Klimat 2.0
Ottawa, Ontario
Specs: In September, Klimat opened Klimat 2.0 in the city of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, six years after opening the first Klimat gym in Wakefield, Quebec. Jazmine Maisonneuve, CEO, Co-Owner and Head Routesetter at Klimat, said the story behind the gym began in her backyard in Wakefield, when she and her husband, Klimat Co-Owner Samuel Cloutier, went to a climbing gym as one of their first dates. They kept climbing together after starting their family, making the 25-plus-minute drive to Ottawa from Wakefield several times a week. Growing “sick of driving,” they began to discuss building a home gym, Maisonneuve said. “We actually built a shed in our backyard with the intention of building a homewall and a little space for us to work out and train,” she explained. The topic of climbing walls then came up in a conversation with their former partner, who owned a piece of land in Wakefield. What “started as a passion project” designed to create a healthy lifestyle for their family eventually transformed into building a larger, commercial climbing facility, in “a community that I was born and raised in, where I had nothing to do as a young person,” shared Maisonneuve.
Klimat’s first gym was built from the ground up by SW&CO, the construction business owned by Maisonneuve and Cloutier, and was designed to “feel less like a gym and more like working out in a supportive and friendly community,” per Klimat’s website. Soon after opening the space in 2019, the ownership team thought about opening another facility that would be closer to downtown Ottawa. “We recognized that there was a bit of a void in the downtown core primarily,” Maisonneuve said, noting there are a few different gyms in the Ottawa area but few in the heart of the city. The team started looking for locations and almost signed a lease in early 2020, but then the pandemic hit, so they paused the project. Even though “COVID killed the dream,” Maisonneuve said, “our ownership restructuring allowed us to explore the possibility again.”
Back in 2020, the building they were planning to lease was located across the street from what ended up being the Klimat 2.0 facility. Maisonneuve said the chosen building was “perfect for what we [wanted],” but at the time housed an indoor skate and bike park. Later, they read in a local paper that the business had closed, and, before the space was even on the market, they contacted their realtor and secured a lease. “It was really a full circle moment,” Maisonneuve said. Klimat 2.0 is located in what Maisonneuve described as Centertown, just outside downtown Ottawa. Ottawa University is on one side of the gym, and Carleton University is on the other. Across the street, there is a new public transit stop, and there will soon be a new arena and sports complex for the NHL team in town, the Ottawa Senators. Additionally, there are bike paths that run by the location. “We couldn’t ask for a better spot,” Maisonneuve continued. “I think we are filling a hole in the Centertown-Downtown core that climbers are pretty excited about.”
During the construction process, it was important to the owners to “recall the aesthetics that we brought to Wakefield and a little bit of that country vibe into the city.” SW&CO remodeled the facility and included several timber, metal and concrete elements and accents. The 16,700-square-foot space features 4,200 square feet of climbing on boulders reaching 16 feet, a Tension Board 2, a Kilter Board and a spray wall. There is also a fully equipped fitness center with climbing- and training-specific tools, and visitors can spend time in the vegetarian café as well. A strong value of Maisonneuve’s is being vegetarian, and, because there are many organic farms nearby, she wanted to support local businesses, provide fresh produce to visitors, and promote a “healthy, fresh lifestyle for people” through the café and other amenities, she explained.
Another important value to Maisonneuve is accessibility, which was prioritized in the team’s location choice for Klimat 2.0 and continues to shape the gym’s routesetting. Because the first location is quite rural, Maisonneuve wanted to “tap into a larger population and demographic,” so that more folks could enjoy the benefits of climbing. “I think jumping into the scene in Ottawa will really allow us to make a name in the climbing world when it comes to diversity and accessibility,” she explained. “We do live in somewhat of a white little bubble up here in Whitefield. No disrespect to our beautiful little town; just trying to change the landscape of climbing a little bit.” Additionally, a strong guiding principle of the Klimat routesetting team is making boulders accessible to different body types. Maisonneuve considers reach, burliness and mobility while setting, and she intentionally aims to set boulders that cater to the women in the gym and support their progression. “A boulder doesn’t need to be reachy to be hard,” she added.
Walls: OnSite
Flooring: OnSite
CRM Software: MindBody
Website: ottawa.klimat.ca
Instagram: @We.Are.Klimat
In Their Words: “Do your market research. Make sure that the area you are looking to open in is not already saturated. Try to find your competitive advantage…that thing that will set you apart from the other gyms in your area. Try to create that wow factor, and keep in mind that design and aesthetics truly matter when it comes to creating a space that clients feel good in.” – Jazmine Maisonneuve, CEO, Co-Owner, Co-Founder and Head Routesetter at Klimat
