The climbing gym industry has never stood still.

Programming evolved. Facilities became more sophisticated. Member expectations increased.

But aside from some UI updates, we hear many operators say the system used to run their gym seems to have largely stayed the same.

A lot of gym software began being built in a different era—when growth was predictable, competition was lighter, and operational complexity was lower. Back then, systems were designed primarily to manage transactions, not to support growth or future strategies.

This gap is getting harder to ignore.

Data published in Climbing Business Journal’s Gyms and Trends report largely confirms what many operators have felt for a while: in many markets, member growth has leveled off, even as new facilities continue to open.

For most gyms, competition hasn’t slowed down. Growth has.

And that factor changes how a gym needs to operate.

When growth is no longer automatic, infrastructure often matters more than it did before. Sales, marketing, pricing strategies…they all become more integral to operating a successful business.

Numerous gym operators are now stepping back and asking whether the system they chose years ago still fits the business they’re running today.

Enter Redpoint HQ—a platform built for modern and forward-thinking gyms. The new gym management software was crafted not as an upgrade to legacy thinking but as a structural reset designed to support modern operations, revenue strategy, and long-term, sustainable growth.

Here are three reasons why so many gyms are making the move, based on the feedback we hear from operators the most.

1. The Industry Has Outgrown “Gym Software”

In the past, when managers thought of gym software, they often imagined a set of features: how well the software handled operational tasks like check-ins, memberships, retail sales, waivers, etc.

For many gyms, those features were enough when growth was organic and predictable.

Today, climbing gym operators consistently need to think beyond just operational efficiencies to reach their goals. Managers around the industry now have to consider how to manage multiple forms of recurring revenue, complex youth programming, dynamic pricing, events and personalized, targeted marketing campaigns—often across multiple locations.

Success now depends in a big way on how well ALL of these components connect.

Legacy software was typically built to manage operations and transactions and wasn’t designed to align operations, revenue and growth strategy in one system.

Redpoint is different. It’s more than a collection of tools and features—it’s a platform: a centralized foundation where operations, the customer experience and a gym’s revenue strategy all live together.

It’s about having infrastructure that supports how modern gyms need to operate to compete and ultimately succeed.

2. Architecture Matters When Growth Gets Harder

Most gym managers don’t think about database architecture much. You probably didn’t have to think about it, until now.

In a competitive market, how your system is built matters.

Most SaaS (software as a service) systems rely on something called “multi-tenant environments”, where all gyms share the same database behind the scenes. That model is common and efficient for the maker of the software.

But the tradeoff is usually limited flexibility.

As a result, things like custom pricing logic, deep automation and unique workflows are more difficult to support.

Redpoint HQ was built differently. Each gym operates within its own dedicated database environment. This framework was designed to not only provide a higher level of data security and performance but also to allow data to be directly modeled, queried and leveraged without the complexity of filtering out other gyms’ data on a shared system.

In short, it was constructed for something increasingly important: more precise data and intelligence.

Because each gym’s data lives in its own environment, AI tools built into the platform can be trained on that specific facility’s data. That’s a BIG deal!

Managers can ask questions directly in the platform, like:

• Why are members cancelling? Show the top reasons over time.
• What’s driving our revenue change this month? What are the fastest growing programs?
• Show me anything unusual in refunds or exceptions last week.

…And answers are delivered in seconds.

3. Sales and Marketing Are Business Essentials Now

This last reason may be the biggest shift.

Most gym managers now have to treat sales and marketing like core operations. Attracting new members is harder in many markets, and retaining existing members matters even more.

The gyms setting themselves up for success are regularly engaging in not just more marketing but smarter marketing. They need to ask their software:

• Which members haven’t checked in during the past 30 days?
• Which offers are converting to full memberships?
• Which programs are driving retention?
• Which members are churn risks?

This level of visibility is a click away in Redpoint.

And because Redpoint connects all these customer interactions—billing, check-ins, retail and more—marketing isn’t a separate add-on; it’s embedded into the same infrastructure used to run the gym.

Managers can easily segment members based on behavior, trigger automated campaigns tied to customer actions, test promotions, and see revenue impacts immediately.

For most gyms to succeed over time, this type of marketing sophistication is no longer optional. It’s operational.

Structural Shift, Not Just Feature Growth

What we’re seeing is a deeper shift in how gyms think about the systems that run their business. This migration isn’t about new features. The climbing industry has grown more complex and gym owners are looking for platforms that can evolve with them.

The gyms moving to Redpoint are making a long-term operational decision. It’s about building a foundation that supports how they operate now and having the flexibility to expand, adapt and grow in the years ahead.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post A Structural Shift: Why Over 250 Climbing Gyms Have Chosen the Redpoint HQ Platform appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

When veteran routesetters like Mike Bockino and Chris LoCrasto walk into a climbing gym, they can usually tell what’s missing within minutes. A quick look at the holds room, a short conversation with the routesetting team, maybe a lap or two on the wall, and the gaps become obvious.

Bockino has been climbing since 1998 and routesetting since 2001, long enough to have seen multiple eras of hold design. He built his first volume in 2009 while working at The Front Climbing Club in Salt Lake City, before large macros and dual texture became standard tools. Since then, Bockino has set for 28 National Championships and six World Cups, and he has worn nearly every hat a climbing gym offers: head routesetter, coach, general manager, maintenance staff, even hold washer.

“With so many years in routesetting and also on the business side of gyms, I can usually put together a strong hold order with just a few questions,” Bockino said. “The goal isn’t just filling the wall. It’s matching the inventory to the gym’s users and the style of climbing they’re trying to build.”

That long-term perspective is shared by LoCrasto, whose climbing career stretches back even further. LoCrasto began climbing in the mid-1990s, competed on the early youth circuit, and moved into commercial routesetting shortly thereafter. Over the last two decades, he has set more than 20 national-level competitions and five IFSC events, while also co-owning Summit Gyms for 12 years. During that time, LoCrasto designed and built new facilities, led routesetting teams, and ran Premium Holds, a distribution company he founded to better understand how product choices affect gyms on the ground.

Today, both Bockino and LoCrasto work at Essential Climbing, a hold distributor currently representing nine high-quality brands: eXpression, Squadra, Vezi, Axis, Lapis, Kumiki, Chapter, Captain Crux and Jugz. At Essential, their roles are shaped less by sales metrics than by pattern recognition. Years spent setting, managing, and maintaining climbing programs have given the expert team a deep understanding of how hold inventories succeed or fail over time.

“As far as I know, there are few [climbing] hold salespeople like Mike and I who have put together opening hold orders and then had to set with them for years afterward,” LoCrasto said. “Living with those decisions changes how you approach everything.”

The Importance of a Well-Balanced Hold Inventory

When Bockino and LoCrasto visit gyms today, they tend to see the same red flags repeated.

