Discussion Topic |
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Gerrr
Social climber
Fresno, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 30, 2008 - 09:31pm PT
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What is the history and growth of indoor climbing gyms?
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Sep 30, 2008 - 09:36pm PT
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I think it started with the european competitions on artificial walls, then the same made it over to the states followed by or at the same time as the gyms.
I'm thinking mid/late 80's.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Sep 30, 2008 - 09:40pm PT
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stay away from 'em....rots the soul.
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Prod
Big Wall climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Sep 30, 2008 - 10:22pm PT
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I'd blast a note to Jello, he'd have quite a bit of history for you.
Prod.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Sep 30, 2008 - 10:59pm PT
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It all started when I bought the first batch of entreprise™ holds that came to the US. They were slated for the first Snowbird wall, but dancin' Dan, or someone had a deal killing conflict of interest that birthed metolius™, or something like that...
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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watch the tendons, man, jtsan was right.
i think i missed i letter somewhere.
that place is a tendon factory.
you won't believe Planite Granite, SF.
You MUST check out that location, I'm jus sayin...
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dogtown
climber
Where I once was,I think?
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Na,Jaybro
It all started when I epoxied a bunch of rock chips on two piece of plywood in my backyard in 79.
True.
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jstan
climber
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Many people had simulators down into the sixties at least. But you have first to define what you mean by "climbing gym." I would say it was a place intending to make money off it. They began showing up after people started holding and going to climbing competitions. Which makes sense. Neither activity has anything to do with lead climbing as it existed before.
Actually now that Ghost has spoken I vaguely remember some sort of concrete wall in Washington or Oregon?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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University of Calgary climbing wall. Concrete. Long before any plastic sh#t in the US of A.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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dunno, dog. Chazbro, had lath and '2 by' holds screwed to his microghetto garage, prior to '79. But since he is lawyer, you have better credibility.
Btw, we don't count those limey climbing walls, dating back to Stonehenge or possibly the normans...
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dogtown
climber
Where I once was,I think?
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Jaybro;
The truth is I Stole the idea from Dale Bard.
My wall was a lot bigger and better than his so I take credit.
HA,HA Cheers
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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I don't know, man.
There is this overpass on Foothill Expressway.
It goes over the Permanente railroad tracks right where you get on 280.
There is a concrete lined underpass for the train.
People where gluing holds down there back in 76.
It got so big that they shut it down about ten years later.
Not exactly a gym, but hey.
The World use to be our climbimng gym.
Down to Homestead High for a little bouldering up the cinder blocks.
Just enuff room between blocks for a finger hold if they did not use too much grout.
Feet stick ok.
Then a running jump off the coridor roof, over to the water tank to scale the locked up ladder to the top where we thru rocks at cars on 85 and 280.
Can you imagine trying to find someone on top of a huge water tank, you would need a chopper.
The perfect crime.
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
somewhere without avatars.........
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In Fresno? Zilch on both counts. But, of course, I'm sure you know that already. It doesn't even matter that the current gym owner doesn't give a sh#t about climbing or the community. Nor does it matter that his business practices are less than desirable... The community around here has always been weak and anything climbing related just kind of struggles along and gets done in, eventually, by the owner's own ignorance.
When it comes to gyms, take all of this, along with the fact that Touchstone is opening a gym here and it's a "no go" for anyone else. At least, for a change, it seems like someone might do it right in Fresno finally. Just sad they had to come from out of town to do it.
"where we thru rocks at cars on 85 and 280."
This probably did more to get the climbing shut down that the actual climbing, Doc.
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dogtown
climber
Where I once was,I think?
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Yeah, I bouldered at that freeway crag it was pretty cool.I didn't think it was developed that early.
My thinking was in around 1980 or so I could be wrong.
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tooth
Mountain climber
B.C.
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Washington.
Whitman college has a great concrete area around their recreation buildings covered in holds, and a 35 foot wall about 80 feet long covered in routes. All outside. A lot of inverted stuff under the stairs and underneath sidewalks in caves, etc. Hundreds of linear feet of traversing, got really strong when I used to 'study' there every afternoon. They drilled, bolted, glued, and chipped holds of every type into those concrete retaining walls, sidewalks and building walls. Everything from choss from Vantage to Metolius plastic to pennies in epoxy.
They even put up styrofoam 'ice' for half the year to practice ice climbing. Gotta love their outdoor program. Backcountry rentals cheap too.
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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Net, the water tanks are about a mile from the Freeway Jam.
And we were only 12, so....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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The first commercial gym was the "Vertical Club" in Seattle in the late 80's. I only join when I'm between marriages. Gym's may "rot the soul" and be bad for the tendons, but they do provide a service.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Jim is correct. The Vertical Club is generally believed to be the first commercial indoor climbing gym in the US. At the time, it was thought that gyms would only be successful in areas of the country (like Seattle) where there were high concentration of climbers, the weather was often bad, and the winters cold, dark and/or long.
Before commercial gyms there were a number of artificial walls, but these were usually outside and very limited [why build these outside where the same problems with bad weather affect them as real crags?]. Gluing of rock holds onto freeway and road underpasses was begun in So Cal in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Some of these glue areas had lead routes and were quite popular. Then gyms came along, Cal Trans ripped the holds off, and the rest is history.
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OldEric
Trad climber
Westboro, MA
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Hampshire College (Amherst, MA) has plywood holds bolted and stone glued to cement block wall in the gym in the late 70's when Dave Roberts and Ed Ward led the outdoor program there.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Remember the wooden thing by Moosely Seconds?
There was also a glued on holds place underneath Father Kino in Tucson in some huge concrete culverts.
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