Climbers getting fit at Planet Granite Portland. Photo: CBJ
More Americans participated in climbing activities in 2015 than in 2014, according to a report put together by the Physical Activity Council and PHIT America.
4.6 million people participated in either sport climbing, bouldering or indoor climbing last year, ranking climbing seventieth on the list of the top 111 activities in America — just beating out gymnastics, track & field and a number of other traditional sports (traditional, ice and mountain climbing also made the list at number ninety-five with 2.5 million people participating in 2015).
PHIT America compiled their list of the top 111 activities and sports for 2016 based on the PHYSICAL Activity Council and Sports Marketing surveys.
The report noted that from 2007 to 2014 the climbing participation level only grew by 18,732 people. But from 2014 to 2015 participation grew by 148,287.
Climbing and all its forms (even indoor climbing) are counted in the report under the “outdoor” category. When taken together, all “outdoor” activities remained flat, which is a continuing trend since 2012, decreasing, on average, 1% over the last 5 years.
This flies in the face of the general assumption that the crags and trails of America are becoming overcrowded. This statistic also contravenes the exceptional growth climbing gyms and the climbing industry have experienced over the last five years. However, upon further inspection it makes a bit more sense, since climbing is lumped together in the report with a myriad of other activities, such as birdwatching, camping, snowshoeing and wakeboarding, among others.
Demographics
When it comes to being active, the Gen Z population (born in 2000 or later) prefer outdoor sports (62%) and team sports (57%), being the highest participation rate in both categories compared to other generations. This is great news for climbing gyms and those selling climbing gear. This age group has been in climbing gyms their whole life and are comfortable there. They will shortly come into adulthood and the financial independence that bestows.
When it comes to being active, most of the population prefers a form of fitness followed by outdoor activities. While both winter and water sports are only participated in by less than 15% of the population, their rates have increased over the past year. Both outdoor and racquet sports remain flat and individual sports show a decrease. This decrease has been a continuing trend since 2012, decreasing, on average, 1% over the last 5 years.
In terms of interest, all age groups continue to look at swimming as a means for future fitness. Followed heavily by outdoor activities, such as camping and biking. Fitness activities are featured high on the list for most adult age groups while team sports are more attractive to the youths.
Inactivity and Aspirational Participants
There were 81.6 million inactive Americans in 2015 compared to 82.7 million inactive Americans in 2014, marking the largest year-over-year drop since 2010, according to the report.
The report stated that while these rates seem to fluctuate over the last five years, the 2014 to 2015 decrease (0.6%) is the largest drop since 2010. This showed that 1.2 million people who were inactive in 2014, participated in a some sort of fitness activity in 2015. Although this doesn’t make up for half of the Americans who became inactive in 2014 (2.6 million from 2013), the 1.2 million additional active people in 2015 was the most gain of active people over the last five years
“Inactivity” is defined to include those participants who reported no physical activity in 2015 and an additional 18 sports/fitness activities that require minimal to no physical exertion.
However, there are still 81.6 million inactive Americans. Inactivity decreased for most age groups, with 13 to 17 year olds having the biggest drop (1.4%) and 35 to 44 year olds having the lowest decrease (0.2%) in 2015. While those Americans between the ages of 45 to 54 remained flat in inactivity, there was a gradual increase in inactivity for 55 to 64 year olds.
Bring a Friend
The report also tracks those individuals that wish to be active but for reasons of their own are not. These “aspirational” participants reported that having someone to participate with or having a friend bring them along would be a strong motivator to start a new activity. While having more free time was mentioned to be helpful, more people felt that their current health was a big hindrance.
Ways to Get a Non-participants Involved in Activities
“One of the most important findings of this report and an overall trend that we’re seeing across activity sectors is people prefer to participate with friends,” Christine Fanning, executive director, Outdoor Foundation, said in a statement. “As we try to engage new audiences, it will be critical to highlight, promote and even expand the social aspects of activities.”
Climbing is essentially a solo activity, yet it is also a very social one. Climbing gyms in particular have used the power of community to market to those people that are not attracted to traditional sports. And gym operators should use this report to set up special events in which members are encouraged to bring a friend or other social gatherings.
Methodology
There’s more information and a further breakdown of demographics in the full report. You can also find the methodology of how the report was put together.
PHIT America is a non-profit campaign focused on promoting active, fit and healthy living through education, supporting school-based activity programs and other advocation.