For Bockino, it often starts with imbalance: not enough jugs, limited foothold options, and little variation across colors or circuits. “You never want to hear, ‘I climbed an orange one just like that two months ago,’” Bockino said.

LoCrasto sees a different, but related issue: a lack of brand diversity. He argues that limiting a gym’s hold selection to just one or two manufacturers restricts creativity and ultimately dulls the climbing experience. “Every shaper has a certain flavor,” LoCrasto said. “Different textures, profiles, and ideas of what climbing should feel like. When a gym limits itself, it limits its setters.”

At Essential, that philosophy translates into a catalog that spans thousands of shapes across multiple brands. The emphasis isn’t on uniformity, but instead on contrast: similar shapes available in different grip qualities, varied textures, and hold families that work across both commercial and competition settings.

“There’s nothing worse than knowing the move you want and not having the right hold,” Bockino said, thinking back to his earliest routesetting days. “What excites me about the brands we work with is that you can often find the same shape in easier or harder grip quality. That makes it effortless to fine-tune difficulty without compromising movement.”

Both setters also hear a common regret from gym owners, especially newer ones: underestimating how much they’ll need after opening. “Almost everyone says, ‘I wish I’d saved part of my budget for six to twelve months in,’” Bockino said. “That’s when you really understand what you’re missing.”

Craft, Control, and the Future of Routesetting

For LoCrasto, the difference between a good hold and a great one is rarely about size or flash. It’s about subtleties that only reveal themselves under repeated use. “The perimeter, the profile, the finish, the texture,” he said. “That tactile experience under your fingers is what makes climbing feel special. You know it when you climb on it.”

Both Bockino and LoCrasto see hold design trending toward higher craftsmanship and greater precision. As shapes become more refined, setters gain increased control over movement, allowing small variables to define entire sequences.

“The level of craftsmanship is higher than it’s ever been,” LoCrasto said. “That opens the door to more intentional setting.”

That evolution, they argue, makes thoughtful inventory planning even more important. Holds are no longer just tools for climbs; they can shape how gym members experience movement, progression and creativity over time.

At Essential, both setters see their role as advocates as much as advisors. Their experience allows them to bridge the gap between setters, managers and ownership, helping teams articulate what they need and why it matters. “It’s about understanding the struggles from all sides,” Bockino said. “And making sure the people building the climbs have the tools to do it well.”

In an industry that moves quickly and often chases trends, Bockino and LoCrasto remain grounded in a simpler idea: good climbing starts with good tools, chosen by people who know what it’s like to use them every day.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post A Long-Term Approach to Holds: The Details at Essential That Make a Great Hold Inventory appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

Networking at the CWA Summit can feel daunting before you ever scan your badge. The room is filled with longtime gym owners, veteran routesetters, vendors and industry leaders, and it’s easy to assume everyone already knows one another and you’re stepping into conversations that began years ago. The word itself doesn’t help: “Networking” sounds stiff and overly corporate, especially in an industry built around climbing, community, and shared adventures.

With the event drawing near, we sat down with Kasia Pietras, a longtime CWA Summit attendee and vendor who has been routesetting since 2003, to get her advice on how to approach networking at the CWA Summit and make the most of the experience.

“It’s not something you need to overthink,” Pietras said. “Everyone is there to meet people.”

Networking at the CWA Summit can mean grabbing coffee between education sessions, swapping stories about setting days, or reconnecting with someone you climbed with years ago. Most of the time, it isn’t about pitching yourself at all. It’s about making friends in the same industry you already care about.

Still wish you had some networking advice before the event? Below are some tips from Pietras on how you can make your time at the CWA Summit more rewarding and build real connections throughout the week.

Take Advantage of Every Session—But Make the Most of What Happens Around Them

The 2026 CWA Summit features a wide range of education sessions, pre-conferences, Community Hubs and roundtables. The topics go far and wide, from “Managing Youth Athlete Training Load” to “Scaling Up: When and How to Expand Your Climbing Gym” and “Stay Creative & Efficient: Avoiding Groupthink in Routesetting.”

Pietras encourages attendees to approach each opportunity with intentionality and curiosity. “If you’re open-minded going into a session, you’ll always walk away with something,” she said. “Even if it’s a topic you’re already strong in.”

Pietras also emphasizes that formal programming is only part of the networking ecosystem; the sessions can offer natural conversation starters for later on. Some of the most valuable connections and conversations happen in the moments between sessions, on the show floor, and at the events that follow. Treat the sessions as your foundation, then use what you learn there to spark meaningful conversations with peers, partners and vendors throughout the CWA Summit.

Don’t Leave When the Sessions End—That’s When the Real Networking Starts

“The after-hours events are just as important as the trade show itself,” Pietras added, referring to the Women’s Fireside Chat as well as the pre and post CWA Summit Parties that kick off and close the week. “That’s where you actually get to talk to people in a more informal and candid way,” she said.

For Pietras, some of the most valuable conversations happen outside structured programming, particularly with staff from smaller, independent gyms. A recurring theme she hears in those informal conversations is concern about the sustainability of climbing careers.

“There needs to be more realistic conversations about what a career in the climbing industry actually looks like,” she said. “A lot of people stay in it because they love climbing, even when it gets hard. You hear a lot of talk from big organizations. But the mom-and-pop gyms and smaller chains face different challenges. Hearing more from them would help a lot of people.”

Topics may get brought up during a panel Q&A, but she said it’s those moments over coffee, in hallways, or during evening events that allow attendees to take the conversation further.

Take the First Step—The Best Conversations Don’t Wait for an Invitation

For newcomers to the industry or first-time attendees, approaching someone across a crowded exhibit hall can feel intimidating. Pietras’ advice is simple: keep it short and honest.

“Just walk up and introduce yourself,” she said. “Say who you are, where you work and what you want to talk about.” There is no expectation, she added, that introductions need to be polished or rehearsed.

“Everybody’s pretty chill about meeting new people,” Pietras said. “That’s why we’re all there.”

Even something as old-school as a business card still has a role, especially for people early in their careers. “It gives someone something to walk away with,” she said.

More important than the format of an introduction, however, can be the tone. “I wouldn’t put a lot of pressure on it,” said Pietras. “Trying to make it into something really big just makes it harder. We’re all awkward humans trying our best.”

Turn Conversations Into Opportunities With a Simple Follow-Up

Once the event ends, the work of networking is only half finished. The real value of networking at the CWA Summit often shows up after you leave the show floor. Pietras says the most important step of networking happens one to two weeks after everyone returns home.

“That’s when you reach back out to people you talked to,” she said, speaking on her role as a vendor. “You follow up on orders, new gyms that are opening, and the conversations you started on the floor.”

