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Dream Gym


glen

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Okay folks, here it is... the 64 cent question. What would your ideal gym be like? I think we all know that 100' indoor routes would be nice, but what do you really want... good cracks? friction slabs? sauna? weight room or weight area? Hot staff? Freezer room with ice columns (next to the sauna for the belayer, of course)? What's it gonna be? Or is it as simple as a tarp and heat lamps at the local favorite crag?

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My favorite gym would have a combination of thin slabs using real granite, slightly overhanging sport climbing on plastic, and a bunch of cracks using real granite. It wouldn't be that hard. Rough cut granite is not outragously expensive if purchased from a stone importer. Granite is cheap from Malasia and China. I've purchased a bunch on the some of the construction jobs I've managed. Sure, it would be a lot more than plastic, but come-on gym owners, we're worth it!

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I dream of just having a gym in Yakima. Oh wait, I do. I bought most of the Gymnastic Plus holds when they closed down their wall and I turned my basement into a bouldering cave. It has 20 degree to 30 degree overhangs with roof problems. I need to change the overhangs though, I want to set them at 45-70 degrees. I was conservative with the original plan.

 

Indoor walls are great for conditioning and escaping foul weather, but thats about it for me. rockband.gif

Edited by yakimuchacho
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More slab, and more of that modular Entre Prises wall stuff. They used to have some in the Fremont VW and they may still have some at the Redmond VW, though I haven't been there in years.

 

In any case, it's the best fake rock stuff I've climbed on.

 

Several years ago I climbed at that gym in Dallas with the 100' routes in the grain silos, and there wasn't much I liked about it. The acoustics, the shape and (lack of) texture of the wall...me I'd rather climb something smaller a few more times....

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Having worked for EP on the Long Beach YMCA job, their design of having a bouldering tunnel with various pillars on the above wall side was great.

 

You could boulder the cave/tunnel, as well as adding extensions to the lead where you boulder the cave, then attack the headwall through one of the various openings between the pillars.

 

Very versatile. thumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gif

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Tall overhanging walls with lots of lead routes, textured walls (big enought for foot holds)throw in a good supply of cracks ......slabs rolleyes.gif I heard some climbers like that tilted sidewalk thing (slabhappy yelrotflmao.gif).... 3 times as big as VW in seattle and build it in Olympia or so Tacoma thumbs_up.gif

A membership that would be good for all the small gyms in Washington would be cool also thumbs_up.gif

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I like that Lucky!! Make a universal gym pass. It would help escape the boredom of going to the same gym over and over again during the winter. I get bored with gyms because it's the same routes over and over. Sure there might be "hundreds" of routes, but there seems to be a semblance of every indoor route in order to make it a certain grade.

 

I don't go climb the same 12 routes every summer over and over so why would I want to do that ....and pay for it?

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What is this crap -- slabs? In the gym? People, the gym is for getting in shape; no one is going to get strong by climbing slabs. The only thing the slabs at the PRG are good for is keeping the gumbuses and noobers corralled in their own corner of the gym, away from the lead walls.

 

A good gym has nice textured, contoured panels (note to PRG: flat, geometric plywood angles went out with Snowbird ca '89 -- you blew it bigtime on that one!), of varying angles, from vert to fearsome overhang, although given our proximity to Smith, more just off vertical terrain would be choice. The longer the routes, the better; 50' lead walls would be good, with enough width to allow long traversing/link-up routes for maximum mileage. No old holds! All those crappy, first-generation EP shapes with the sharp edges and tendon-tweaking pockets? To Goodwill! How about some decent hardware, too? The PRG, again, blows it with ancient steel 'biners you can barely clip, and often get your finger stuck in when you're making desperate clips, and don't even get DFA started on Gary's old, retired straight-gates and manky lockers showing up on the lead wall. Show that you give a shit about your own facility, and that you take it seriously, because junk hardware is a joke, and makes your facility one, too! Cardio equipment -- kudos to the PRG on this front!

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What is this crap -- slabs? In the gym? People, the gym is for getting in shape; no one is going to get strong by climbing slabs. The only thing the slabs at the PRG are good for is keeping the gumbuses and noobers corralled in their own corner of the gym, away from the lead walls.

 

A good gym has nice textured, contoured panels (note to PRG: flat, geometric plywood angles went out with Snowbird ca '89 -- you blew it bigtime on that one!), of varying angles, from vert to fearsome overhang, although given our proximity to Smith, more just off vertical terrain would be choice. The longer the routes, the better; 50' lead walls would be good, with enough width to allow long traversing/link-up routes for maximum mileage. No old holds! All those crappy, first-generation EP shapes with the sharp edges and tendon-tweaking pockets? To Goodwill! How about some decent hardware, too? The PRG, again, blows it with ancient steel 'biners you can barely clip, and often get your finger stuck in when you're making desperate clips, and don't even get DFA started on Gary's old, retired straight-gates and manky lockers showing up on the lead wall. Show that you give a shit about your own facility, and that you take it seriously, because junk hardware is a joke, and makes your facility one, too! Cardio equipment -- kudos to the PRG on this front!

 

OMFG...this is funny...your stomping grounds host some of the premiere SLAB climbs in the world yellaf.gifthe_finger.gif

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