Greater Heights
Fitchburg, Wisconsin
Specs: A new mixed-discipline climbing gym is expected to open in Fitchburg, Wisconsin—a suburb of south Madison—before the end of the year. Greater Heights, operated by Jonathan Landis, is a five-year project coming to fruition. Landis had previously worked in technical project management and, after falling in love with climbing, began to dream of opening a gym of his own. Landis was looking to change his career path and felt there was an opportunity for a new climbing gym in the Madison area, so he started working on the project, involved Dayton Henriksen—the Greater Heights General Manager—and took the next steps forward. So far, the core team consists of Landis, Henriksen and Head Routesetter Alexandra Fox, who are priming the gym for a holiday season opening.
According to Landis, the team “looked for an existing building that would work well,” but they found it “difficult to find a building that [would be] perfect for a climbing gym,” noting a tall but narrow building was preferable for their vision. “They just don’t make a ton of those,” he said, “so we ended up deciding that building new was going to be the best option for us.” The Greater Heights team decided to build the new facility on the west side of town, near a junction of highways that go to all sides of the city, so that the gym could be within 15 minutes of a large portion of the population. “Having some sense of centrality, having access especially to the west side, where we felt there was an underserved population,” were some of the reasons Landis and the team “loved the location,” he said.
Landis recalled the challenge of trying to incorporate the various aspects of their vision into the building design, a task that Rockwerx helped them tackle. “You’re moving all these rooms around, you’re trying to make everything make sense,” he said. “You’re trying to use the space as efficiently as possible, so you don’t end up with weird hallways.” Fortunately, Landis said the team achieved most of the goals they wanted, such as making space for a reservable party room next to a section of the climbing walls. Landis explained that he wanted the room to not be separate from the rest of the facility, where climbers might be less likely to use it, but also not in the middle of the climbing area, intending to avoid disrupting other climbers. The team also allotted space for a fully adjustable 12×12 Kilter Board, weight and cardio room, hangboard and campus board. In addition to parties, the gym will host team-building events, climbing teams, yoga classes and instructional climbing classes.
For the gym’s 40-foot roped climbing walls, Greater Heights will be requiring the use of Assisted Braking Devices (ABDs) and will not be allowing the use of tube belay devices. “I think that tube belays, as convenient as they are, have fundamental safety issues that are at least mitigated by ABDs,” Landis said. To Landis’s knowledge, ABDs are not currently required at other Madison climbing gyms, so the Greater Heights team is hoping to ease the community into the idea by offering the Mammut Smart 2.0 device at a discount, as a pre-sale add-on. To other gym operators contemplating a new safety procedure, Landis encourages clearly communicating the “why” behind the measure and providing an easy on-ramp. “I think the fact that we’re offering an inexpensive on-sale option for an ABD makes it more palatable to people,” he said.
Walls: Rockwerx
Flooring: Asana
CRM Software: Rock Gym Pro
Website: www.ghclimbing.com
Instagram: @GH.Climbing
In Their Words: “If you’re brand new and you’ve never opened a facility before—if you’re like me or this is your first one—recognize that the loan is the hard part. That’s really the big challenge. So, work with various lenders and figure out who is going to work best with you. Reach out to more than one. Come up with a rock-solid business plan. Have as much data as you can. It’s probably helpful to work on the expertise of others. If you can, contact gym owners and work with a company like Rockwerx and other consulting companies out there. Our work with Rockwerx was instrumental to the gym happening. So, use experts. Be willing to cold call people. People are more willing to help than you might think. Focus on location. Always be looking for buildings, always be looking for land. Always be talking to developers and seeing what’s available.” – Jonathan Landis, Greater Heights CEO and Largest Minority Owner
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.
