An Exciting New Start

The first day of the new year, the first positive steps forward in a new venture and one of the most exciting, nerve wrecking and challenging years awaits us.

Plans for a new climbing wall in Leeds first started to come togeather early in 2014. It all started out how most crazy ideas between friends do. One too many beers, a loose tongue and an over stimulated imagination. The difference this time however, was that this idea stuck. Over the following weeks we had sketches of walls, rough ideas of layouts and unit sizes and had already booked to view a few industrial units. In hindsight we probably went about things a little backwards as we got the ideas togeather before even considering whether we could afford it. I do think that this is why The Climbing Lab really works. It is build and designed with an ethos that puts passion and excitement ahead of cost. The end result is a wall which incorperates lots of ideas based on natural features, "Font Style" top out boulders, "Fridge Hugging" overhangs and multi angle slab climbs. The hope is not just to breed a wealth of super strong, super techy indoor boulderers, but to open up the world of outdoor climbing to everyone. This is why we include top out bouldering so that our qualified coaches can instruct beginners in the safety of our indoor wall and in time escort trips out to the local crags and in time excursions to Fontainebleau and Albarrasin.

It was early this year that we first met Danny at Entre-Prises. We knew instantly that this was the right direction to go in. Yes other companies offer "similar" products, but none have managed to build on our own excitement and enthusiasm towards the project and offered so much help and encouragement from the very beginning. The most uselfull tip they gave us in the beginning? Pay Dave at "The Boardroom" a visit. These being our first steps in aknowleging the beginning of a dream project, we were a litle nervous. We are all new to working within the climbing industry, and as silly as it sounds now that we have met a lot of like minded people, we were worried about how people would view us, the newcomers.

Dave offered us a wealth of knowledge in terms of the actual start up. It makes a huge difference when you have an idea of what snags to look out for and what cost you might have overlooked along the way (there have still been plenty of these). Visiting the Boardroom also gave us our first real experience of the quality of climbing panel that Entre-Prises can provide. The first stagering realisation is that when you look at the wall, it looks new. No blurring at the edges of pannels, no boot smudges and peeling paint. Just a crisp, bright wall. The same applies at The Quay Climbing Centre in Exeter which at the time we saw it was around 4 years old and still looking as good as new.

We have now met a lot of the team at Entre-Prises and it strikes me that they all share similar qualities, a genuine enthusiasm towards every project they deliver. This teamed with the quality of the products makes us more than happy to be using Entre-Prises climbing walls through The Climbing Lab.

Amidst this journey of excitement, there has obviously been a lot of ups and downs along the way. What started out as a project between two close friends expanded to an ownership of five and back down to the trio we have today. There were a lot of tough choises to be made by all of us, mainly revolving around how we were going to finance the project and, although this was a difficult process, I feel we have come out of this stronger and a better business for it. Those who could unfortunately not carry on as part of the business are still with us, filled with the same excitement for the wall as they did in the beginning and just as eager to lend a hand or reel me in when I get carried away with new ideas ( I may have mentionned a zip wire being involved somewhere along the way).

As I write this today, we still do not have a wall, but we do have a warehouse and we have a finalised design. All that is left to complete is our change of use. Once that is complete we will enter what will probably be the most challenging phase of the project , THE BUILD. The wall itself is installed by Entre-Prises and is estimated to take 3 to 4 weeks to complete. This is excellent for us in terms of being able to open, however it does mean that we have to complete all of our conversion works within the same time as well as completeing staff training.

Althought their involvement isnt yet visible to the public, We would like to thank Wild Country for giving us loads of support, prividing some brilliant features for the wall as well as providing us with some great uniform clothing for our staff. You can expect to se a lot from them in the future!

All that is left to say for now is that we at The Climbing Lab are extremely excited to see you all in the very near future.

If you would like to give us a little early support then please take a look at our store and purchase one of our Climbing Lab branded T-Shirts or Vests.

See you soon

#Climbing #Bouldering #Startup