Industry News
Working with Vertical Solutions was very personal for me - I learned to climb at The Front in the early 2000s when I was an undergrad at the University of Utah
As the summer sun blazed over Salt Lake City, climbers, route setters, and industry leaders were brought together by the CBJ Grip Showcase and the second-ever Setter Summit.
January was a busy month for the Vertical Solutions team. As our group was running the first-ever Setter Summit, our sister company, The Front Climbing Club, played host to the Di'namik Bouldering Championships
Insider Tips
No local climbing gym? Looking for the freedom to train as you please? Consider a in-home rock climbing wall!
Vertical Solutions chooses to work with shapers and hold business owners who seek to bring innovation to the industry and expect the utmost quality in return.
Petzl USA's extensive experience positions them as the clear choice to maximize safety and work efficiency at heights. When building with Vertical Solutions, you can rest assured that, in collaboration with Petzl, our field crew has received top-of-the-line training and equipment
Doug and Teri Johnson have done more than build a climbing gym—they've brought a community to Greenville, South Carolina. Inspired by their children's love for climbing, the Johnson family set out to unite the town around fitness, friendship, and fun. Having already, in their first year, hosted a huge climbing competition, a Friendsgiving potluck dinner, and a successful Boulder League, it's safe to say that BlocHaven is having an impact on the South Carolina climbing world. Read more about BlocHaven's vision, growth, and experience working with Vertical Solutions in our partner highlight.
Behind The Walls
Aaron Raby is an all-star on our design team, having designed walls for over 20 gyms since he started with us in 2018. Having spent hundreds of days exploring and documenting the climbing potential in the San Rafael Swell, Aaron is preparing to complete a developers guidebook for the region.
Eric Hires, the owner of Stone Climbing, St. Augustine, Florida's newest gym, is an ambitious entrepreneur with a deep respect for climbing's history and values, and a substantial concern for the future of the sport. Tying environmental sustainability and outdoor ethic education into his business model has been a driving force in Eric's humble quest to change the world.
Meet the dream team behind Benchmark Climbing.
Crux Climbing Center is a 22,000-square-foot facility located in South Austin’s Dawson Neighborhood. With unique services and gym designs like the Future Wall and 24-hour access, owner and Austin local Kevin Goradia has made Crux a competitive player in Austin’s climbing gym community. Continue reading to hear how this gym came to fruition, how it succeeds in the community’s tight-knit scene and how it plans to expand elsewhere.
Long Beach Rising resides in a very diverse community, and as a forward-thinking space, they stepped up to support the Black Lives Matter movement and tap into their community to re-think how they are giving back.
While routesetters are working-at-height during the coronavirus crisis, they're likely to have more personal protective equipment, more tasks and more on their mind than usual. When things get more complicated, staying safe means refocusing on the basics. This month, Petzl Technical Institute Manager Keith Luscinski shares his beta for two-rope systems, to help setters recalibrate and make sure they have everything dialed before they start up the wall.
If you're ready to embrace the home woody revival, you might as well do it with the best quality materials! Bring the aesthetics of Vertical Solutions birch walls into your own home or back yard with our VS Home Wall Panel Kits.
Behind the Walls
Latitude Climbing + Fitness has maintained optimism and rationality in dealing with Covid-19 closures. Since closing their Norfolk, Virginia location, Latitude owners Matt Beck, Marisa Beck and Jason McKenzie have proactively collaborated to ensure their gym is fully prepared for re-opening day, whenever that may be. They have graciously shared their business strategy and how they're prepping for the next phase, which may provide assistance as you navigate the unknowns for your own business.
With his strong outdoor and indoor background, Robert Leistner brings a unique skill set and vision to the Blocz lineup – and his role has paid off. In Climbing Business Journal’s 2019 Grip List, Blocz won second under the “Top Volumes of the Year” category. We were fortunate to steal some of Robert’s time to get a better understanding of his perspective on shaping, climbing and setting.
Our designers are the fuel that drives us full steam into the future, and we’re proud to have some of the brightest folks in the industry, like Caroline Nilsson, on our team.
Fifth-generation Yakima farmer and president of Roy Farms, Michael Roy, is capitalizing on the Yakima’s growing outdoor community. With climbing being his main passion outside of farming, he’s now preparing to welcome the first-ever climbing gym to the area!
Including retail in your gym isn’t always an obvious decision. But expanding into retail means supplementing your gym’s bottom line with another revenue stream. And that’s always an option worth exploring. Read Petzl’s thoughts to help you discover the power of retail in your climbing gym.
Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and a historic, culturally rich one at that. It’s home to an international airport, is a stone’s throw away from the Big Apple and is just an hour and a half car ride from the Gunks, a world-class climbing destination. Now, the nation’s third oldest city is set to receive its very first climbing gym, located in the famed Walker House.
Over the past several years, Brad Barlage of Ascension Sales Group has worked with numerous brands to help get their product in climbing gym’s retail spaces. During this time, he's recognized what is successful and what doesn’t work. This blog post includes a list of things to keep in mind when planning your gym’s retail space.
Though there is a passionate climbing group in the area, Latitude Climbing and Fitness – after opening its doors on June 21, 2018 – focuses on introducing people to the sport. With its unique bouldering-only walls, like the Globe, and programs such as bouldering leagues, youth classes, yoga and more, it has since became a hub for and fostered the local climbing community. We sat down with co-owner Marisa Beck to talk about Latitude’s mission, holistic approach and plans for expansion.
While working on The Front Climbing Club’s South Main construction site in Salt Lake City, we were able to steal a few minutes out of James Mobley's busy day to chat about his transition out of a six-figure job and why helping others make their dreams a reality as a foreman at VS gives him profound happiness.
A few months ago, the Golden State’s newest bouldering gym officially opened its doors in Long Beach. Now, with the rise of other establishments such as a brewery and two bars, Central Long Beach has been deemed a ‘new entertainment district.’ Public infrastructure in the neighborhood is also improving, and others are looking at the area as a hotbed of opportunity. We caught up with owner Grayston Leonard to talk about climbing, his new business and valuable advice he has for others looking to break into the industry.
We sat down with North Mass Boulder Co-Founders, Elliott Steward and Zach Donovan, to discuss their inception of and plans for Indiana’s newest bouldering gym.
This past summer, Petzl America went on a North American routesetting tour to demonstrate our best practices and techniques with routesetters for working at height. What we encountered was surprising: A community hungry for ways to mitigate fall risk, increase comfort when suspended for long periods and build better systems for hauling and positioning wall equipment. The boom in climbing as a sport --- and the accompanying boom in the establishment of new climbing gyms --- has been met with routesetters and gym operators who are increasingly serious about the rope access work they perform. This is great news, because the truth is that routesetting is a high-consequence work-at-height activity that demands to be taken seriously.
The quality of a gym’s routestting can make or break its popularity. Set too difficult and no one will be able to climb; set too easy and people will become disinterested. Additionally, safety while working at height is of utmost importance. With a plethora of rigging options and gear on the market, it’s imperative that gym owners and head routesetters choose wisely to help mitigate risk while on the job. With this in mind, we sat down with The Front Climbing Club’s Head Routesetter Eddie Morillas to talk routesetting, working at height and what it’s like to set for multiple gyms with a new location opening on the horizon.
In 2018, Dustin Buckthal founded Sugarhouse Holds, an indoor-climbing hold production company built in Utah, inspired by Utah and on a mission to spread the love for Utah climbing throughout the climbing community. Being one of the more geologically diverse states in America, it’s hard to blame him. In order to help spread Utah climbing adoration, Dustin searched high and low for someone capable enough to execute on his mission. Which leads to Kegan Minock, the shaper behind Sugarhouse Holds (a Vertical Solutions subdivision).
The concepts that lenders use to gauge the creditworthiness of a potential borrower are called the 5 Cs. If you’re needing to raise money through lenders (banks or investors), you’ll need to understand the Cs and how they affect your chances of receiving a loan.
If you’ve been itching to see what a monster, industrial renovation looks like, then you need to head to 1330 Conant Street in Dallas, Texas. Along with an army of construction workers, engineers, architects and the likes, you’ll find Chris Whittaker – the founder of Oso Climbing Gyms and the mastermind behind the renovation.
With near perfect year-round temperatures, beautiful sandstone around every corner and Zion National Park just next door, St. George is a hotbed for outdoor rock climbing. Now, the city is getting its very first climbing gym thanks to co-founders Chris Horton, Jacquelyn Horton, Jeff Compas and Jenny Compas.
Life was going well for Grayston Leonard - he was a route setter at a popular gym ten minutes from his house in L.A. Things were easy, but he saw an opportunity, and took the bold step into gym ownership...
