A Place to Ascend
Thunder Bay’s New Indoor Rock Climbing Gym Opens
By Justin Allec
At first glance, Rock Room Climbing looks just like a regular indoor climbing gym, with plenty of space to climb, stretch, and cheer. The character building at 319 Victoria Avenue East has been converted to what you’d expect for a climbing gym: the wide central pillar and the outer walls are panelled and sprayed with brightly coloured holds, thick mats cover the floors, and a taste of chalk hangs to the air. The main difference you’ll notice is the lack of ropes. As the main area is entirely geared towards bouldering, the Rock Room aims to keep climbers happy by, well, keeping them climbing.
“It was a response to what the community wanted,” says Mike Hyer, co-owner and operator. “People asked for routes, not more gear.”
Taking charge of the city’s sudden lack of a climbing facility, Hyer and his business partner Cody Cook used their respective backgrounds in law and engineering to settle in and put the walls up, along with some much-appreciated volunteer effort. Getting on the routes is fast and easy—once your shoes are on, simply grab and go—and there are many beginner sections to start with before you work up to the advanced training boards. A simple rating system lets climbers know where to start, with the next challenge just around the corner.
Hyer and Cook also wanted the Rock Room to be an integral part of the larger community, along with being a place for climbers to hang around. “We want people to climb together, not some spot where you drop your kids off or escape from your family,” Hyer says.
While the routes are the draw, the Rock Room also feels hospitable, with a kitchen-y common room, a small library, and plenty of comfy chairs and benches for chilling. A climbing cave and another wall dedicated to dry-tooling are the next phase of development, but Hyer’s just as full of ideas for supporting events and festivals or partnering with local organizations. Along with providing a meeting space for a renewed local Alpine Club chapter, Hyer points out that the gym’s location was chosen to be beneficial to the greater community as well: “In some ways, we’re trying to ‘Uno-reverse’ how climbing can be seen as elitist or entitled. We’re centred in a diverse neighborhood and well aware that our gym might be someone’s introduction to the sport.”
Whatever your experience level, the Rock Room is an accessible gym that stays focused on climbing.
For more information, visit rockroomclimbing.ca.
