New climbing gym opens on Boise Bench

The creation of the Adare apartments brought sorely-needed affordable housing to an area within walking distance of downtown Boise; but its creation meant the eviction and destruction of Boise’s only dedicated “top rope” climbing gym, Urban Ascent, in 2018.

Now some of the climbers from Urban Ascent have opened a new climbing gym called The Commons Climbing Gym at 4795 W. Emerald Street on the Boise Bench. It includes all the features the old gym offered plus more.

The Urban Ascent climbing gym was not only a business; it was a close-knit community of 600 climbers who frequented it for seven years, according to Clint Colwell, who was manager of Urban Ascent when it closed. The gym was located on land owned by the City of Boise, which decided that the affordable Adare apartment complex was a better use for the property. Without another building offering tall-enough vertical surfaces to climb, Urban Ascent closed in April 2018.

Colwell is now part-owner of The Commons Climbing Gym, which held its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 20 in front of a crowd of about 35.

“Community was the incentive behind this,” Colwell explained. “When Urban Ascent closed in April 2018, we started looking into getting a new climbing gym. Some of us who were active there are the new owners here.”

Colwell is one of eight partners who started The Commons Climbing Gym. Colwell along with two other partners, Scott and Mary DeWalt, were on hand for the ribbon-cutting event.

“The process was long,” Colwell said. “We have put a lot into this personally, and we saved a half a million dollars by doing our own labor 70 hours a week since last May while working on the side at other jobs. We got our walls up in that time, making it the fastest climbing gym build I’ve ever heard of.”

The groundbreaking for the gym was held on May 19, 2019.

Wright Brothers Building Co. of Eagle was the general contractor. Financing was through Idaho First Bank. The walls were built by Entre Prises Climbing Walls of Bend, Oregon, which is the oldest manufacturer of climbing walls and the builder of the climbing competition venue for the 2020 Olympics.

The gym features multiple bays of 45-foot tall “top rope” climbing walls, where a climber wears a harness attached to a rope that is secured to another person, known as the belayer, on the ground. In a separate area by the gym entrance is a room for bouldering, where climbers can scale shorter walls by themselves without a harness, rope or belayer.

The gym boasts over 12,000 square feet of roped climbing walls with three cracks, a training ledge and a multi-pitched area. The gym will also feature fitness and yoga rooms, but these were still under construction at the ribbon-cutting.

Commons Climbing will also host a competitive climbing team and climbing club for kids.