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mped
Nov 22, 2005, 10:58 PM
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I would like comments and suggestions from you readers.
What will make my wall different from all others? Three pitches of climbing.
Yes, three pitches. A 225 foot vertical tower with a each wall being 30 feet wide. Roughly 108,000 sq feet of climbing surface. That is right. Imagine going to the gym and having the chance to climb one-two-three pitches.
Sport Lead- hanging belays and standing belays
Top Rope- Top Rope one pitch, belay your partner up, switch to the next rope...
and it doesn't end there..
The tower is just the focal point. We will also offer a 40-50 foot wall for trad climbing. How? by re-forcing it quite well.
A 15' boulder wall with some 20' for high baller stuff.
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tnmountainman
Nov 22, 2005, 11:10 PM
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sorry, tried to delete, loaded before I was finished :oops:
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tnmountainman
Nov 22, 2005, 11:14 PM
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I am not the brightest crayon in the box, by the best suggestion I can give you is you better be saving your nickles and dimes. cause I have been checking into building a gym (closest on to my locale is about 65 min. away) and just from you vague descriptions, sounds like you are going to need about $800,000-$1,250,000 depending on circumstances, ( if you know any contractors to do the work, foundation, erecting the structure, mecanical trades, building the climbing surfaces, then outfitting the place with ropes, harnesses, shoes and other hardware, don't forget the bleue million holds that you are gonna need to buy)
Lots of luck in your venture!
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dietmoxie_15
Nov 22, 2005, 11:16 PM
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I agree with tnmountainman. It will cost alot. Your best bet would be to research different companies and talk to representatives from each. Then you get an idea of the type of money it will cost to open.
Best of luck
Billy
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climbsomething
Nov 22, 2005, 11:20 PM
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Are you serious? That ain't no birthday party gym. Wouldn't the insurance be outrageous?
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coldclimb
Nov 22, 2005, 11:25 PM
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Is there really a market for gyms made for serious multipitch and trad climbers? Just wondering really. I know if I had a gym locally that offered multipitch and trad, I'd have a membership all winter for sure, but that's only cause I haven't gotten into ice yet...
But then a tower this tall is going to be outside, isn't it? Hmm.
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bensnyder
Nov 22, 2005, 11:36 PM
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Sounds amazing. I really hope it works. A problem exists however: you would probably need to build this wall in an area full of climbers (i.e. Boulder CO) in order to offset the costs of production. The problem is that these areas tend to have good natural rock to begin with. In order for the wall to work financially, this wall needs to be etremely novel/interesting (sounds like it is!), and/or covered so that climbers can use it as an alternative to real rock when it rains. Anyways, good luck, and great idea!
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rcpeters
Nov 22, 2005, 11:50 PM
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Multi pitch climbing, wow,. I just couldn't imagine the liability, some one will screw up. However I've always wondered if a gym could get away with being two different corporations. One corporation with free lead climbing outside, and one with climbing inside. The climbing outside would attract attention, but at the same time make no claims as to safety or supervision. The purpose of the corporation would building and maintenance of outside artificial routes and also isolation from lawsuits, not to make money. The second corporation inside would function as a normal gym and hopefully makes lots of money during very hot or cold days. 8^) Use evil corporations for good 8^)
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tgreene
Nov 23, 2005, 12:09 AM
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Building the wall is the easy part, finding a 17 story building with enough open space isn't...
T1 (but only cause ya snagged a few)! :roll:
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veganboyjosh
Nov 23, 2005, 12:13 AM
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dude. not hard at all...
just dig a big ass deep hole, pour some big ass tall foundation walls, and then build your wall there. then it can be 17 stories from top to bottom, but not be this monstrosity on the local landscape.
you could have people rap in...
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mtman
Nov 23, 2005, 12:13 AM
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i am shure that i am not the only one that thinks that this is outrageous no one would have the money to build that and you would never be able to make any money, plus no you would never get insurace. as for the trad wall, i don't know any one that would actually climb trad inside. it is like you are trying to bring all of climbing in to a gym, i would rather go outside and climb and only use the gym to stay in shape
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tgreene
Nov 23, 2005, 12:17 AM
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How's about "Indoor Alpining"..? Now there's an idea! :lol:
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fluxus
Nov 23, 2005, 12:18 AM
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this sounds like a TROLL to me.