For attendees, the same principle applies. Pietras advises that a short follow-up message or a thank-you email can turn a brief conversation into a lasting professional connection. Reaching out in the days after the CWA Summit helps keep conversations moving, opens the door to future collaborations, and ensures the relationships you started don’t end when the event does.

A simple follow-up is one of the easiest ways to help make your time at the CWA Summit pay off long after it’s over.

Take Care of Yourself—So You Can Make the Most of the Show

The CWA Summit is fast-paced, high-energy and packed with people, conversations and events, from morning to night.

“It’s a lot of people-time,” said Pietras.

Pietras encourages attendees to find quiet moments between sessions to grab some coffee or seek the company of old friends to recharge their social batteries. Prioritizing your own well-being helps ensure you have the energy to show up fully for everything the CWA Summit has to offer.

If you’re interested in attending this year’s CWA Summit, now is the time to register, check out the stacked roster of speakers, and book your accommodations at special event rates.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post A Practical Guide to Networking: What It Takes to Build Real Connections at the CWA Summit appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

Running a modern indoor climbing gym now requires navigating a web of decisions that no single role fully controls.

Gym managers juggle staffing, safety, culture and margins. Routesetters work at the intersection of creativity, customer service and manual labor. Coaches balance athlete development with retention and burnout. Facilities also have retail managers, marketing directors, coordinators, specialists; each of these roles is highly specialized and increasingly interdependent.

That’s where the CWA Summit plays a quieter but critical role: not by delivering answers, but by helping people make sense of complexity together.

When experience alone stops being enough

Erik Durgin, General Manager at Momentum, has been managing climbing gyms for more than 15 years. Despite that depth of experience, he continues to encourage more staff to attend the CWA Summit each year.

“We send department managers every year,” Durgin said. “And we send more and more people. It’s great for professional development, and it expands their understanding of the gym industry.”

Research on organizational sense-making from the University of Michigan, led by Karl Weick, shows that as systems become more complex, individual judgment alone becomes less reliable. Leaders in these environments depend on shared interpretive frameworks to understand risk, align decisions and adapt to uncertainty. Studies of high-complexity organizations, ranging from hospitals to aviation companies, have found that leaders increasingly rely on shared mental models to interpret uncertainty and align judgment.

By hearing how peers frame the same constraints, gym leaders can recalibrate their own assumptions and avoid relying solely on personal experience.

In other words, the CWA Summit helps attendees answer a foundational question: Is this problem just ours, or is it systemic? Exposure to how other gyms frame the same pressures helps operators adjust their mental models beyond their own experience.

Orientation matters as much as information

Alex Bernstein, CEO of Ascend, first attended the CWA Summit nine years ago. Since then, Ascend has grown to three gyms, and Bernstein now comes to the conference with multiple staff members when it is held locally.

“I attend the [CWA] Summit to be a sponge,” Bernstein said. “But what I really value are the smaller format sessions.”

As an educator in a Community Hub Session last year, Bernstein experienced the format from both sides. He described it as a space between formal presentation and informal conversation—one that encourages collaboration rather than performance.

“I’m best engaged in a small setting,” he said. “I got to listen to other experienced gym managers, routesetters, and people in other roles, and that inspired me to bring ideas back to my gyms.”

Cognitive science helps explain why that structure works. Weick’s study on organizational sense-making also shows that people understand complex systems by comparing experiences and constructing meaning collectively. Hearing how peers frame similar challenges helps leaders refine their mental models and navigate uncertainty more effectively. That refinement can reduce decision fatigue; problems feel more navigable not because they disappear, but because they’re placed in context.

Interested in leading a Community Hub Session? Educator proposals are now open for industry members who want to guide peer-driven conversations at the CWA Summit.

The value of confronting discomfort together

Bernstein also pointed to another function of the CWA Summit: surfacing hard conversations.

“The [CWA] Summit forced us to participate and confront topics that may be uncomfortable,” he said, “and validated our concerns that others feel too.”

In a Harvard University study on team dynamics, researchers observed how this kind of shared discomfort is linked to psychological safety. When people see others naming the same tensions—whether around staffing, safety thresholds or program scope—uncertainty becomes a collective experience rather than an isolating one.

In-person settings can amplify this effect. Physical presence in a shared space can increase trust and openness, particularly when ambiguous or emotionally charged topics are being discussed. Facial cues, informal side conversations, and unstructured time all help people interpret nuance.

That difference matters in an industry where many decisions don’t have clear right answers.

A shared map for a shared terrain

The CWA Summit doesn’t flatten differences between gyms. If anything, it makes those differences clearer. But clarity is one of the key ingredients that allows people to navigate complexity without becoming overwhelmed.

For attendees, the value lies in realizing where their experience fits within a broader landscape. Hearing how others interpret similar challenges gives leaders reference points they can return to months later, often without realizing it.

Bernstein described the in-person aspect as the most valuable part of the CWA Summit. “It makes the climbing industry feel smaller,” he said, “and it pushes you out of your comfort zone.” When working in fields that continue to professionalize and diversify, that shared orientation around our experiences and objectives is no small thing.

And in a complex industry, knowing where you stand is often the first step toward deciding where to go next.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal.

The post Making Sense of a Growing Industry: Why the CWA Summit Helps Leaders Navigate Complexity appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

In the last few years, the climbing wall industry has leveled up in online, screen-based learning. Webinars, Slack threads, even social media’s proliferation of short-form video tips—they can all be highly beneficial, but they should not be your only form of education. Studies from Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab have documented “Zoom fatigue” and the nonverbal overload that video calls can create. We’re all familiar with screen-related factors—constantly viewing ourselves, constrained movement, unnatural eye gazes—that can zap attention and motivation.

When we ask gym managers, routesetters and coaches what actually sticks, they often describe something you can’t download: the feeling of being in the room.

The science largely backs them up. As online learning becomes more prevalent, a growing body of research from the last decade indicates that active, face-to-face learning enhances performance and memory. These are the exact ingredients we find when convening at the CWA Summit.

The Retention Edge: active learning beats passive watching

In a study of university students at the University of Washington, the evidence is consistent: we retain more when we participate.

In a metadata analysis published in PNAS, University of Washington researchers analyzed the data of 225 studies concerning the learning styles and material retention of STEM undergraduate students. They found that when students moved from passive lectures to active learning, exam scores jumped and failure rates dropped dramatically.

Working out problems together instead of sitting in a 400-person lecture hall, where your professor is just a tiny speck on the podium, can make all the difference. Translated into letter grades, the PNAS study suggests the average student lands roughly half a grade higher with active approaches than with traditional lecturing, and they’re 1.5 times less likely to fail.

Participation transforms learning from a one-way transfer into a two-way process of making something meaningful together. It allows our brains to encode information through multiple sensory and cognitive pathways. In climbing terms, it’s the difference between watching a beta video and actually pulling on the holds.

