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The World's Highest Climbing Wall
Reno, NV may soon be the home to what, if all goes according to plan, will be the world's tallest climbing wall, at over 160 feet. The wall is being engineered by Entre Prises Climbing Walls who have teamed up with CommRow and will be developed along with a 7000 square foot indoor bouldering park as part of the 'CommRow' project.
The 'CommRow' project is aimed at bringing fresh new appeal to the Fitzgeralds Casino, and it sure looks as though it will.
- The wall itself boasts some impressive statistics:
- The tallest climbing wall in the world at 50 meters / 163 feet
- World Championship Competition area
- IFSC Certified, Official World Record Speed Wall
- Belay Ledges – for multi-pitch climbing and training
- Advanced Wall from 5.11 to 5.14
- Intermediate Wall from 5.9 to 5.11
- Beginner Wall from 5.2 to 5.8
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The proposed wall and bouldering park are creating a lot of buzz among local climbers. The best news of all? The project is expected to be completed by as early as the summer of 2011.
Local news source, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported:
"The first two floors of the former hotel-casino built in 1976 have been gutted.
Entre-Prises, which built the climbing walls for the Royal Caribbean Line cruise ships, is designing the wall to meet national and international standards, said Antoine Richard, company chief executive officer, who was in Reno this week.
His French company was the first to build artificial climbing walls in 1985, has since built 4,000 of them and has a manufacturing and design operations in Bend, Ore.
But this is their first wall over a tall building. And his associate Adam Koberna said it will be the world’s tallest.
Councilman Dave Aiazzi said the wall also builds on the city’s whitewater park that first began to bring young people downtown before the recession put a halt to a number of projects.
“This will help bring that energy back downtown. More people are moving into the Montage and we’ve had a lot of new restaurants opening in the last six months,” Aiazzi said.
“This can only be good for everybody down here,” said Tom Christ, Harrah’s Reno entertainment and public relations director.
Even before he heard about the climbing wall, he said Harrah’s was planning to bring back more entertainment on its plaza this summer. The giant stage was empty last summer between the Fourth of July and Hot August Nights.
Having music on the plaza while people watch the climbers across the street at CommRow, he said, is even better."
18 Comments
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jbro_135    2011-02-18 |
World's heighest copy editor |
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unga123 2011-02-18 |
I wonder how many people are gonna get that jbro |
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lajhanata 2011-02-18 |
This could be the coolest thing Reno has ever done. Rocksport better get some more route setters though. Those guys are to heigh to set more than two routes a week. |
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glytch 2011-02-18 |
The ironing is out of control with that guy ^ |
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Beaver 2011-02-19 |
this might a visit to Rino interesting.. |
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camhead 2011-02-19 |
Really, can we get a spell check with the title on the front page? Please? Not really helping the whole "rockclimbing.com is a slum-ridden wasteland of a website" thing here. |
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Thrutchtastic 2011-02-19 |
I took a tour of the place last weekend. The plans look amazing, and to quell your fears, the route setters will be numerous and professionally certified. They've got it budgeted to pull and replace 50% of the routes inside and out every month. |
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brachialis 2011-02-22 |
'The 'CommRow' project is aimed at bringing fresh new appeal to the Fitzgeralds Casino, and it sure looks as though it will.' Brilliant! Nice ad. Thanks 'admin', could we now have some climbing news meaningful to anyone who doesn't happen to live in Reno? To me this just seems like another instance of rock climbing becoming muddled with and compromised by greed. If this civilization sustains itself for long enough and heads in its current direction we'll see rock climbing walls franchised like Taco Bell. But they will never understand what this practice of climbing means to us.
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shoo 2011-02-22 |
God I hate these kinds of gimmicks.
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spoon 2011-02-24 |
I think I saw these pictures the last time someone claimed to be the tallest wall in the world. 500+ foot routes on a dam in France. http://www.climbing.com/photo-video/gallery/climbingmag1/index28.html |
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dig_scott 2011-02-26 |
@Brachialis, What the hell is the problem? I would say that this is climbing news worthy of print. I live 10 hours away and I'm stoked for it. I'm headed to Reno next time I'm out for The Valley. What kind of news would you like to see? Because I'm sure that any news posted doesn't appeal to every climber the World over. And what's wrong with having a company run multiple walls? They can fund the walls to stay open during slow times, get funding, have experience, can afford route setters, and the list goes on. |
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rockfax 2011-02-27 |
You may want to check this out. Not as tall, but up there! In the Dutch Mountains "At 37m tall it is the tallest free-standing climbing wall in the World; a notch higher than Stone Works wall in Carrollton in Texas, USA." http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1827 |
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Mariezguitar 2011-03-05 |
@rockfax, I checked out "In the Dutch Mountains" thanks for the link. |
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brachialis 2011-03-18 |
@dig_scott: I know some people who don't live in Reno but travel to the area will appreciate this. But 10 hours? Why not visit an area with 50 meters of beautiful stone? My 'problem' is not that a company owns multiple walls etc. I've no inherent problem with capitalist expansion. You know, it potentially means 'good' for many more people. Whole Foods is maybe an example, among others. The 'problem' is that associating climbing with the idiotic greed of the Nevada gambling culture is a prime example of how our practice is being used for personal profit, without regard for ethics or aesthetics. I won't claim to know the intentions of the people behind this project. But on the basis of the article it seems pretty GD lame. You know, instead of going to Reno and gambling away your dollar, maybe go out and camp, and spend your week near some stone :)
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HolySinz 2011-03-23 |
"You know, instead of going to Reno and gambling away your dollar, maybe go out and camp, and spend your week near some stone :) " Why can't one do both? I love camping and climbing but that doesnt mean that's all I do. |
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Thrutchtastic 2011-03-25 |
I can speak a little on the intentions of the people building the wall. Apart from building a world-class climbing wall and the only one certified to this level in the entire country, an admirable goal in and of itself, part of the idea is to help Reno diversify from that "idiotic greed of the Nevada gaming culture". The building this wall is going up on (an old, out-of-business casino) will be entirely gaming and smoking free, aimed at promoting a great place to actually hang out downtown. There will be shops with cheap food, live music, and even a doggy daycare center. They're doing it up right. Having grown up in Reno and always feeling like a tourist downtown, I'm incredibly excited to see this project moving along as quickly as it is (seriously, until now one of the best parts about living in Reno is that you have great places to go when you leave every chance you get). It'll be nice to have the opportunity to put up a few pitches downtown, rather than just being asked to drop a few bucks at casino. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing I love more than a good long climbing trip out in the wilds, but this wall will be a nice alternative--and one I can ride my bike to, at that. |
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markguycan 2011-03-27 |
It's not "rock" climbing but plastic afterall! Definately not as good as the real thing IMHO, but next time I'm visiting family in Reno I'll be looking forward to getting some vertical relief! I only hope it doesn't put RockSport out of business; but thne if the weather is bad you're not gonna be climbing on the outside of a building anyway... |
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Thrutchtastic 2011-03-31 |
Don't worry about RockSport; they were brought in early and are managing the project. :) |
