Indoor climbing gym opens downtown

Being suspended by rope 43 feet in the air will test your faith in knots.

For this reporter, whose knowledge of technical climbing stemmed mainly from the Sylvester Stallone flick “Cliffhanger,” the wall seemed much higher on a recent visit to a new indoor climbing gym in Colorado Springs.

The initial burst of excitement over scaling upward and thumbing my nose at gravity turned to exhaustion halfway up, as I paused to figure out the puzzle of how to keep going using only the rocks marked for that particular route. I looked down at my belayer, hoping she was paying attention, tried not to wonder if I tied the knot around my waist correctly, and pulled myself upward, despite shouts from below to “use your legs.”

For the recreational climber, there are no points lost for cheating and using rocks (finger- and toeholds attached to the mock rockface) marked for other routes, and there is a particular thrill on reaching the top of a climb, looking down at the sheer wall, breathing a deep sigh and letting gravity and your partner lower you to the ground.

I did not kiss the spongy ground, but I did give it a warm “Hello.”

Then I asked if I could climb again.

Local climbers Lara and Joe Groshong, owners of CityRock climbing center in Monument, hope to bring defying gravity to a new audience in Colorado Springs at a new CityRock, which opened last month in a former theater at 21 N. Nevada Ave. With the highest climbing wall in Colorado Springs (43 feet), a cross-training fitness program and plans for a bouldering area and café, they also hope the center will become a gathering point for the local climbing community.

“The overall goal of the establishment is to have unique, fun fitness,” said Lara Groshong. “We’re trying to encourage people to be social and become fit.”

“Even though it’s an individual sport, it’s a team effort,” she said.

Climbing gyms sprouted up across the country in the 1990s. Colorado may have plenty of natural rocks to challenge climbers, but there are also 48 indoor walls, according to the Web site indoorclimbing.com.

In Colorado Springs, the Sport Climbing Center has hosted more than 10,000 climbers since it opened in 1992, said owner Ric Geiman.

“We originally started our business hoping to cater to existing climbers, because we didn’t think we’d really get many more people involved,” Geiman said. But, he said, “We’ve probably gotten more people introduced to climbing than Garden of the Gods.”

Compare indoor climbing with outdoor climbing, and the reasons are clear. Outside, there is loose rock, changing weather, snakes and crumbling ledges. In a gym, assuming that your partner — who is holding your rope — knows what he or she is doing, the biggest risk is sore muscles. And you can do it all winter, when a climb at Garden of the Gods sounds less than inviting.

The Groshongs had long been considering opening a climbing gym downtown. Developer Ray O’Sullivan’s plans for a 22-story tower with condominiums, a hotel and retail space on the southeast corner of Nevada Avenue and Kiowa Street fell apart in 2008, and they saw their opportunity in the old theater, most recently home to an antiques mall. They and other investors are spending about $1 million on the project. Full opening is planned for February.

They plan to have an urban theme — graffiti graces several of the climbing routes. Routes range in difficulty from ladder-like ascents to forbidding overhangs where climbers can practice lead climbing, attaching safety lines to ropes as they go.

Ropes hang from the ceiling, gear is available for rent and the Groshongs happily give lessons on belaying and safety. A climber has a rope tied to their harness, while their partner, also roped in, keeps tension on the line and lets slack out during the climb — providing an element of safety.

The climbing wall is nearly twice the height of the Sport Climbing Center’s 24-foot wall. The climbs range in difficulty from 5.0, like a ladder, with ample hand- and footholds, to 5.14, upside-down, with few knobs to grab.

For experienced climbers, gyms are a good way to stay in shape in winter and practice new moves. For novices, they’re a doorway to the sport.

Ask Cheryl Walker. Last summer, the Monument woman had done plenty of hiking and walked up many fourteeners, but when it came to the technical climbing she figured would be needed to ascend the tougher peaks above 14,000 feet, she was, in the parlance of Internet message boards, a newbie.

“For me, it was, ‘What do you do? What gear do you need? Where do you start?’” said Walker, 40. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t have anything.”

“I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.”

Today, she is president of a climbing group, Climb Women Climb, and regularly scales technical routes at Red Rock Canyon Open Space and Garden of the Gods.

Walker credits time spent practicing and learning — not on rocks, but in the gym. In the Groshongs’ climbing gym in Monument, she first learned to belay, to use her legs to climb and to conquer her fears — in a more forgiving place than the side of a cliff.

“Everyone has their own level of achievement,” said Joe Groshong. “People get a sense of accomplishment if they’re doing a 5.6 route or if they have been working for years and they’re finally getting a 5.12 route.”

DETAILS

cityrock colorado springs
Where: 21 N. Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs
Hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. 12 to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Cost: $14 for a day pass, $5 to $7  for gear rentals; memberships available.
Contact: www.climbingtherock.com