That factor matters for conferences. The CWA Summit’s pre-conferences, Community Hubs and roundtables are built around interaction rather than one-way information dumps. A new climbing gym manager takes notes during a Community Hub, but it’s when he turns to his neighbor and explains how he’ll adapt an idea for the local community back home that the concept “sticks.” A routesetter attends a roundtable about risk management and remembers the discussion months later because she argued a point, listened to feedback, and adjusted her reasoning on the spot.

As Alex Bernstein, the founder and CEO of Ascend in Pittsburgh, puts it, “I attend the [CWA] Summit to be a sponge and soak up all the information.”

Those are active conditions for learning, and they’re precisely where retention improves. Back at your facility, the retained value can manifest itself in compounding ways.

Social presence is not a “nice to have”—it’s a learning variable

When people talk about “showing up,” they often mean commitment or professionalism. But in education science, showing up also has a measurable cognitive effect.

Researchers call it “social presence”—the sense that people are with you, attending to the same task. It’s one of the most powerful predictors of how much people actually learn.

In 2022, two Greek universities set out to better understand how the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic affected students. According to the survey results—published in the National Library of Medicine—the researchers found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of the 336 surveyed university students reported that in-person teaching enabled longer concentration, and 81% said it supported a better understanding of the material. The survey findings showed clear evidence that being physically present affects more than just nice-to-have social factors—it’s an opportunity for a heightened level of learning that lasts.

“I remember getting some swag and free jibs from a vendor,” said a Colorado-based routesetter who attended the 2024 CWA Summit in Portland. “It led to a conversation about proper jibbing techniques. Then suddenly there are three other setters at the booth wanting freebies and arguing over the best way to jib a macro. I still remember those techniques.”

Moments like those can’t be scripted, but in-person sessions can make them more likely to happen. That’s why the CWA Summit’s culture of openness matters as much as its content.

Those exchanges are hard to compress into pixels, and the science on interaction, engagement and social presence explains why. When you walk into an Education Session and recognize faces from the Trade Show Floor, when you laugh about a comp-gone-wrong, or when a coach from another city remembers your name, these layers of familiarity can deepen our sense of belonging.

Making Space for Onsite Connections

To be clear, the takeaway from these studies is certainly not to ditch online learning, but instead to combine it with other valuable forms of education, since each one comes with unique benefits.

The same Stanford University report on Zoom fatigue also stated that in-person learning restores the “human ergonomics” of attention. Looking where you want, moving as you think, and reading the room helps us stay engaged and connected in an educational environment.

“ You can’t really make the same kind of connection online,” said Bryan Pletta, co-founder of Albuquerque’s Stone Age Climbing Gym. Pletta has been attending the CWA Summit for more than a decade.

“ I think the gym owner roundtables are probably my favorite event at the conference,” Pletta continues, “It’s an opportunity to engage with other owners—the only opportunity to see the wider world of the gym industry.”

So, absolutely continue attending webinars. But make space, once a year, to step into the room where your questions are answered by someone sharing a similar experience, and vice versa.

Registration for the 2026 CWA Summit is open. If you’re aiming to bring home ideas that stick, be sure to come with the people who will put them into action. We’ll provide the room.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post The Cognitive Science Behind Showing Up: In-Person Learning at the CWA Summit Builds Lasting Knowledge and Fights Fatigue appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

So, have you…seen CBJ lately? Have you noticed our evolution?

When I first took over Climbing Business Journal from Mountain Mariana (formerly Mike Helt) in 2019, I didn’t know exactly what was in store. But I knew—with my 23 years of experience and passionate dedication to climbing—I could help guide CBJ into the future. We took a hard look at what the industry needed, and we committed ourselves to providing it. Immediately we increased the frequency of articles and revamped both the website and gym map. Revenue grew, the team grew, and our resources that empower the professionals of the indoor climbing industry grew. Everything we do is designed to uplift and propel our industry forward.

About three years ago we redoubled these efforts, quietly investing in a ton of new initiatives. I wrote this article to shine a light on this evolution CBJ has made, in case you missed any of it.

Why did we make these investments? To inspire you, the professionals of our industry, to bring your own perspectives and innovations to the places where you work, as well as to increase our collective knowledge, paving the way for tomorrow. Why do we care about those objectives? Because we are dedicated climbers too, and we know firsthand how climbing can enrich people’s lives.

Stories to Inspire

While a love of climbing brings us all together, there are so many shades and directions for that passion, whether you’re talking about climbing gyms, the routes and shapes on the walls, or the people who work in these spaces. It was always a key focus for CBJ to share stories from around the industry, but about three years ago we accelerated the pace, and now we are proud to provide you with all this content for FREE:

• Gym highlights (weekly, with over 200 published)
• Podcast interviews (bi-weekly, with over 60 published)
• Fresh hold shapes (monthly, with over 60 published)
• Latest products and services (quarterly, with over 20 published)

Meaningful Education

We have always published articles that educate readers on diverse topics, and we encourage our sponsors to share their own knowledge.

In 2023 we stepped it up by hosting live webinars. There is just something a bit deeper when learning through a presentation or discussion with like-minded professionals, especially when you join live. We currently have two webinar series, and the recordings are posted to our website:

• Climbing Gym Management (bi-monthly or so, with over 20 published)—these webinars cover topics for owners, managers, marketers and program developers
• Setters Only! (monthly with over 10 published) – these discussions tackle topics important to routesetters, from career progression to comp setting and much more

The News From Across Our Industry

For over a decade, we’ve been delivering the latest CBJ content to you every Monday morning, but we couldn’t stop there. Our weekly Climb Insider, born in those months at home during early COVID, has grown into what I honestly believe is the single most useful email in our industry for professionals.

That is my goal when I put it together for you each week. My kids know it as “Dad’s Wednesday night thing,” where I comb through hundreds of websites, blogs, social profiles and YouTube channels, with an eye for the latest news and perspectives that really affect our industry and community. It’s not always about indoor climbing, because our industry does not stop at your front entrance. But it is always about what is happening around us and the issues that affect our businesses and customers. (If you’re not subscribed, you’re missing out).

For gym managers and routesetters who want the freshest beta relevant to their roles, we started two targeted monthly curations, pulling top content from the weekly Insider for gym managers and routesetters. Setter Beta and Manager Beta deliver only what these audiences need.

Data That Informs Your Business

Since 2013 our annual Gyms & Trends Report has highlighted growth and innovations coming from the front lines of newly opened climbing gyms. The data in this report—derived from our industry-leading map—has been quoted by WSJ, NYT and BBC, and the charts are go-to resources that are frequently included in business plans for aspiring gym owners.

People constantly ask us for more industry data—often data that does not yet exist. So, a few years ago we decided to roll up our sleeves and work to fill the void. This next section includes many of our largest investments over the last few years, and a big salute goes to Joe Robinson who leads our data efforts.