A climbing gym business can be risky in many aspects. It’s important for gym owners to start addressing those risks early on in their project, and to consider all facets of risk management. Those risks range from the subtle fallout from a simple overstocking of your retail space all the way to a customer or worker injury at your gym.
It was a Wednesday afternoon and the sounds of rain pitter-pattered on rooftops across town. Like any other rainy day in Hood River, an Oregon town of 7,600 which borders Washington on the Columbia River, most people were at home or work, or any number of the eateries, breweries or coffee shops around town. Except for Conor Byrne and Jen Altschul. They weren’t sipping IPAs or a dark roast. They were touring history...
We believe rock climbing gyms can help positively shape a community, which is why we're excited to partner with Method Climbing by helping them build Newark, New Jersey's first rock climbing gym.
A brief video capturing why our clients choose to work with us, and what we bring to the table.
The VS Team worked crazy hard to get this gorgeous bouldering gym ready in time for owners Mack and Bryan to throw their grand opening. No stranger to successful climbing businesses, Mack and Bryan also own and operate Butora USA, so this gym had to be top notch to match their brand. Check out the drone fly-through to get a good scope of how unique this project is!
Commercial Indoor Climbing Gyms are still growing at an exceptional rate; 10% according to the latest Climbing Business Jornal analysis. Just as popular, and perhaps slightly more popular, are families building climbing walls and training gyms in their homes, and businesses incorporating them into their office interiors as employee perks.
Behindthe Walls
This drone fly-through video will give you a glimpse into yet another super-unique project from Vertical Solutions, and one built to last for decades of hard usage.
We just published a white paper comparing the performance of common bouldering floor materials, and it's available as a completely free download. Sifting through pros and cons of bouldering floor materials and choosing the right one for your climbing gym can be intimidating. Flooring systems for bouldering usage require that a very specific set of criteria be met. Until now, this research could take you weeks to accomplish and even with that, you would be missing a lot of comparison info.
We've been busy, and our new ultra cost-effective SLM system is partially responsible. We're going to share the details very soon, but in the meantime we thought this photo set and drone video would speak best for us. The latest large-scale SLM project to be completed, The RUSH Funplex received a ton of special treatment, by way embedding UV-reactant coatings on the walls and in the holds to create a unique climbing experience for youths.
BKB Queensbridge is the brand's fourth facility, so it's easy to say they know what they are doing. This climbing facility is in a very unique location and as such, had to conform to some complex design criteria. This walk-through video shows how space was maximized to boast over 13,000 square feet of climbing.
Drone vid #7 comes from a climbers mecca: Squamish, British Columbia. Take a quick look into what this facility built by Vertical Solutions is one of the best out there.
VS just launched a new must-read guide for aspiring climbing gym entrepreneurs.
The sixth video to launch in our drone series videos of indoor climbing gyms, Steep Rock Bouldering West is an incredible facility inside and out. Check out the fly through video to see how the climbing walls were integrated delicately into the building's already impressive architecture.
Every indoor climbing gym project that Vertical Solutions takes on, has to be unique. We do not make 'climbing gyms in a box', nor do we think that is an authentic approach. So this video fly-through of the Ogden location of The Front Climbing Club will show you how it differs from Salt Lake, while remaining entirely true to the Utah climbing vibe.
Indoor climbing doesn't get more impressive than The Front Climbing Club in Salt Lake City. Take a look to see all of the intricate and authentic climbing wall designs incorporated at this facility.
This indoor climbing gym is big...one of the biggest. Stepping inside this behemoth is the only way to get closer than this video.
This in-depth fly-through video of Übergrippen in Denver barely does this Indoor Climbing Crag justice. Watch to catch a glimpse of what a finished product from Vertical Solutions looks like.
New drone fly-through video series of climbing gyms is live!
A new preview video of Denver's latest climbing gym: Übergrippen
At the CWA Summit 2017, Vertical Solutions took over 60 people to Denver's latest and greatest climbing gym, created by two owners with an incredible story. Check out these event photos!
An rare inside look at that brief period when the construction of brand new climbing walls is finished, but no one can climb on them yet.
The new careers webpage offers employment for candidates and $750 cash for industry referrals.
How bouldering-specific usage has changed the look and function of climbing gym floors forever.
Not all projects are brand new: Brooklyn Boulders came to Vertical Solutions with an ambitious renovation project. Read the full Case Study produced to exhibit what can be accomplished when you need to replace climbing walls in your gym.
Vertical Solutions' premium ARC wooden walls are the centerpiece for a world-class climbing event.
