Once a fringe activity of mostly young adults, indoor climbing is gaining a mainstream foot hold, drawing fans that might include your neighbor’s 8-year-old son and your own grandma.
The sport has ascended in popularity over the last 10 years, and some say it’s on par with youth soccer and gymnastics in Colorado. Many think it will continue to climb the ranks of the state’s favorite pastimes.
“Climbing is very much a way of life in this region,” said Hilary Harris, who recently opened a Louisville location of EVO Rock + Fitness.
Indoor climbing started in the U.S. around the 1980s with rock climbers building training walls. They placed rocks on plywood and scaled the man-made walls to practice their skills, said Rob Candelaria, who opened Boulder’s first commercial climbing gym, the Colorado Athletic Training School, in 1988.
CATS and other similar gyms caused a stir in the local climbing community. Some climbers viewed the practice as cheating, he said. Others said the workouts were tougher than climbing outdoors.
As gyms evolved from warehouses lined with plywood walls dotted with crude holds to facilities designed specifically for climbing — and as climbing gear advanced to provide a greater level of safety — the floodgates opened. People began pouring into the gyms.
“Itap definitely on a pretty substantial growth trajectory,” Ryan Sewell, recreation center director for the local chain Movement Climbing + Fitness, said of indoor climbing. “I feel like more and more people are realizing the benefits, especially for their children.”
Sewell, Harris and Candelaria rattle off climbing’s perks with little prompting: It’s social, providing easy opportunity to build friendships. It’s a year-round activity — no snow or rain or lightning delays. It’s approachable, open to many body types, ages and athletic abilities. It’s challenging, allowing people to overcome fears and to set and achieve goals. It’s universal, letting parents climb with their kids. And it’s fun, Sewell added — more interesting than running on a treadmill for exercise.
Climbing gyms have become many Coloradans’ home away from home, Sewell said, the place they find community and a support system. Despite growing competition, both Harris and Sewell said their gyms are full on any given day.
The climbing industry grew by 13 percent from January 2016 to January 2017, . Industry sales grew $59.2 million since 2014, reaching a four-year high of $175.5 million.
Harris and Sewell declined to share membership numbers, but Sewell said as many as 800-900 climbers might visit Movement’s Denver location throughout a day, with numbers picking up after school and work. The gym’s popularity has steadily increased since it opened in 2014, he said. Gyms have benefited from renewed attention since climbing was added to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he said.
Most regulars at Sewell’s and Harris’ gyms are 25-45, but climbers there range from “super young” kids who are 2 or 3 years old to people in their 70s and 80s. Most members fall into one of two groups: outdoor climbers strengthening their skills or indoor climbers seeking a fun way to exercise.
“I think that we’re starting to see a new type of climber emerge that are primarily indoor climbers and they never venture to the rock,” Harris said.
CATS now focuses on gymnastics training and only elite climbers tackle its difficult wall, but many gyms have picked up the slack, luring new people to the sport and enticing them to return again and again.
Harris’ EVO gym, which opened in April, and Fort Collins-based Ascent Studio, which opened in 2016, added to a stable of gyms in the region. Across the nation, 27 commercial climbing facilities opened in 2016 for a total of 414 gyms, according to the .
Although Candelaria said Colorado’s climbing gym community soon may hit saturation, Harris and Sewell dismissed that, saying the state has a high ratio of climbers per capita. In their opinion, the industry will continue to grow.
Alpinist Chris Warner is counting on that. He . When the 52,000-square-foot climbing and fitness facility opens this year it will be the country’s largest indoor rock gym.