The first initiative we homed in on was expanding our annual report to include a Gyms & Trends Dashboard—an interactive, filterable resource that puts more data at your fingertips. It takes the report’s static charts and allows you to customize the output, so that it’s more tailored and meaningful to your particular situation. This dashboard is in its second incarnation.

Then we tackled a monster, combining our map data with Census and other public data to build a new report and set of integrated dashboards. Our Market Analysis Report & Dashboard was designed to help you evaluate markets for new locations and marketing budgets.

One perennial question facing every manager is how much to pay your staff, so we dived into that project next. Our Compensation Report and companion Compensation Dashboard are the most in-depth analyses and resources ever made available to our industry on this topic. We chose not to make them too exclusive, because we wanted this data to empower staff and managers alike, so they are included with any paid membership, not just the top tiers.

Finally, we looked at routesetting and knew more data was needed there as well, so we leveraged our popular Grip List Survey to collect the data. Routesetting Trends is an annual glimpse into the profession, shedding light on issues like safety, training, turnover and more.

A Place That Pulls It All Together

Our website is the central node for all we do. Last December we launched our 3.0 site, and it is fulfilling our dream to provide a centralized resource and cohesive user experience. With one login you can access your job posts and resume (which are free, and always will be) and also the exclusive content or data that comes with your membership.

I’m particularly excited about these features:

• Seamless access to member-exclusives
• “Sub accounts” to extend member benefits to others on your team
• Integrated “featured jobs”

Since we were founded, the vast majority of our work has been given away for free. It’s been our pride and joy, and rest assured that a whole lot of it will continue to be free.

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As any gym owner can attest, opening a new climbing gym is a labor of love, and the journey from concept to opening can often be a long one that comes with many roadblocks along the way.

That truth was taken to the extreme for the Cultivate Climbing team in the fall of last year, when their plans to open a new bouldering gym on Foundy Street in Asheville, North Carolina, were disrupted by Hurricane Helene. The storm caused disastrous flooding and damage to the Asheville area and not only halted the bouldering gym project but also shut down Cultivate’s original gym, leaving the community reeling.

But it wasn’t long after the storm had passed before community members were coming together to pick up the pieces and support one another through the aftermath. With the help of gym members, staff, and partners like Walltopia, Cultivate was able to rebound and get back on track, with a revitalized gym that in many ways is better than ever.

Braving the Headwinds, From Strikes to Storms

“I was pulling my hair out,” said Devin deHoll, a co-owner of Cultivate Climbing, about the headwinds facing the Foundy gym project in September last year, before the storm had even arrived. “We had gone through the whole process of building walls with Walltopia. Unfortunately, when they shipped them, they were supposed to land right at the time of a port strike. I was beyond frustrated.”

The Cultivate team was worried the delay from the port strikes would impact the gym’s opening timeline, but in hindsight it turned out to be somewhat of a serendipitous event, in terms of saving the walls from the worst. “Obviously, if they had gotten there a few days earlier, they all would’ve been sitting in that building, and they all would’ve washed down the river. Instead, they were sitting safely on a ship out at sea, away from the impacts of the storm.”

When the storm did sweep across Asheville, both the original Cultivate gym—which was formerly known as Climbmax and has sat beside the French Broad River since 2015—and the new Foundy location were destroyed in the flooding. Fortunately, Walltopia responded with understanding and flexibility at each step of the way, taking care of the logistics for the new bouldering walls, for instance, until Cultivate was ready to restart the Foundy project. “Walltopia literally saved us and worked with us to get us back on our feet. The ship finally landed, they turned the shipping container right back around, stored it for us in Bulgaria until we were ready to go, and then brought it back,” deHoll said.

Annika Zwirn, the Walltopia Project Manager on the Cultivate project, added, “We don’t just build gyms. We help get them open. Our commitment is to the partnership, not just the project.”

Every bit of support went a long way considering neither of Cultivate’s gym properties had flood insurance, since flooding in the area was usually not so extreme. The original gym along the river was built on a hill and supposedly designed to be flood proof, with 10-foot concrete walls above the ground. “Obviously it was not flood proof,” deHoll said. “The flood was so great, it exceeded the concrete bottom story and then poured into the building from the top story and filled it up like it was a glass of water.” The river rose 25 feet above its normal level and left 21 feet of water inside the building. The in-progress Foundy location, for its part, was far away from the river in an area that hadn’t flooded in recent memory. “You can’t even see the river from that building,” deHoll said. But the entire building was destroyed in the flooding as well.

Adapting in a Crisis as “One Big Family”

The community of Asheville dealt with a lot of personal hardships and tragedy during this time, but the loss of the community space of the gym also hit many people hard. “We had over a thousand members in this small Riverside gym, and it was definitely a hub for folks not only for fitness but for community,” said Martin DeFrance, Cultivate’s marketing director. “It helped support a lot of people’s sobriety. And we supported a variety of meetups that were geared around inclusivity. So, it was a safe space for a bunch of people.”

After the storm, people showed how much this space meant to them because a crowd soon arrived to clean up the gym. They brought gloves and just started working, like one big family pitching in to help. “I couldn’t believe the amount of people who showed up,” deHoll said. “And at the time it was really gross. We didn’t have city water in Asheville, so nobody could shower. There was information at the time that the mud was contaminated and was a biohazard. And I can’t tell you how bad French Broad River mud smells when it’s been sitting inside a wet, dark building for a month.”

Another way the community showed up for the gym was by continuing to pay membership dues, even while living through the uncertainty of a natural disaster and when no climbing facility was available to them.

Cultivate responded quickly. Within two months they opened up a unique pop-up location, known as The Bunker. Attached to a co-working space, the facility has a small bouldering area, a weightlifting area, a sauna and cold plunge, a cardio area and more. In addition to providing a new hub for members, it has also helped staff stay employed. “After the storm I realized we needed a place where we can keep our staff on board, where we can keep our members,” deHoll said. “Myself and Cultivate’s other owner, we both took work elsewhere so we could make sure that we weren’t on the payroll. The whole purpose of The Bunker was to pay our staff.”

The Bunker has been a hit. With the destruction of Cultivate’s climbing gyms—the only ones in Asheville—it became the sole spot in town where people could go for commercial climbing, even in a limited capacity. Over the past several months, the footprint of the facility has expanded as its popularity has grown. It is currently around 8,000 square feet and includes a lounge and yoga room.

Coming Back Stronger

Now, more than a full calendar year since the storm, Foundy is set to have its grand opening this weekend, on November 8^th. In anticipation of the gym’s opening, Cultivate has gained over 300 members in recent months, proving how excited the community is to once again have a climbing and gathering space. The brand-new bouldering gym is 13,000 square feet and is situated in the River Arts District, very close to downtown. “We want to be Asheville’s gym,” deHoll said. “I felt like a way that we could do that as a gym was to find really cool spaces that could be rehabbed or repurposed.” The new Foundy location fills the space of an old indoor skate park, with an outdoor skate park located next to it.