The Physical Activity Council is made up of IHRSA, SFIA, the National Golf Foundation, the Outdoor Industry Association and Outdoor Foundation, Snowsports Industry of America, the Tennis Industry Association, the United States Tennis Association and USA Football.
A rendering of what Adventure Rock and the apartments will look like when finished.
By Rich Evans
Adventure Rock Climbing’s general manager, Craig Burzynski used to considered himself a climber who happened to run a climbing gym. Now, after eighteen years of plunging toilets and managing employees at Ad Rock’s first location in Brookfield, Wisconsin, he now tells people that he’s a businessman. It’s that kind of change in thinking that propelled Adventure Rock to partner with Milwaukee’s premier developer, Mandel Group, to build a state-of-the-art climbing gym with underground parking, apartments, and 18,000 square feet of Eldorado walls all set on prime Milwaukee real estate.
Burzynski, and the team behind Ad Rock, started the search for a new location four years ago after local climbers begged them to open a gym closer to Milwaukee. At first, he looked for existing buildings that he could pop the roof on which would run about $2 million to accomplish. But there was a steep learning—and time consuming—curve in regards to the roles of architects, brokers and lawyers in the process of modifying buildings and expanding into a new location.
“We thought we were ready to go when we had an architect, and then when we had a broker, but things really got moving when the lawyers got involved,” he said.
It took two years to decide that new construction was the best option. Originally, Burzynski was considering building the new gym on a $200,000 lot but realized the advantages of another lot across town going for $2 million.
That property is owned by Mandel Group. When Ad Rock’s real estate broker brought the two companies together both parties realized the project was a perfect fit. Mandel Group supplied the real estate and construction know-how and Ad Rock supplied the gym business operations. Plus, Ad Rock got choice riverside property in the Riverwest neighborhood.
Friendly Competitor
The pace of construction is a matter of perspective. For an owner fronting the costs of a new building, and for local climbers wanting a new place to climb, construction can’t move fast enough. Burzynski attributes the pace, from the initial planning two years ago, to the grand opening later this week, on Mandel Group’s insistence on keeping building costs down.
“It’s a mathematical formula. In order to pay off a building in 20 years, it can only cost so much, that’s just the way it works,” he said.
On the other hand, Mandel Group’s Emily Nechvatal said that buildings that size take about two years to plan and build.
A look at the bouldering area. Photo: Ad Rock
Under the current arrangement, Mandel Group owns the building and Ad Rock has a long-term lease for the climbing space which comes in at 17,000 square feet including a mezzanine-level bouldering area. The climbing wall-to-floor area ratio is about 1:1, which is “the golden number people use now. It used to be 1.5:1, but then climbers bump elbows when it gets crowded,” Burzynski said.
That’s one reason Ad Rock looked to build a new gym. Their first location, in Brookfield, about 30 minutes outside of Milwaukee, has become so popular that Burzynski has to manage the crowding with some creative scheduling. Plus, “Ad Rock wanted to protect its backyard. If we didn’t build in Milwaukee, someone else would have.” Burzynski said.
But Ad Rock isn’t letting the Brookfield location languish as a second-class gym. Their business model calls for the Brookfield location to be a friendly competitor to the new Milwaukee location. Last year they expanded parking at the Brookfield gym, and they are currently remodeling the front desk area, pro shop, a short-wall autobelay section and building a new bouldering cave and workout space.
The decor in the front-desk area matches the decor at the Milwaukee location. The idea is to give local climbers a choice between two good gyms, and a way to have a change of scenery.
A view into the new Adventure Rock. Photo: Ad Rock
For a while though, the Milwaukee location is going to be the new climbing hotspot, and for good reason. With over $100,000 invested in holds and 42-foot walls over carpet-bonded foam floors, there are plenty of challenges for all abilities. The 42-foot walls are considerably more expensive than 30-foot walls, and are high enough to thrill, but not frightening to new climbers. Burzynski calls 32 feet to 45 feet the “sweet spot” for height and he said walls over 45 feet are “insanely expensive.”
Burzynski, along with Eldorado Climbing Walls designers and members of the Ad Rock staff, looked at angles, features, and paint schemes that they particularly liked and built the walls with those features, which include an elephant head-like outcropping and a spire framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the building. Motorists traveling west down Milwaukee’s busy North Street, in front of the building, will see some spectacular climbing.