OR
the OP isn't that familiar at all with the way walls are used.
Super tall skinny walls = a lot of climbers standing around waiting for their turn to climb = no fun / no real value.
Such a wall would cost a fortune to build, be a course-setting nightmare, not allow many climbers to use it at a time, and would probably cost a great deal to insure.
I don't even want to think about insuring trad climbing on an artificial wall or a high ball bouldering area.
only a TROLL or a total nut job would propose such a thing.
I say TROLL.
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schnoz
Nov 23, 2005, 12:18 AM
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All I have to say is:
Have fun stripping and resetting the routes.
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veganboyjosh
Nov 23, 2005, 12:38 AM
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here's my money making idea that i've been trying to sell my friends on for a while, but they laugh when i bring it up...
indoor deep water soloing. an overhung wall that's above a pool.
the water from the pool can also be drained and frozen on the walls, so as to enable the indoor ice climbing feature.
once i get the physics of the hvac system figured out, i'mma build the first gym in the world with deep water ice soloing.
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tgreene
Nov 23, 2005, 1:00 AM
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Bah, who wants to solo is deep icy water, when they could be traversing 30' indoor alpine peaks...
To add to the realism, I'm gonna hire a bunch of midgets and train them to be Sherpas!
* Just be warry of the crevaces though, because you don't want to twist an ankle or anything. :idea:
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mped
Nov 23, 2005, 1:06 AM
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In reply to: a total nut job would propose such a thing.
The said the same for the airplane
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shanz
Nov 23, 2005, 1:25 AM
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i like the indoor deep water bouldering idea - but for the price of the 3 pitch climbing wall i think it would be easier to buy a bluff off some of these landowner who restrict access.
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ihategrigris
Nov 23, 2005, 1:38 AM
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The Crux, the local gym here in Calgary, claims to have the tallest wall in North America, at 75'. All in all it works pretty well, they even have stations if you want to practice your multipitch skills. 3 pitch wouldn't be THAT unrealistic.
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tgreene
Nov 23, 2005, 1:40 AM
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3 pitches at 225' would be! :wink:
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roshiaitareya
Nov 23, 2005, 2:31 AM
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Wouldn't you need a trained gym worker at each pitch to make sure people are tying in correctly for the subsequent pitches? I don't know about the logistics of a climbing wall, but I know they're hella expensive to insure, and the bigger you go the more insurance you buy.
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mped
Nov 23, 2005, 3:19 AM
Post #23 of 104
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The main issue for me is finance. Nothing like this has been built before. It will need the financial backing of people that believe this is possible. I think long term such a tower would make money from climber tourists from USA and international climbers who want to try the biggest in the world. Having it by a solid outdoor site is a must. And in respone to a message. In Edinburgh a quarry site was purchased an atrium was constructed above it.
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moeman
Nov 23, 2005, 4:06 AM
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Another quibble: Your wall would still probably not be the tallest "gym" wall in the world. I have heard of dams in Europe that people have glued holds onto and placed bolts- creating multipitch plastic sport routes. 500 footers.
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thrmaln
Nov 23, 2005, 6:43 AM
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Hey Mped
This is a very serious undertaking you are attempting. Yes you are correct in saying that is what they said about the airplane, but your biggest problem is not that it can't be done, but rather that it shouldn't be done. As mentioned, insurance issues will be a nightmare if anyone will touch it, and if they do it will be insanely expensive and you will be hard pressed to recoup that cost with memberships.
Another issue is people make mistakes and you need to realize that sometime safety takes a back seat in the gym environment and many there only know what they have been taught by Gym employees. In any sort of emergency or situation aside from normal could be disastrous with green climbers.
So where do you intend to build this monstrosity? Have you considered welding 4 double wide trailer homes together, and stacking them on end with holds on the outside. Oh leave the wheels on for the crux and be sure to build it in Nebraska as the Tornados would make an easy 5.6 into at least a 5.10R. Just Kidding!
So if you got the backing and an unlimited amount of cash then by all means give it a go, but you better get the safety issues right otherwise you could end up hurting the gym industry if you have a lot of accidents.
Best of luck,
Marc Webster
Oh and veganboy,
Your idea seems interesting, but wouldnt falling into a pool with a couple of Ice axes in your hand be horribly dangerous. Especially if someone else were to fall in the pool just before you and were directly b
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