After about a year of work and legal headache, Cultivate is officially out of the lease for the original riverside Amboy location and will not be reopening. Though many people will be sad to see Asheville’s original gym go away, Cultivate is still working to provide for its members and community: They have another gym slated to open in June in Highland Station. Following the trend of revitalizing old, unused spaces, the gym will be in one of Asheville’s original brewery campuses. After the local brewing scene began to decline, the campus added a disc golf course, a volleyball complex and an outdoor music venue. Now, there will soon be a 20,000-square-foot climbing gym that features Walltopia walls and mostly roped climbing, with a lead section and a 60-degree overhang, a large arch in the middle of the gym, a little bit of bouldering and a kid’s section.

Cultivate’s announcement on Instagram was met with excitement from the community. “Now I’m never going to leave Highland—all my favorite three hobbies in one place!” wrote one follower.

Ultimately, Cultivate’s success of going from zero gyms after Hurricane Helene to three gyms in about a year and a half has been the result of a caring and dedicated community. It all started, in large part, because Foundy’s walls were not lost in the flood. “It was a very, very tough year. But we were able to reset, get some assistance, look internally and, in my opinion, we have grown exponentially from this hardship,” deHoll said. “And that was only because that last thing survived…because we had participation from Walltopia and so many other people were there to help us out.” The soul of this revival work, deHoll added, also came from Cultivate’s outstanding employees Todd Stebbing, Levi Langdon and Brian Hennebry. “I think that this was a barn raising in a lot of ways and it was led with a lot of heart and a lot of passion and care that was unselfish,” deHoll said. “I could have never done this without everyone.”

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post Community Coming Together: Cultivate Climbing Reopens After Hurricane Helene appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

Authored by Foxman McCarthy-James

I’m so excited to be writing this.

As the Routesetting Education Consultant for the Climbing Wall Association, I realize my excitement could be written off as bias, but the sentiment is unabashedly genuine. I joined the CWA’s Routesetting and Work at Height committees as a volunteer because I believe deeply in the need for robust educational paths for those of us working at height in climbing gyms. Now, after years of effort, the CWA Certifications for Professional Routesetting (PRS) are a reality, and I can’t wait to share more about them.

The PRS Program Matters for All of Us

Let’s jump in with the big question: Why should setters be getting their CWA PRS Certifications? Will it help them land a dream job? Will it help them get paid more?

The short answer to the latter two questions we hope will be a resounding “yes,” but the first question is more nuanced, so I want to spend more time on that one here.

There are a few things we know for sure: First, it can be difficult to find trained setters. More gyms are opening every year, and with attrition due to aging, injury and burnout, the pool of experienced setters isn’t big enough to meet the growing need. Hiring managers are looking for more concrete methods to judge applicants’ experience level.

Second, while there has always been routesetting education, there haven’t been many concrete credentials that routesetters can put on their resume when they’re looking to get hired at a commercial gym. Climbing gyms often train their teams up from scratch, leaning on the mentorship of more experienced setters to develop new talent. Clinics have long existed for setters seeking to broaden their skillset, and many gym chains have in-house programs designed to train their routesetting team, but these opportunities can vary gym to gym, and training at one gym doesn’t mean that a setter will be a qualified candidate for another. While USAC Certifications are a valuable tool for gauging a setter’s capacity on an event crew, they don’t always translate to commercial work. Without standardized practices (how many set screws should I put in this volume?), hiring managers have often had to rely largely on references, competition-related certifications, and vibes.

Additionally, as the industry expands, so does the pressure to align with health and safety practices. More gyms are looking for ways to ensure that their routesetting practices meet the current industry standard, leaving behind the cowboy days of yore. We all know someone who’s had a close call while routesetting. Some of us know people who’ve had life altering incidents while working at height. At any given point, there’s a video of ladder shenanigans or a hold ripping off the wall that’s doing the rounds on social media. We can never prevent all incidents, but training ourselves and our coworkers to understand and adhere to best practices is a significant step toward preventing as many as possible.

And the importance of establishing and proliferating those standards isn’t just an issue for routesetters—it’s an issue for gym operators everywhere. Other larger and more mainstream industries (construction, manufacturing, medicine, etc.) have dealt with regulatory oversight for decades, and it has hugely shaped their workplaces and business costs. Although our industry has matured and grown dramatically since its inception, that level of oversight hasn’t yet arrived in the climbing industry to that extent. Developing more of our own certifications is an opportunity for us to better control the outcome—to grab the bull by the horns, so to speak, and define what workplace safety looks like ourselves, which can also shape our insurance landscape.

Addressing these growing pains is where the CWA Professional Routesetting Certification Program comes in. The Climbing Wall Association is a trade association that has been at the center of defining industry standards for engineering, instruction, Work-At-Height and now Professional Routesetting. In addition to giving managers better criteria for making hiring decisions and upping the quality and skills of our workforce, programs like the CWA’s PRS Program—as well as the CWA’s WAH and CWI Programs—give our community solid ground to stand on when facing inquiries from regulatory groups.

A Brief History of the PRS Program

Maybe now is a good moment to talk about the CWA Routesetting Committee. Founded in 2019 by CWA Board Member Kennith Cronin (Canada) and independent setters Jackie Hueftle (USA) and Peter Zeidelhack (Germany), the original committee invited some 16 highly experienced routesetters from all over the world to help refine what it meant to be a professional routesetter. Over the years of committee work, some members have left and others have joined to continue the important task of creating and delivering a program that’s useful for routesetters at gyms of every size. We’re all opinionated, we’re all respectful, but we’re also not afraid to disagree with each other. Most importantly, we all care deeply about routesetting and the climbing industry as a whole.

Starting with the CWA Routesetting Guide, published in 2023 after years of review, the Routesetting Committee has been working to develop the PRS Certification. The goal has always been to create a system for setters of every level, and we started with an Intro to Routesetting course, which was piloted at the 2023 CWA Summit in Pittsburgh. While the reception was positive, the majority of routesetters and managers we spoke to had one question:

“When will the CWA roll out a certification program that meets the needs of experienced routesetters?”

At the 2024 CWA Summit in Portland, the committee ironed out the framework for the entirety of the PRS Certification program. We folded the Intro course into Level 1 and split Level 2 by discipline (Boulders and Ropes). We decided to hold off on Levels 3+ for future development in favor of developing the PRS Provider Certification, which would qualify successful candidates to provide Level 1 and 2 Certifications to their own teams—ideal for head setters and directors looking to provide certifications as part of their in-house professional development. We set an ambitious goal for ourselves: presenting a pilot Provider Course at the 2025 CWA Summit in Salt Lake City.

