Swimming-pool owners who have tired of their old pool diversions — pool volleyball, water aerobics, and games of Marco Polo — may well drool over the Aquatic Climbing Wall being hawked by catalog giant Hammacher Schlemmer. The heavy-duty structure is like the fake rock walls aspiring mountaineers train on, but with one obvious benefit: Since climbers who fall off hit water instead of concrete, there’s no need for ropes, helmets and safety harnesses. The wall’s surface is contoured fiberglass, with an array of sculpted hand-grips that can be changed out and rotated to shake things up or to adjust the climb’s difficulty; at the top is a clear-panel overhang — put there, evidently, in case you got a sudden, irresistible urge to continue your climb over the edge and go splat on the pool’s edge. The ten-and-a-half foot, 200-pound item comes with a lifetime guarantee and includes “white glove delivery,” according to the catalog — and for $8,000, it certainly should.