“We would work our butts off all week long and drag ourselves in and try and be nice on weekends to give hard-hat tours,” Burzynski said, “but you know what—it was easy and awesome to see the level of psychness that everyone had for the place. To see them seeing and following the same lines we had been working on was very rewarding and worth everything.”
Hard hat tours earlier this year. Photo: Ad Rock
Burzynski wants to see the new gym become more than a place for rope guns to practice. The new gym is really part of a climbing lifestyle. There are showers so that climbers can make an evening of climbing and then walk to dinner at a nearby restaurant. The gym’s neighborhood is historic, revitalized, and progressive.
Mandel Group is capitalizing on the neighborhood by marketing the apartments to young, active clients—but not to climbers directly. The gym is mentioned on Mandel Group’s Belay Apartment’s Facebook page, but the gym doesn’t take the lead role in the promotional material.
According to the Facebook page, from the apartments “It is an easy bike ride to downtown. Perhaps best of all, you’ll have immediate access to the Milwaukee River at the spot where it changes from an urbanized channel to a tree-canopied natural river corridor complete with trails, kayak access and abundant wildlife.”
Some of the 46 one-and-two-bedroom apartments should be available in July 2016. The apartments are renting from $1,295 for 652 square feet. That price is consistent with other new property in the area.
For Mandel Group, building the gym together with the apartments was simply a matter of building a bigger box—to house the gym—and having Ad Rock as a permanent tenant. The apartments are one exterior wall of the gym, facing Milwaukee River and Downtown.
That’s the beauty of the concept, and one reason the project passed easily through Milwaukee’s planning bureaucracy: the structure provides jobs, recreation, and living space. Ad Rock employs about 12 full-time and 45 part-time employees.
Burzynski is particularly proud of his employees. “I’m not exactly a micro-manager, but I like things done a certain way. With these people, I can stay out of the way and know things will get done the right way.”
He considered his staff’s needs in the design and construction of the new gym. It has a dedicated staff break room, the hold storage area has custom, tiered drawers to organize and store holds, and the dirty hold spray-down room is large enough to wash a small car in.
Many of his employees have been with Ad rock for years – since they were teenagers. One reason they stay is because he encourages them to step into new responsibilities; from hosting kids’ birthday parties to coaching, or working the front desk. Just like Burzynski himself, these young climbers are seeing the business side of the new indoor climbing industry and embracing it.
Vice Sports freelance writer Matt Whittaker visited the Climbing Wall Association Summit last month and came away with a new outlook on the climbing lifestyle. Vice, a counterculture media empire, is just one of many major news outlets that have picked up on the popularity of climbing and the boom in climbing gyms.
Photo by Flickr user Joshua Kruger via Vice Sports.
“The tenth annual Climbing Wall Summit was a sign of how mainstream rock climbing has become. Gym owners, athletes, and industry leaders from around the world browsed various booths hawking plastic handholds, climbing harnesses, and other gear. Although the attire was decidedly casual—jeans, t-shirts, sandals, dreadlocks, at least one man bun, and not a tie in sight—the scheduled presentations included such fairly square topics as the U.S. economic outlook, customer acquisition, insurance, and private equity investment.”
Whittaker’s title to the piece, “The Next Generation of Climbers Wants To Stay Indoors”, gets at the heart of climbings appeal and may make some old school dirtbags nauseous. But this title is absolutely true because gym operators have fine-tuned their approach to selling climbing to make it more appealing than going outside to the local crag.
“At some point between the first ascent of El Capitan in the late 1950s and today, climbing, or at least a sizable portion of it, underwent a shift from countercultural wilderness activity to an indoor sport whose participants might otherwise go bowling. Nothing typifies this more than the evolution of climbing gyms, which once functioned as places to train for the outdoors but have since become destinations themselves. The small facilities built by climbers for climbers in decades past have given way to big, bright warehouse-sized behemoths offering showers, snacks, coffee, beer, Wi-Fi, yoga and fitness classes, and pro-shops to sell climbing gear. Business is booming.”
All that new business is allowing for entrepreneurs to enter this maturing industry with a greater guarantee that profits are not far behind.
“The popularity of indoor climbing has spawned a sub-industry of companies that design or manufacture the polyurethane protrusions that are bolted to walls as foot- and handholds. The companies are no longer simply trying to mimic the shape and feel of natural rocks. They’re now catering to a new breed of climber who’s focused on the gym and particular about his or her climbing experience.”