After a year of hard work, the committee was ready to debut a pilot of the PRS Provider Certification for expert review. We invited eight routesetting and WAH industry professionals to join us to workshop the program the CWA had created, gathering feedback to ensure a relevant, useful program. The CWA is now incorporating that feedback in order to finalize the Provider Certification. Once that is done, providers will be authorized to teach PRS Certification courses around the country, providing ample points of entry to routesetters across North America.

This progress brings us to the current status of the CWA Professional Routesetting Certification program. There are currently three courses available, with the Provider certification (PRS Pro) pending finalization and PRS Levels 3 and beyond still in development. Each course is a blend of online and in-person teaching, followed by an assessment that candidates need to pass before a certification is granted.

• PRS Level 1 is a single day course focused on the technical foundations of setting boulders. Participants learn best practices when working on ladders, how to securely attach holds to the wall, and the foundations of movement. It is designed to prepare participants for work as an apprentice on a routesetting crew.
• PRS Level 2 Boulders focuses on what it means to be a professional routesetter. Participants are expected to be able to set a complete bouldering problem within an allotted time, objectively and productively assess the viability of that boulder for a specific audience, work well with a team, and adhere to industry best practices.
• PRS Level 2 Ropes combines the routesetting skills of Level 2 Boulders with the technical skills of Work at Height 1. Participants must be able to set and forerun a complete rope route in the allotted time while adhering to the CWA WAH standard. This certification assesses the candidate’s ability to work efficiently on ropes and recognize and control for hazards posed to both workers and customers alike, preparing them for work as professional routesetters at full-service facilities.

Since Work at Height Level 1 Certification is a key part of the Professional Routesetter program, PRS Providers will be required to maintain a WAH Provider Certification, which qualifies them to teach WAH Level 1.

Routesetters and gyms who are interested in getting their CWA PRS Certifications can currently find all that information on the CWA website. Information about the Certification program can be found on the Certification Dashboard, and all upcoming events are listed on the Events page. The CWA usually aspires to host four Certification Summits each year in cities across North America, so there may be an event near you soon. Once the PRS Provider course goes live, there will be even more opportunities to get certifications.

About the Author

Foxman McCarthy-James is an owner and consultant with Vortex Routesetting. She has brought her background in education into her routesetting career, serving on the CWA Routesetting and Work at Height Committees and teaching routesetting clinics around the country. She is passionate about continuing the conversation on how we can make our industry more welcoming and inclusive.

This article is a sponsored story and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post A Peek Behind the Curtain of CWA Routesetting Education appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

For indoor climbing gyms in climbing-rich cities, the climbing wall industry often feels close at hand. Owners can swap ideas with peers across town, routesetters can bounce between facilities, and staff can learn from the steady churn of competitions, events, and new members. Even a little bit of friendly competition can be fuel that drives innovation. But for communities far from dense climbing gym clusters, the CWA Summit serves as a central hub for gathering knowledge not locally available.

Ideas That Travel Home

Daniel Shaw, owner and manager of Coeur Climbing in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, remembers the moment he realized his gym stood largely alone.

“The closest one’s in Spokane,” he said, “and it’s not horribly far, but it was far enough that I didn’t go very often.”

Shaw opened Coeur Climbing in 2023 because he believed the community needed a space to climb, but running a gym without nearby peers often meant figuring things out with little outside perspective. That changed when he went to his first CWA Summit in Pittsburgh.

“It opened my eyes to a bunch of stuff,” Shaw said. “I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.” From connecting with insurance providers to hearing ideas for kids’ programs, he came back with concrete tools that helped him shape his business. Later CWA Summits he attended in Portland and Salt Lake City were less about the basics and more about communication.

A Week for the Whole Team

Bryan Pletta, co-founder of Albuquerque’s Stone Age Climbing Gym and a climber for more than four decades, has a longer history with the event. He and his wife Christina opened their first climbing facility in 1997. Albuquerque, he points out, has no other commercial climbing gyms outside of Stone Age’s two locations. That makes the CWA Summit crucial not just for him but for his staff. Pletta has been attending the CWA Summit since it was a small gathering at the Boulder Outlook Hotel and Suites, over a decade ago.

“We try [to] bring a number of people,” Pletta said. Pletta explained how he learned at the CWA Summit how other gyms balance the often-different perspectives of owners, routesetters and coaches, and he carried those lessons back to his staff. “Last year, we brought maybe eight or ten [people]. It’s really their only outside perspective with the industry.” The team members at Stone Age now compete for the chance to go. “They definitely all want to,” Pletta added.

What do Stone Age staff members get out of attending the CWA Summit? For Pletta, the highlight has always been the gym owner roundtables—open sessions where peers can talk about their experiences and share wisdom. For the retail buyer at Stone Age, the CWA Summit has even replaced Outdoor Retailer as the key annual event. And for coaches and routesetters at the two gyms, the pre-conference sessions are a rare chance to learn directly from experts in their field.

Bridging the Gaps

Both Shaw and Pletta stressed one lesson: communication. Inside a climbing gym, team members working in different roles often have different priorities. Owners may be more focused on sustainability, routesetters on creativity, and coaches on athlete development. The CWA Summit brings all those perspectives together in one place. “It’s good to go to the [CWA] Summit and see how other gyms are doing it, bridge the gap between what the owners think should happen and what the [route]setters think should happen,” Shaw said.

Pletta echoed that sentiment, pointing to the value of cross-department exposure. A front desk manager might sit in on a Warrior’s Way clinic, or a head coach might come away with fresh drills from a pre-conference session. “It’s really about perspective,” Pletta said. “When you’re isolated, you don’t realize how other gyms are tackling the same challenges.”

Some of the best lessons at the CWA Summit happen before the main event’s bustling exhibit hall, roundtables, and education sessions have gotten underway. Pre-conferences like the one Pletta attended bring together the people who build, teach and run our industry—people who are immersed in its daily challenges and successes.

Pre-conference workshops have limited capacity and sell out fast, so it’s always a good idea to register well in advance. Registration is now open for the upcoming CWA Summit in Salt Lake City next April.

Tangible Takeaways at Every Turn

For facilities outside major climbing hubs, the CWA Summit is a rare chance to test assumptions and bring home practical solutions. Shaw credits a pre-conference session on youth programs, taught by Hailey Caissie, for reshaping his summer camps and team structure: “We took what we learned there, made our program based on it, and had a lot of success.” Pletta noted similar benefits for his staff, from retail buyers who found insights on new gear and vendors to front desk managers who came back with tools for improving the customer experience.

Caissie’s youth programming pre-conference, now titled “Revolutionizing Your Youth Programming,” will be returning to the 2026 CWA Summit. Don’t forget that registration is already open, so be sure to grab a spot before they sell out.

