Rifle Climbing Center
Rifle, Colorado
Specs: Rifle Climbing Center (RCC), a bouldering-focused gym owned by Carissa and Jason Marshall, opened in February 2025 in downtown Rifle, Colorado, just 30 minutes outside of one of the state’s renowned sport climbing destinations. According to Jason, the gym was created because there wasn’t a gym in town for locals to train, and after the nearby Monkey House Carbondale closed in 2023, the Marshalls were making an hour trek to Eagle or Grand Junction to climb indoors. “I wanted a gym nearby, and nobody was opening one, so I took it upon myself to open one,” Jason said.
The town of Rifle has an interesting demographic of climbers, compared to other cities, Jason explained, where there is a high concentration of advanced and expert-level climbers, as well as people who have never climbed before, but not many folks in between. Because “a lot of people go up to Rifle Mountain Park just to picnic and watch climbers and wish they could try it,” Jason said, RCC acts as a gateway into climbing for many people, so the Marshalls have made a concerted effort to help “build a whole new community of climbers.”
With that goal in mind, many programs and amenities at the facility are catered to newer climbers or designed to accommodate parents climbing with young children, such as the shorter, kid-friendly wall and gated toddler play area. Programming options include homeschool climbing sessions, after-school programs, birthday parties, “Parents Night Off” childcare events, and school partnerships with local gym classes. “Our eighth-grade gym teacher brings his classes here, so we get about 60 kids over two days who have never climbed before,” Jason said. “And we’ve had a lot of luck with homeschool groups—that’s a demographic we didn’t expect.”
At the same time, RCC does cater to seasoned climbers. There are four different training boards at the gym, including a MoonBoard fixed at 40 degrees and a Kilter Board, Tension Board 2 and So iLL Connect Board that all reach at least 65 degrees. There are also weights, cardio equipment, hangboards, and amenities designed for traveling climbers and remote workers. “When we built it, we were thinking, what did we want as climbers when we were on the road?” Jason recalled, so the couple realized having showers was a must.
To encourage climbers to spend spare time and rest days at the gym, the Marshalls wanted to create a coffee-shop-style environment, with wifi, couches, standing desks, and tables. The gym sells snacks and drinks too, but the Marshalls chose not to serve coffee to support nearby coffee shops instead. RCC also has a retail area designed for Rifle climbers, with just about “everything a Rifle climber needs: knee pads, ropes, harnesses, guidebooks, chalk and more,” the gym’s website details.
It was also important to the Marshalls to be welcoming to the Hispanic community, because Jason said Hispanic folks “make up almost half of the population of the city of Rifle, but they are wildly underrepresented in the climbing community.” Jason added that RCC has “really tried to reach out to that community and try to make it as convenient as possible and for people who speak Spanish to use the gym as well.” When hiring, for example, Jason sought out language over climbing skills, so several members of the staff speak Spanish. They also added a toggle option for their website so that users can easily switch from English to Spanish, in the hope that Spanish speakers would feel welcome and encouraged to climb in the gym.
Walls: Revival
Flooring: Revival
CRM Software: Rock Gym Pro
Website: www.rifleclimbingcenter.com
Instagram: @RifleClimbingCenter
In Their Words: “Our gym is probably the opposite of many gyms in terms of our demographic. We have people who are completely brand-new to climbing, and we probably have more 5.13+ and 5.14 climbers per capita than anywhere. So, our bell curve is kind of the opposite of normal. We don’t have a lot of intermediate climbers…An evening might have a couple of 5.15 climbers and then some brand-new high schoolers, and they’re interacting together and taking turns on the board, and it’s super cool to watch.” – Jason Marshall, Co-Owner of Rifle Climbing Center