“There hasn’t been one specific tipping point in climbing’s tilt toward the mainstream. Over the past decade, climbing has grown alongside other non-traditional sports and forms of functional fitness like CrossFit and obstacle course competitions like Tough Mudder and American Ninja Warrior. Industry participants point to indoor climbing’s appeal as a communal activity in an age of technological dislocation caused by smartphones and social media.”
This month marks Climbing Business Journal’s three year anniversary for providing quality climbing industry news and analysis. In that time, CBJ has published original, unbiased and well-researched articles that are valuable to climbing gym professionals. But we do so much more than provide weekly news articles — here are a few other things you may not know about:
Gym Map
CBJ has compiled an extensive database of all the commercial climbing gyms in North America. We know a lot about these climbing gyms, and you can too! Check out our handy Gym Map where you can see the location of and useful metrics about every climbing gym in the USA and Canada.
With the map search tools you can find every gym with “Stone” in their name (answer: 30) or how many gyms were opened between 1990 and 2000 (answer: 138) or even how many gyms have ever opened in Boston (answer: 10) or closed in Boston (answer: 0). Plus you can filter by wall builder or by square feet of climbing space.
The gym map doesn’t just list gyms that are open. We also track facilities that are planned to open. When an operator announces a new location, they let us know and we add a shiny purple dot to the map to indicate a planned gym coming to town.
This helps gym owners plant their flag and it allows existing gym operators to keep track of the competition.
Gym operators also use the map to find the best market to expand into as well as prospective gym owners looking to build their dream gym; with the map it’s easy to see which markets are crowded and which are under served. For example, North and South Dakota as well as Mississippi do not have a single commercial climbing facility in their states. Or maybe you’re looking for something more urban: Baltimore, MD; Washington DC; Richmond, VA; and Orlando, FL do not have any climbing gyms within their city limits.
Growth Rate
All of this tracking allows CBJ to have the only reliable metric on the growth of the indoor climbing gym industry. Knowing how many gyms open each year and how many close, we are able to share the only accurate growth rate statistic for the industry.
CBJ releases the growth rate in our annual year-end review we call the Gyms and Trends. This report is published right before the calendar ends and has a complete analysis of the growth rate along with current development and operational trends. We give a complete industry picture as well as a breakdown of certain aspects, like the number of new bouldering-only gyms and their particular growth rate and geographic distribution. Or you can find out how the major wall builders are doing and which one is doing the most jobs.
Before CBJ started keeping track, operators had no reliable metrics to base business decisions on. They simply guessed or went with their gut. Now, gym owners and operators have a solid number they can take to their banker or investors to prove that the climbing gym industry is a proven model with solid growth potential.
And just in case you’re curious, as of today, in the US we are calculating a growth rate of 15.94% over last year. However, by the time the year ends that number will most likely be closer to the 14% or 15% once we see exactly how many new facilities are able to open their doors before the new year.
Jobs List
Finding the right people for your team is always a challenge, and climbing gym operators do not want to waste their time posting jobs on Craigslist or even the local newspaper classifieds where they may not find qualified candidates. That’s why we created the CBJ Jobs Listings. This tool has become one of our most popular features and is the go-to source for finding a job in the climbing gym profession as well as providing operators with a targeted approach for finding the best employees.
On any given day, you’ll find over two dozen jobs for positions like front desk, team coach, routesetter and site manager. Wall builders even use it to find quality construction workers that have a climbing background.
And the best part, listing a job is completely free. Searching for jobs is also free. But if you want your job listing to stand out, you have the option to upgrade your job listing so it is pushed to the top of the page, or you have the option of having CBJ promote the listing through our email newsletter and Facebook page, where it can be targeted at thousands of our readers.
Marketplace
CBJ’s newest resource is our Marketplace. Here you can sell anything related to climbing gym operations; gear like autobelays, and climbing holds; fitness equipment and merchandising displays; you can even sell your entire climbing facility or look for partners to expand your brand.
With the climbing gym industry entering its third decade, operators need a place to sell used or unwanted gear as well as selling their entire operations.
Just like the jobs listing, posting in the Marketplace is now absolutely free (it also has options for upgrading and promoting your listing). Listings don’t last long, so make sure you check the Marketplace every week so you don’t miss out on any great deals.
