Armadillo Boulders
San Marcos, Texas
Specs: The second Armadillo Boulders location (the first being in San Antonio) features 5,100 square feet of climbable surface. Amenities include a Kilter Board, hangboard and campus stations, two modular kids rooms with an ability to accommodate cargo nets, ninja lines, swings and other obstacles for youth programming, a fitness area, a retail shop, and a large mezzanine lounge space “for studying, working, or chatting about your favorite problems.” The bouldering-focused gym also offers cold brew coffee on tap.
“For a while now, we had been keeping our eyes open for a possible second location to offer something new and exciting for our current members, and to help grow the climbing community in South Texas,” Co-Owner Joe Kreidel told CBJ. “San Marcos was always high on our list, being a college town in the rapidly growing I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin. We had looked at buildings in San Antonio and a few other surrounding areas, but nothing met all the criteria we wanted in a building. As soon as we toured this building in San Marcos, we knew it was the next step for us.”
To Kreidel’s point, as the home of Texas State University and other schools, San Marcos has a large population of college students, as well as many young families settling in the area. In fact, Texas State University already features an active collegiate team. Additionally, Kreidel notes that San Marcos is “an outdoorsy town, with a beautiful spring-fed river running through it, easy access to hiking and biking, and a short drive to the Texas Hill Country and many of our local climbing areas.”
Walls: Vertical Solutions
Flooring: Habit Climbing
CRM Software: Rock Gym Pro Cloud
Website: www.armadilloboulders.com
Instagram: @armadillosanmarcos
In Their Words: “In designing our San Marcos gym, we wanted it to be a good complement to the terrain we offer in San Antonio. Our San Antonio gym has a lot of vertical to slightly overhanging climbing, and not a lot of super steep terrain. The new gym is steep, with lots of enticing features to get climbers psyched. Right as you walk in the front door you see a massive 60-degree prow. We have a huge roof, several overhanging arêtes, and a wide variety of angle changes that help our setters create lots of fun, thoughtful problems. We have some nice vertical and slabby walls spread out through the gym, so we will be able to provide a well-rounded, diverse climbing experience to beginners and crushers alike.”
—Joe Kreidel, Co-Owner
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