Colorado Springs, the second-largest city in Colorado with a population of 430,000 will receive it’s third commercial climbing gym this July. The new facility will also be C-Springs first bouldering-only climbing facility. The Pure Bouldering gym will feature 17 foot ceilings, an 1800 square feet footprint and 2000 square feet of climbing terrain. The gym will also have a yoga room and a separate training gym adjacent to the main building that will be available to the youth team, classes and private lessons.
Kegan Minock, Pure co-owner and head setter tells us “The gym layout could be described as a fish bowl. The walls almost form an oval so you are completely surrounded by them. It is hard to describe, it is one of those things where you need to see it.”
Salt Lake City, Utah based Vertical Solutions, lead by Dustin Buckthal built the beautiful birch cabinet-grade all-wood walls and supplied the padding system.
The gym will be staffed by 4 employees. Minock and one other setter will be responsible for a 3 week turnover. “We feel this gives climbers enough time to project and send a good amount of climbs without letting them get bored with what is up” said Minock. Before the grand opening the gym had guest routesetting help from local setter Matt Lloyd and USAC National Chief Setter Kevin Branford.
Minock breaks the setting down like this, “We have divided the gym into 6 different sections and would like to set a v0 through v10 on each wall while also setting extra problems in the most popular range for our clients. This will total out to be around 80 problems give or take.”
The gym hopes to tap into the students at a nearby high school and at the US Air Force Academy, which has a population of 7,526 and a private climbing wall. Colorado Springs also has two major colleges with a combined enrollment of 11,876 both of which have private climbing walls.
Minock tells us that “the whole project (including the walls, pads, holds, other equipment and labor) totaled around $150k.” The gym hopes to bring in an average of 100 daily check-ins.
The Pure Bouldering gym hopes to distinguished itself from the competition by offering, as Minock puts it, “a good slab to climb on which we feel is important because many climbers in town compete nationally and slab has been 40% of ABS Nationals for the past 2 years. No other gym in town offers the slab potential we do. Our roof wall is the biggest in town (and probably the state). It is a 38 foot long wave that peaks at 15 feet off the ground.”
Climbing Business Journal is an independent news outlet dedicated to covering the indoor climbing industry. Here you will find the latest coverage of climbing industry news, gym developments, industry best practices, risk management, climbing competitions, youth coaching and routesetting. Have an article idea? CBJ loves to hear from readers like you!