Join
The only walls we like are ones you can climb. That’s why we don’t have a pay wall like most other industry trade journals. We believe in providing the most accurate and up to date information possible to as many people as possible. All of our features plus our weekly articles are always free to our readers.
All this work does cost money. That’s why we offer a limited number of advertising opportunities to those companies that need to target directly to the climbing gym professional. Our advertisers find a lot of value in promoting through CBJ, and we often have a waiting list for the most prominent ad spots.
But we also offer our readers the opportunity to financially support CBJ by becoming a member. If you read CBJ every week and share our articles with your staff; if you can’t imagine running your business without CBJ then it’s time to become a supporter.
We offer membership levels from Friend ($24 a year) to Corporate ($250 a year). All members are listed on our website and receive thanks through our social media outlets, but there are no specific “perks” tied to each level. It’s really just a way for you to support us if you like what we are doing and want us to continue to provide original reporting and research on the indoor climbing industry.
The Next Three Years
CBJ started when the founders, Mike and Marlowe, hatched the idea of providing a single source for news and analysis specific to the business of indoor climbing. Since then we have added some great freelance writers and invested in some new technology, but at its core, CBJ is still a tiny operation with no employees but a lot of passion. We are committed to continue evolving CBJ and, as always, would love your feedback on how we can do things better and what we should focus on next. Thank you!
If you have salaried managers at your climbing facility that work overtime, either routinely or for special occasions, you may be paying more in wages come December 1. A new rule handed down by the Department of Labor allows everyone making less than $47,476 eligible for overtime automatically, regardless of their job duties.
The DOL created the rule to provide a better deal for underpaid, overworked salaried managers and other “white collar” employees currently exempt from overtime pay. In the climbing gym business, this new rule will affect site managers, assistant managers and even some head routesetters.
Overtime may not be a day to day issue, but climbing gyms regularly host special events like competitions, member parties or even special groups like lock-ins. And if you’re a gym that is expanding locations you may want to think twice about the added workload of your managers. These extra hours worked could put a pinch on your labor costs and force employers to dig deep into the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).
Tough HR conversations
Mid-level salaried positions within a climbing gym are still a rarity but have been gaining in popularity as gym’s have become more profitable and the responsibilities of certain positions have become more professional. That momentum could all change with these new rules. More gyms may opt instead to keep assistant managers and head setters at an hourly pay and thus avoid the overtime rule. That’s because once their pay comes close to crossing the overtime threshold, the threshold may go up again. It’s currently scheduled to go up every three years.
Many view earning a salary as a rite of passage — after years of punching a time clock, they feel they’ve finally reached professional status. But, even if these workers remain salaried employees and previously been treated as exempt from overtime they will now have to track hours worked, break times and meal times.
This perception problem puts the onus on HR and employees’ managers to evaluate individual situations and find a way to assure employees they’re not being “demoted” or “losing status.”
“Today’s overtime rule will reduce valuable middle management positions … [It] breaks the basic American bargain: If you’re willing to work until the job gets done, you can quickly climb the career ladder,” Alfredo Ortiz, head of the Job Creators Network, a business trade group told CNN Money.
What You Can Do
According to The Labor Department, the overtime rule simplifies and modernizes the nation’s overtime regulation − to ensure that extra work means extra pay.
There is a misperception that there is only one way for employers to comply with our new our new overtime rule when they have white-collar employees who earn less than $47,476 per year: change them from salaried to hourly employees. That is just not true.
First, employers have a wide range of options for responding to the changes to the salary level. Employers can choose the one that works best for them. Options include:
Raise salary and keep the employee exempt from overtime: Employers may choose to raise the salaries of employees to at or above the salary level to maintain their exempt status, if those employees meet the duties test (that is, the duties are truly those of an executive, administrative or professional employee). This option works for employees who have salaries close to the new salary level and regularly work overtime.
Pay overtime in addition to the employee’s current salary when necessary: Employers also can continue to pay their newly overtime-eligible employees the same salary, and pay them overtime whenever they work more than 40 hours in a week. This approach works for employees who work 40 hours or fewer in a typical workweek, but have occasional spikes that require overtime for which employers can plan and budget the extra pay during those periods. Remember that there is no requirement to convert employees from salaried to hourly in order to calculate their overtime pay!
Evaluate and realign hours and staff workload: Employers can ensure that workload distribution, time and staffing levels are all managed appropriately for their white-collar workers who earn below the salary threshold. For example, employers may hire additional workers.
