Colorado’s climbing wall industry continues upward momentum

To build the nation’s largest new climbing gym in 2024, Englewood-based Movement Climbing, Yoga and Fitness literally raised the roof 25 feet above a space that previously housed a golf retailer.

Located in the Centennial Promenade Shopping Center on County Line Road across from Park Meadows, Movement Centennial’s 55-foot-tall climbing walls span 28,000 square feet and accommodate 105 routes. It opened last March, and in December Climbing Business Journal ranked it No. 1 on its list of the biggest new climbing gyms of 2024.

“When we took over the lease, we blew (the roof) out and redid the building,” gym director Kory Stratton said during a tour of the space this week while climbers scaled a speed wall Olympic certified. “The first time I came here, a little over a year ago, there was a cement truck and there was a puddle on the ground because it was raining and the roof wasn’t still covered.

“To see it become this community space – people having fun, meeting new people, building friendships, achieving their goals – feels really special to us.”

Movement is the nation’s largest indoor climbing wall chain, with 30 facilities coast-to-coast, six of which are located in the Denver-Boulder area. Two of his local gyms, in Golden and Englewood, are former Earth Treks facilities.

The indoor climbing industry continues to show robust growth. The number of new climbing wall companies grew by an average of 12% annually between 2019 and 2024, according to IBISWorld, an industry research database. Not surprisingly, the Front Range is a hotbed for the sport.

“People want to live here, and climbers in particular want to live here,” said Evan Pearce, regional director of Movement. “There are not only people who live here and learn to climb, there are also people who are already climbers and want to move to this area in order to engage in this part of their lifestyle. It’s one of the few cities in the United States where you can live in a large metropolitan area and have access to plenty of climbing trails nearby.

Related: 60-foot climbing walls, beers on tap at Longmont’s huge climbing gym

Another gym business, Longmont Climbing Collective, opened a year ago with walls measuring 25,000 square feet and 60 feet high. That company also owns the Loveland Climbing Collective and plans to open a third location in March in a historic Greeley building that was built in 1957 as a movie theater.

In February, the Longmont Climbing Collective will host an Ice Climbing World Cup, the first to take place in the United States since the Civic Center park hosted one in 2019. This event was the first Ice Climbing World Cup in ice climbing to take place in the country, and attracted more than 25,000 spectators. The February event will be the first of five events held there each year.

Movement’s Englewood location, which opened as Earth Treks in 2018, is even larger than Centennial. It has 60-foot-high walls and 42,000 square feet of climbing.

“I think there are a variety of things that attract non-climbers to the sport,” Stratton said. “This is becoming more and more common. This has happened in the last two Olympics. His opportunity within the Olympic Games is growing more and more. It’s more in the public eye and American climbers are really good.

American climbers won two medals at the Paris Olympics last summer, with Brooke Raboutou of Boulder taking silver.

“It’s becoming more accessible because it’s being talked about more, but I also think we’re creating welcoming, fun, safe spaces where we can mitigate the danger, teach you the skills and reduce a lot of those barriers to access.” , Stratton said. “Trying something new is scary, (even) when you’re not 40 feet off the ground. Entering a new community and wondering if there is a place for you creates many obstacles for people. Having high-level expertise, a reasonable price for value, and a place where it’s really exciting, contributes to its growth.

In addition to high ropes walls and a large climbing area, Movement Centennial has yoga studios and a workout area including free weights and cardio machines. Daily passes cost $28 ($23 for students). Individual adult subscriptions cost $102 per month ($89 for students) and $191 for households. These prices cover yoga and fitness space, as well as climbing privileges.

“I would bet that probably half of my members have no intention of climbing outside, and that’s why they’re here, for the community,” Stratton said. “I would also say that a lot of people don’t intend to (climb) outside of the gym, but they end up doing it as they progress in their climbing.”

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