Boulderbar Linz
Leonding, Austria
Specs: Last February, Boulderbar opened its sixth location in Austria with Boulderbar Linz. The company’s first facility opened in 2012 in Vienna and, according to Boulderbar stockholder Stefan Kieninger, quality locations, partners and amenities helped enable the business to expand throughout Austria. February wasn’t necessarily an ideal time for the Linz facility to open, but rather the time everything fell into place. “It just took years to get a good location in this area,” Kieninger said.
Boulderbar Linz’s city, Leonding, “is in the center of the metropolitan area Linz/Traun/Wels,” a location the owners felt was worth the wait: “[The gym] is close to Plus City—one of the biggest shopping malls in Austria—and it is easy to reach, even by public transportation,” explained Kieninger. Boulderbar built the facility from the ground up to include 2,100 square meters of indoor bouldering and, as an added touch, 400 square meters of outdoor bouldering around the building’s exterior. “We also have large roller doors to let the birdsong and fresh air into the hall,” Kieninger added. Other climbing and fitness amenities include a campus board, Kilter Board, Moon Board, training area and yoga room. There’s also a dedicated children’s area, climbing shop, and spacious bar/café in the facility.
Perhaps the most unique feature of Boulderbar Linz, however, is more than a gym amenity, and it started as an idea stemming from regulations in the chosen area for the facility. “[We] were not allowed to build just a bouldering gym,” Kieninger stated. With a site located minutes from the Linz Airport, the Boulderbar team decided to fuse two business concepts together in dedicating a portion of their facility to an enclosed hotel with 63 rooms, which opened in early June. Although it’s not the first climbing gym in a hotel—BaseCamp Reno bouldering gym in Nevada, as one example, is located inside the Whitney Peak Hotel, with a famed climbing wall on the outside—it is nevertheless a relatively rare combination. Kieninger said the team used a “very modern and open concept for the hotel,” with “stunning rooms, a great view, and a lot more.”
Walls: DCD
Flooring: Polskok
CRM Software: Flash
Website: boulderbar.net/linz
Instagram: @Boulderbar_Linz
In Their Words: “Boulderbar is more than a climbing gym. It’s about creating a social meeting place for climbers to connect, compete and celebrate their love for bouldering. We aim to create a space where everyone feels welcome, valued and inspired. With our commitment to diversity and respect, we create a place where climbers of all backgrounds and levels can come together and reach new heights.” – Julia Tran, Marketing Manager at Boulderbar Linz
Naomi is a personal trainer and a routesetter who has also worked at climbing gyms as a youth team coach. After starting college at Colorado State University in 2017, she wanted to make new friends and found climbing, fell in love, and now climbing dictates most of what she does. Naomi earned a bachelor’s degree in Ecosystem Science & Sustainability, and when not climbing she enjoys baking, gardening and crafting.