Hrmorning.com notes that companies are facing a crisis of compensation and need to ask one important question: Do we expect newly non-exempt employees to be as productive working strict, 40-hour workweeks? (Note: This is assuming you’re not going to leave the door open for them to collect overtime on top of their regular pay.)
If your answer is no, that begs three more questions:
Will you decrease their pay and allow them to work OT to catch up?
Are you willing to be lenient and allow them to work some overtime? or
Will you lessen their workloads?
No matter the determination you arrive at, it’ll require a carefully-crafted conversation — and that goes double if you’re taking duties off of someone’s plate.
Ultimately, the most important thing for small-business owners to remember is to take proactive steps to prepare for compliance come December. According to Workforce.com, business owners should evaluate their organizations to better understand which employees may be affected, consider implementing time and labor tools that monitor their employees’ hours, and determine any changes they may need to make to ensure compliance.
Kara Maciel, the labor chair of Conn Maciel Carey PLLC’s Employment Practice Group, shared insights with Club Industry on the rules’ potential impact on the health club business in a recent webinar.
Maciel noted that many low-level managers and assistant managers may automatically be disqualified from exempt status unless their salaries are increased to meet the new salary threshold. This could lead to significant increases in labor costs for a health club business, Maciel said.
To prepare for the rule, which was a proposal in April, Maciel said clubs should:
Audit the exempt classifications of the current workforce to ensure they meet the current requirements;
Pay special attention to those who are close to the salary threshold and those who hold “assistant manager” or “supervisor” type positions;
Review policies regarding overtime and hourly tracking systems as a result of the increased number of employees who will be entitled to overtime.
Bad for Business, Good for the Economy
As mentioned in the video above, employers are not happy with the new overtime rules. Labor costs are the single biggest expense almost all business face and this new rule will only make this worse. In addition to extra costs it will put an administrative burden on HR to keep better time clock records and of course could dishearten hard working employee.
But according to Goldman Sachs, total employment in the US in 2017 will increase by about 100,000 jobs as a result of this new rule. The idea is this: Companies whose workers are covered by the rule will try to avoid paying overtime, and they’ll hire additional workers to do this. The point is to keep from asking their existing employees to work more than 40 hours a week.
The climbing wall that wowed spectators at the 2015 Super Bowl will now be relocated to a park in Phonix, Arizona.
The former Super Bowl wall. Photo: Bizjournals.com
One-third of the massive structure (30 feet tall and 28 feet wide), called the “Grand Canyon Experience,” will join the other rides and attractions at the Enchanted Island Amusement Park near Encanto Boulevard, Gregg Bach, spokesman for the Parks and Recreation Department told AZcentral.
During the Super Bowl, climbers could choose between two climbing sections and watch as a video display and flowed a waterfall over the top of the “cliff”. Phoenix received the climbing portions as a gift after the festivities.
The wall has since sat under a tarp in a city public works yard, Bach said.
Bach said he wasn’t sure where the remaining section would go, but that it could be used for replacement parts.
World Cup routesetter Jacky Godoffe has been climbing there for decades, and his routes are drawn from the motion of Font. For Jacky, this expression, and sharing it with others, is his happiness.
A new bouldering-only gym is hoping to fill the gap in climbing facilities in Loveland, Colorada by open the cities first commercial climbing gym. The Wooden Mountain Bouldering Gym is led by climbers and Loveland locals, Evan Mann and Adam Lum.
Owners, Evan Mann and Adam Lum. Photo: Craig Young / Loveland Reporter-Herald
The first-time gym owners told the Reporter-Herald that, “There are four gyms in Fort Collins, four gyms in Boulder, and there’s nothing in Loveland. And Loveland is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park,” Mann said. “There’s also not many family-friendly venues in Loveland.
Lum and Mann bought a 2,000-square-foot portion of a commercial building in April and are in the process of getting plans and city permits lined up. The gym will feature 1,500 square feet of Vertical Solutions climbing wall as well as a cross-training area on the mezzanine level, with equipment such as a Moon Board, a standardized training wall that will allow climbers in Loveland to tackle the same problems with the same holds that people around the world are facing on their own Moon Boards. In addition to regular monthly members, the partners plan to offer 24-access memberships.
They have hired Vertical Solutions of Salt Lake City to build their 1,500-square-foot wooden climbing wall, which will feature several different angles.
The gym is estimated to open in September of 2016.
