New Longmont Gym

Hadn't seen this before--Longmont Climbing Collective opened a new facility at 155 Pinnacle (off of 119 opposite Sandstone Park, a few miles west of I-25). 

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/10/30/longmont-climbing-gym-walls-60-feet-high-beers-on-tap/

The article says it has bouldering and top-ropes, but does not specifically say it has lead walls. Anyone know what's available?

Yes, lots of pictures on their social medias (@climbingcollective). The rope area is very tall but also very vertical. There's a small lead only section with a bit of an overhang, but nothing near the size or steepness of most local gyms' lead caves. All the top rope walls are also equipped with quickdraws.

I wonder how much cheaper climbing gyms would be if they only offered ... climbing? I kid, I kid, they wouldn't be any cheaper obviously. (Case in point; Dino Moves in Nederland is $80/month, and geez, it's in a freaking garage) I guess I'm just a weirdo, but the only thing I wanna do when I go to a climbing gym is climb.

I am happy for Longmont to have a climbing gym with roped climbing, but I'd like to take a minute to shit on the article:

"We did demographic studies to see how many climbers lived in this 30- to 40-mile radius, and we were astounded." Yeah, no shit, it's Boulder County.

"Tellier is the marketing guy. Part of his job is to decide which local beers they should offer on 12 brew taps in the gym’s lounge area. “I’m personally going to pick them out,” Tellier said. “That’s a good part of my job. We’re going to source from all the best breweries around here.” Bro is acting like he's a MFing sommelier at a fancy restaurant.

"We wanted outdoor climbing, like we had in Korea, where our daughter could go and relax and not worry about rockfall. We wanted an area where dogs could run around" Both of these are actually neat, but please don't let them be the same area! I love dogs, but damn it would suck to fall on a dog while trying to climb at a gym.

Anyway, I guess I'll end my rant here. I probably should have shown more restraint and just kept my opinions to myself. I'm definitely a curmudgeon, so my opinion 100% does not reflect the majority. I understand that as business owners, the cost (to the owners) of offering all the extracurricular activities is more than offset by bringing in additional climbers who might not have visited, and probably helps to retain more memberships. And beyond that, obviously a lot of people do like those extra services, like the yoga classes, strength training and conditioning areas, cold plunges (seriously, wtf?), beers on tap, etc.

Good luck to Longmont Climbing Collective, I hope y'all succeed and have lots of success! And if y'all host a World Cup climbing event, say hi to my friend John Muse!

Man I'll be a curmudgeon too. Was really looking forward to this new gym, thought they'd go all in starting out from scratch but after visiting it leaves quite a bit to be desired, I actually like the old spot more. It's like somebody quickly drafted a gym and they went with it without thinking twice. First they built a whole new building on a huge industrial lot and skimped on parking from what I could tell. Maybe there's something around back I couldn't see? Has less spots I think than the old location and really no other place nearby to park at. It's one way to keep the crowds down at least.

The walls as mentioned are just vertical, even the bouldering only has a couple small spots that are overhanging, and barely so for a bouldering area. The roped climbing doesn't even look that fun since nearly everything is just about vertical. I'll have to enduro boulder to get a pump on I guess. Truly wild to me how uninteresting the angles are in a modern climbing gym.

No cracks! :( 

Most of the upstairs area as vast as it is, is office space or simply not being utilized for much. Plenty of room for a crack machine, for example.

Storage for personal items on the climbing floor is completely lacking

However the sauna once opened will be a godsend for a climbing gym and might be the thing that tips the scale for me to keep a gym membership, if it's properly hot. Hopefully they can make a bar area and the beer on tap will become more social like it is at the spot and less of a decoration like it has been.  A gym that encourages drinking beer with your mates after a session goes a long ways in my book

I will say the setters are generally excellent, they make things hard not by making you have to perform parkour or with heinously painful tendon snapping holds and no feet. Pretty creative and engaging movement all the way up to the hardest climbs that doesn't wreck my hands and shoulders (generally). That usually all goes out the window with the comp settings though.  

sorry to rant, I know nobody cares about gym climbing but I was excited to have a good option without driving for 30 minutes.

I think they opened a bit too early. Autobelays, only 2, next to each other. Yeah and the angles are very odd. I just bought a month membership at the BRC. I'm very surprised they did not copy G1, same wall builders. it is local and will def be back. 

Kevin Murphy wrote: it is local and will def be back. 

But is it as good as Roaslee’s pizza? That’s pretty local too..

Some thoughts on the new LCC.  Pros:  The owners are sweet folks who are looking to build something nice for the whole community.  The facility is very cool.  The route setting is great for boulderers. Still soft as a pillow, but the movement is really good.  Lots of boulder problems to work on in new and old school setting styles.  Lead walls are plentiful and tall.  (You actually have to cop a rest on some of the routes.) Texture is amazing on the walls and holds since everything is new.  Cons:  They are always putting volume holds that either cover other routes or are a hazard as you might fall on them or risk entrapment with ankles, etc.  Roped walls lack steepiness.  Hero grades!!  The route setting is so soft you should probably knock the difficulty down 1 to 1.5 number grades.  This aint your old school, dank bro gym.  It's def a family setting with kiddos everywhere underfoot - expect constant Bday parties, etc. No smoking room for the pot heads.  ( Beer on tap, but no smoking room?!, lol how about some inclusivity!). Overall, I think it will be a great gym!