VERTICAL
WORLD CLIMBING CENTRE, SEATTLE The
First Indoor Rock Climbing Centre
Although people had been climbing on
artifical rocks indoors and out since (well you tell me) it wasn't
until 1987 when Rich Johnston and Dan Cauthorn opened the Vertical
Club in Seattle, that the indoor climbing Centre was born. Britain
had to wait until 1989 when Mile End in London opened and 1991 when,
one of it's most famous and, often, wrongly called first climbing
centre 'The Foundry' in Sheffield openned.
The idea for Vertical World was born inside a
tent on 23,085-foot Mount Aconcaugua in Argentina, which Rich
Johnston and Dan Cauthorn were climbing. "I knew Dan
rock-climbed," Johnston says. "I said, 'What do you do in
winter to stay in shape?' He said, `Do chin-ups on the door jam.'"
The bright-idea light flickered, and after their return they opened
America's first indoor rock-climbing gym in an old building, with
plywood walls and actual rocks glued on as hand-holds.
They opened the very first rock climbing gym in
1987 on Elliott Ave in Seattle.Since then climbing and climbing gyms
have changed dramatically and the company now run five centres,
wiith a new Seattle Gym underconstruction.
http://vws4.verticalworld.com/.
New Gym beginings can be viewed here.
New gym address: 2350 W Commador Way Seattle, WA 98199.
Rich Johnston talks about developing the first Vertical Club. In
1989 they tried to coat their plywood panel system with sculpted
concrete. Vertical World 2123 W. Elmore Street |
Seattle, WA 98199
seattle@verticalworld.com
206.283.4497 Phone 206.283.5010 Fax
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