A new indoor climbing facility is coming to Thunder Bay
Rock Room: Thunder Bay’s Community Climbing Gym opens later this year
Thunder Bay is on its way to becoming a climbing community after a brand new climbing gym has announced its plan to come to the city.
Rock Room: Thunder Bay's Community Climbing Gym has plans to open this year, to provide a space for climbers and future climbers to "climb together in a safe and fun way."
Mike Hyer is the director of Rock Room and said there's a lot of work to be done before they open up their doors, but hopes they'll be able to provide this to the community soon.
"The physical space that a climbing gym provides is really the home of its local community. And I've had the opportunity to be a part of climbing communities elsewhere in the country and have seen first hand just how important that central space is," said Hyer.
Joining the venture with Hyer is Mila Gendron who works at Wilderness Supply, and said they're happy to support him during this process and is excited to see the future of climbing in the city.
"This is really the next thing that our community needs to kind of create more climbers and sustain our climbers that we have," said Gendron.
Hyer says the gym is an extension of the podcast he started called Up North Rocks, which is about climbing in the region. He said he started it to break down silos in the community, and with the gym it will become a physical space and be the home of the community.
"It really is the home where people that would otherwise never see each other despite their shared passion, see each other all the time and develop connections and develop relationships," said Hyer.
Hyer said a "cool thing" happening in the climbing world is that it's become more accessible and not just an activity populated by "grizzled alpinists" in the mountains, and there are climbing gyms in most major cities around the world.
He said these gyms, and the one coming to Thunder Bay, bring together the more experienced climbers and also beginners.
"People tend to assume that rock climbing is a sport only for people that can do pull ups and it's just not true. It's a sport that truly has an access point everywhere from people with limited mobility and mobility issues," said Hyer.
"There's lots of cool things happening in adaptive climbing and the hope is to have infrastructure in in rock room that allows for adaptive climbing programming all the way up to world class athletes."
Hyer thinks there's a lot of potential for this to become another activity for people in the city, and has had a lot of support from the city itself and other businesses to get it off the ground.
Gendron also mentions it can be a great space for children and youth, and is a great way for parents who might not have the skills to take their children out to try things in a controlled and safe environment.
When it comes to safety, Hyer said it is absolutely paramount in all elements of climbing and is something that he takes very seriously.
"Safety is the difference between climbing going well and climbing not going well. And I take that extremely seriously, you know, in my own personal climbing when I'm taking others out," said Hyer.
"Rock Room wants to be a good industry leader and to help put Thunder Bay on the climbing map in a good way. And also to just help the climbing industry regionally, provincially, nationally."
There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and hopes in a matter of weeks he'll be able to make an announcement to update people on the progress of the gym.
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