Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019 - 11

"THE GREATEST CHANGE IS THAT PEOPLE OF ALL
AGES, MEN AND WOMEN FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE,
ARE CLIMBING NOW. IT'S NO LONGERJUST AN ELITE
GROUP, AND THAT'S A GOOD THING." -NANCY PRITCHARD BOUCHARD
that people of all ages, men and women from
every walk of life, are climbing now. It's no longer just an elite group, and that's a good thing."
Don't get worried, oudoor purists. Many of
those indoor climbers use the experience as a
stepping-off point to the wild and as an entry
into the outdoor family. "When I started climbing, I was 11 and I was immediately surrounded
by a ton of people who were passionate about
the outdoors. People at the gym were friendly
and encouraging and they helped introduce me
to outdoor climbing. They even offered to take
me and my parents on climbing trips," says Kyra
Condie, now a Mountain Hardwear climbing
athlete. "That's something I've always valued
about the climbing community...how inclusive
and supportive everyone is of each other."
La Sportiva climbing ambassador Chelsea
Rude agrees that indoor climbing is not just
the jumping-in place for the sport, but the
jumping-off place for a life outdoors. "I started
in a climbing gym and fell in love on that very
first day after climbing for six hours. That first
month, I joined a youth climbing team and

entered my first competition. I was a gym rat
from then on," she explains. "But luckily my
dad started hiring guides for us across the
country to go climbing outdoors. We did everything from sport climbing to bouldering to
multi-pitch. I loved it."
Greg Thomsen, managing director at adidas
Outdoor USA, was one of the first to put his
professional and personal faith in the young
generations of gym climbers. With Thomsen,
an old-school climber himself, at the helm,
adidas Outdoor went all-in with the Millennial
and now the Gen Z indoor climbing crowds
from day one in the U.S. "Today the climbing gym is an alternative to the regular fitness
gym," says Thomsen. "Most of these climbing
gyms just started in the last seven years. They
have evolved from hard-core-climber hangouts to outdoor-orientated communities with
large, clean, airy facilities offering yoga classes,
weight lifting, tread mills, and food courts,
in addition to impressive high-lead climbing walls, multiple bouldering areas and even
Olympic-format speed walls." O.R.

Photo courtesy Earth Treks (left), Tripp Fay/Copper Mountain Resort (right)

THE CROWN
JEWEL

Earth Treks and
Planet Granite
Create the "El
Cap" of Indoor
Climbing
This fall, Earth Treks
opened up what
is currently th the
world's largest indoor climbing gym,
a 53,000-squarefoot, 500-route
monster facility located in Englewood,
Colorado. It's a

natural progression
according to Renee
DeAngelis, COO of
El Cap, parent company of Earth Treks
and Planet Granite,
which merged in
late 2017 to create

the nation's largest
climbing gym chain.
"It's about creating an interest and
love for our sport.
It's easy to fall in love
with climbing, but the
experiences we offer

in the gym translate
to a passion that
often leads to trips
outside," she says.
"Gyms have an opportunity to grow the
next generation of
outdoor enthusiasts
not just by teaching climbing, but by
showing the importance of giving back
to our communities
and to the organizations who protect
the areas where we
love to go adventure."
-A.B

AIR CONDITIONING
Huck practice at
Woodward at Copper.

INDOOR SKIING

Much like indoor
climbing, indoor skiing is far more than
just a kitschy way
for people in odd
climes to dabble
in the sport. Indoor
ski facilities like
ColoradoWoodward
at Copper, where
pros train all year
long, are a legit place
to learn and grow
the sport. "Revolving
ski slopes" have
been around since
the 1970s, according to Sadler
Merrill of Denver's
Snowbahn Indoor
Ski and Snowboard,
but the 2000s have
brought on a resurgence of indoor
slopes fueled by the
introduction of a new
technology created
by Maxxtracks and
Alpine Engineering,
both based in the
Netherlands. There
are currently about
150 indoor ski centers worldwide that
use the new revolving slopes, with the

majority of them
based in Europe. In
the U.S., four indoor
ski centers that use
these new slopes
have opened since
2015: Snöbahn
in Centennial,
Colorado;
WinterClub Indoor
Ski & Snowboard
in Winter Park,
Florida; The Alpine
Factory in Arden
Hills, Minnesota;
and Inside Ski
Training Center in
Leesburg, Virginia.
"These indoor centers provide a safe,
controlled, convenient, and affordable
way to learn to ski an
snowboard, thereby
ensuring that people's first experience
is a positive one,
leading to a lifetime
of enjoyment in the
sports," Merrill says.
"Since opening in
2016, Snöbahn has
given more 30,000
lessons to skiers
and snowboarders
of all ages and abilitity levels." -A.B.

83%
PERCENT OF PEOPLE WHO TRY TO SKI WHO DON'T RETURN

Winter 2019 / OUTDOOR RETAILER 11

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2019

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