive inclinations and negative inclinations; the movement of said wall surface and inclination of said pivotable frame being controllable by electronic means; and wherein a wall controller comprising a microprocessor controls said trainer to provide a climb simulation having a plurality of segments of different difficulty; said differing difficulty being facilitated by alteration of at least one parameter of a group of parameters consisting of vertical distance of wall surface movement, speed of wall surface movement, inclination of said wall surface, and designation of particular holds affixed to said wall surface as available and unavailable; said simulating being a compilation of instructions for said wall controller which can be transferred to the wall controller from elsewhere via a data link, and may be transferred via a global computer network.