A Dedicated Training Facility

After much deliberation, research, consulting, and brainstorming, I've decided to push for the effort of a dedicated training facility in the Layton, UT area.

Without going into those details (message me if you'd like), I'd rather like to share the concept with you and get the idea out there. There is a crowdfunding effort taking place at gofundme.com/stoketraining, but even a comment of "I'd go if you opened it" is just as valuable. This was designed to be a temperature gage and not so much a must-have amount prior to starting. Your feedback, comments, and concerns are welcome!

Before the meat, though, a concept floor plan based on space available:

Potential floor plans.

The website is stoketraining.com and the concept is reiterated here:

The sport of rock climbing continues to grow in size and popularity. The Outdoor Industry Association puts the number of active climbers (both indoor and outdoor) at ~7,000,000 participants yearly within the United States, with about a 5% growth over 3 years. Those participating in traditional, ice, or mountaineering-climbing has nearly doubled since 2011.

Yet despite this increase, the number of high-performance athletes in vertical sports continues to be relatively small. The web database MountainProject.com estimates that only 14.7% of climbers have climbed 5.12a, 3.6% have climbed 5.13a, and only 0.2% have climbed 5.14a or harder. As the sport’s pioneers continue to push the boundaries, the general populace has lagged behind.

The way to improve in these vertical sports is sport-specific training. While avenues exist to train in gym environments, many gyms put in training areas as an afterthought and can be lacking what the Mountain Athlete needs. Observing this deficiency, I am developing a plan and business that directly targets the Mountain Athlete’s training. It is the first of its kind to address the training needs of the Mountain Athlete for an affordable price without the frustrations that accommodate the modern gym climbing experience.

The popularity of training has also increased. Popular and well-regarded books in the training market include: Training for Climbing by Eric Hörst, Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House, and The Rock Climber’s Training Manual by Mike and Mark Anderson. There are also online-only venues such as TrainingBeta.com.

I have a vision to open a training facility in Layton, UT which directly caters to the Mountain Athlete’s needs. The Wasatch Front has arguably some of the best and most diverse climbing outside of a metropolitan area. Within an hour’s drive you have access to limestone, quartzite, granite, sandstone, conglomerate, and variations therein. Expand the horizons to 6 hours and you can reach major climbing destinations such City of Rocks, ID; Lander, WY; Moab/Indian Creek, UT; The Wind River Range, WY; and Red Rock Canyon, NV. It’s no wonder the sport is so popular in Utah and is seeing an expanse.

Beyond the scope of standard training equipment, the Mountain Athlete needs motivation, convenient gym availability, customization, and last but not least: space! Many a training session can be thwarted by unavailability of a climbing wall space or another piece of equipment.

In a nutshell, this training facility can be envisioned as an elaborate training area in someone’s gigantic garage. 24/7 access, akin to many serious lifting gyms, would allow flexibility to the user offered nowhere else. It would be based on a co-op model where the users feel like it’s their gym. I’d like to further explain my plan to you addressing Equipment, Community, Expansion, and How You Can Get Involved.

Equipment
This training center would have all of the standard climbing equipment: hangboards, campus boards, 15 degree traversing wall, a Moon board, and a 30 degree systems wall. Non-standard climbing equipment would include an adjustable angle systems board, crack simulators, and a Treadwall. In addition, users will have a selection of holds to choose from to adjust a training route for their goals and projects.

For those with alpine objectives, standard tools will include at least one of each of the following: a Stairmaster, incline trainer, and a squat rack. Non-standard alpine equipment would include Ice Holdz and/or holes in the wall for ice tool utilization.

The exact number of each piece of equipment is contingent on starting space and funding. However, floor plans have been developed for small starting spaces (1,000-1,500 sq. ft) with the goal of growing.

Community
Many gyms feel like a free-for-all for the user. A goal with this training facility would be to bring Mountain Athletes together, encourage others to become Mountain Athletes, and to share goals and accomplishments together. Imagine going someplace where the other users are as excited about your projects as you are! This unique feel is missing from many climbing facilities.

Expansion
Start small, grow big. The initial startup costs and size of this training facility are small and designed to pose very little risk to those involved. After all, most of us are weekend warriors who need to put dinner on the table. That is why the time-value of training cannot be overlooked. It is the most efficient way to get better. As the facility becomes more popular, more equipment can be purchased or built. Eventually, it may even become a full-service climbing facility, but the main focus will always be on training.

How You Can Help
If you have insights into the training market, that information would be invaluable. If you have experience owning or operating such a facility, your advice would be envied. Finally, if you have any training equipment or funding you’d like to contribute to this effort, I’d be beyond grateful and gladly offer advertising or honorable mention space at the facility and on the website. I need to raise $20,000 for a basic facility, or $50,000 for a facility with more options.

If you’d like to find out more about the project or if you have specific questions about market research, demographic research, floor plans, or other inquiries about the research and planning done thus far prior to supporting, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am quite a bit further south so I can't say that I would come regularly. I am down in herriman but I would definitely make the trip up for the moonboard at least a couple of times. The moonboard idea fascinates me and I really want to see one in action. I really want one in my garage so that I can train hard at home. I have little kids and making it to a a gym can get really hard on the schedule.

It sounds like a great idea but I am too far south plus I am pretty close to momentum lehi which has pretty decent training options.

Charlie, you know I'm all in on this idea, but I wanted to bump your thread and just mention a bit about why this idea appeals to me:

1. I want to improve in my climbing, Yeah, Yeah, climbing is about having fun, not chasing grades or whatever BS excuse people use for not improving, but deep down it's extremely satisfying to make progress at something you enjoy. On top of that, the lines that I am drawn to are always the hard ones just because they look the coolest. I would love to have a place to comingle with other climbers who have similar goals and can admit that they want to improve (because we all know that deep down we all want to get better).

2. I think training for climbing is finally starting to gain some traction in the Wasatch. The Wasatch has an amazing amount of diversity in climbing options, the only other place I know of that is similar would be the Front Range. I look at the average climbers on the Front Range, and they are just so much better than the average climbers in the Wasatch, and I think the reason for that is that they have fully embraced training whereas we haven't done that here yet. This facility would be a great step in that direction.

3. I don't currently have a gym membership, the reasons being that I climb outside a lot, and I train with the RCTM methodology which means that in any given year I have at least 6 months where a gym is worthless to me. Each training cycle has a month of hangboarding which I do in my basement since none of the gyms near me have decent hangboarding setups, and a month of performance which I do outside, so the times I would like a gym are during my ARC phase and my Power phase, but that limited time doesn't seem worth the cost of the gym membership, so I ARC outside and I do power on the campus board in my garage. However, I would rather be able to do my training at a facility like this where I can be with other people who are stoked on training to help keep the psyche up while doing it. Unfortunately, most gyms (at least in the area) don't have good training setups so I continue to train at home.

If there are any other climbers in the Davis county area who feel similarly please post up so that Charlie can gage the interest in this idea!

Thank you both for posting! Ken's been my sounding board through much of this process and I highly value his input.

Daniel, thanks for the input on the Moon Board. It's good to know what piques peoples interest. I've not seen Momentum Lehi's setup, but if it's anything like Momentum Mill Creek, you're probably in good hands.

Beyond this, it is not my intention to pull away a customer base from other gyms in the area. Rather, it is to reach those in the "gym hole" of Davis county who don't go to gyms for convenience, distance, or cost. I should mention that I'm aiming for membership and day pass cost to be half of that of other gyms in the area.

We now have a Facebook page up! Feel free to join in on the conversation and add your comments there:
facebook.com/StokeTraining