Both Shaw and Pletta stressed that these lessons go beyond technical skills. Gym owner roundtables and casual hallway conversations have introduced them to new business models, insurance providers, and ways to bridge communication between owners, routesetters and coaches. For operators in cities where one gym may stand alone, the CWA Summit provides a welcoming peer group and an annual moment to compare notes.

As Shaw emphasized again and again, “You just don’t know what you don’t know.”

And for Pletta, even after decades of attending, the value hasn’t diminished: “Every owner has some perspective I can take something away from.”

This story was paid for by the sponsor and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post Lessons in Communication: What Climbing Gym Operators Learn at the CWA Summit appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.

For over a decade, High Point Climbing and Fitness has been operating some of the South’s go-to, “local-big” gyms, with a focus on providing grassroots and community-driven spaces. Across each gym they run in Tennessee and Alabama, they have worked to establish consistency and professionalism while allowing room for the unique influence of each city. Now, they have expanded into a new state, opening a long-awaited, high-level facility in Orlando, Florida.

Florida may be relatively isolated from local outdoor climbing, but it nonetheless has a long history of independent gyms with hard setting and strong climbers. Daniel Noyes, the General Manager of the newly opened High Point Orlando location, was a part of that community over a decade ago at one of the old-school gyms in Longwood.  “It was a very tiny facility. It had a little lead-only area in the back, and it seemed like the center of the climbing universe for central Florida. The community kind of fractured when the gym moved.”

Noyes recalls a time when climbers in Orlando of all types would gather under one roof at the only climbing gym in town; bringing different climbers together is part of the vision he’s working to manifest at the new High Point gym. “I think the best thing about this facility is that it has world-class offerings for whatever you’re interested in.”

Dizzying New Heights

The High Point Orlando location has brought tall walls and ropes to an area that previously mostly had bouldering gyms, so many users of the gym will likely be first-time rope climbers or climbers who haven’t been doing much sport or trad climbing of late. When Noyes described the reactions of people seeing the rope room for the first time, he said people were nearly falling over at the expansiveness of the space. “The rope room is massive; it’s over 20,000 square feet. There are 81 belay heads. The wall height is a continuous 52 feet, and if you’re climbing in the steep-steep you’re going to end up getting 65 to 70 feet of climbing,” said Noyes.

Partner and President of High Point Climbing and Fitness, John Wiygul, felt similarly. “We had a feeling the local community was going to flip out when they saw the rope climbing area—it’s massive and downright epic! With towering 52-foot walls and one of the few competition speed climbing walls in the region, it’s like stepping into a vertical playground.”

For creating this high-end facility, High Point knew they were going to work with Walltopia. In addition to building aesthetic and state-of-the-art walls, the four-time Climbing Gym Wall Builder of the Year’s attentiveness to customer service is exactly why High Point owners John Wiygul, Johnny O’Brien and Shawn Watson have enjoyed working with Walltopia. Wiygul said High Point has been choosing Walltopia from the beginning and will continue doing so because “great relationships are the sole reason Johnny and I continue to do business with anyone.”

Wiygul’s praise of Walltopia’s service and impressive rope walls isn’t to say Orlando’s new climbing destination is only a “rope gym”—far from it. With a kids area, a boulder room, four different boards, a yoga room and a fully enclosed weight room, there’s a little something for everyone at High Point Orlando. The boards inside the facility are on Walltopia’s new, adjustable hydraulic frames—which allow the boards to be adjusted from 0 to 70 degrees—and the Walltopia-designed kids room includes an ocean theme that’s complete with a pirate ship, a slide and a climbable octopus tentacle. And bouldering certainly hasn’t been forgotten, assured Noyes: “If you’re a boulderer, I think you’re going to have a great time on the boulders. Walltopia has made a varied terrain, and the wall angles promote a lot of creative and high-level routesetting.”

High Point and Walltopia worked closely together to make sure they would bring the highest quality of gym they could to the Orlando area. Wiygul knew that Walltopia would be the one to bring their project to life. “This is our sixth climbing gym build with Walltopia, who we consider to be the best in the business. We’ve developed a strong relationship with their team—from Adam Koberna, the President of the U.S. division, all the way to the owner, Ivaylo Penchev.” He noted that both Koberna and Penchev made multiple visits to High Point’s Chattanooga office and the site in Orlando throughout the project, and added, “It’s that level of commitment and collaboration that keeps us building gyms together…”

Expanding the Community Through Climbing

While the team at High Point Orlando intends to focus on building memberships and bringing in new climbers during their first few months of being open, Noyes is already envisioning a variety of programs for both youth and adult climbers, including potentially collaborating with other gyms in Florida to help everyone stay connected and part of one community, even though today the community in Orlando has grown beyond one roof. He also has plans to make use of High Point’s Chattanooga location to make the gym-to-crag transition smoother for climbers in Orlando. In keeping close ties between the two gyms, the hope is to give Orlando locals more pathways to getting trained indoors and being guided professionally on a weekend trip outdoors, so they can climb outside for the first time with confidence.

Also built into the mission of the new gym, of course, is the “fitness” in High Point Climbing and Fitness. The offerings in the yoga studio are being led by well-known teachers who have their own following. As Noyes put it, “We have a beautiful yoga room. I anticipate running yoga classes a few times per week, and we already have teachers lined up who are respected and loved.” The weight room is also fully equipped, with cable machines, cardio machines, free weights, deadlift platforms and bench press stations. Noyes explained that the idea is to provide just about everything a climber would need to stay healthy and train, all in one place. “Hopefully they never feel they need to supplement their membership here with something else,” continued Noyes. “They can do it all here.”

The team at High Point is determined to expand access to these programs and amenities, as well, through community outreach. “We’re especially excited to partner with local schools, nonprofits and organizations to provide programming for youth and the surrounding communities. We see this space as more than just a gym—it’s a platform for inspiring confidence, fostering friendships and building a stronger, healthier Orlando,” said Wiygul, who explained how these goals informed their decision to choose Orlando as their next location. “Orlando is a city full of energy, diversity and opportunity—exactly the kind of place where High Point thrives. We’re here because we believe in building more than just a climbing gym—we’re here to build community.”

The final sentiment Noyes shared, as someone who has been part of the Florida climbing community for over a decade, is that the community in Orlando has expanded a lot since the early days and he believes there’s still more growth left to come, with room for all the climbing gyms in Orlando to be successful and grow the sport together. “We also want to be a great neighbor to the people who are already here and already established,” concluded Noyes.

With an expertly crafted, complementary space and community-focused mindset, it’s safe to say the team at High Point Orlando is well on their way to helping set a new “high point” in Orlando.

This story was paid for by the sponsor and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.

The post Walltopia Brings “World-Class Offerings” for All Climbers to New High Point Orlando Gym appeared first on Climbing Business Journal.