Profile

Email this article

San Diego climbers go underground to reach heights

By Angeline Tiamson

October 17, 2005

North County--After months of daylong, sun-kissed, reptilian maneuvering on rock faces, a large percentage of the San Diego climbing community goes into a forced hibernation, away from early sunsets and rock slicking rainstorms.

The retreat does nothing to curb the enthusiasm, to erase the muscle memory so finely tuned over the course of the year. Nor does it take away the need to climb.

Any climber who’s been on a difficult climb, knows the time-worn but true mantra: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It was with this mindset that an obscure, underground climbing gym in North County was born.

The owner, rumored to own a business that creates the artificial holds that cover the walls of his barn, is shrouded in secrecy even to those he invites onto his premises. People say that an early bedtime and a busy personal life keep him from spending more time at his creation. Instead, it’s left to climbers who have heard of the place by word of mouth or through accompanying a friend.

Climbers can use the wall for free and are asked to abide by a simple code of conduct. “He just asks that we clean up after ourselves, don’t mark any routes for ourselves, and don’t visit on the weekends,” states Matt Watson, a Vista resident who visits the barn regularly and is one of the few climbers to have met the owner.

While the identity of the owner remains a secret, his desire to provide the public with a place to climb is not. Like a true amateur athlete, he does what he does for the love of the sport, the same love that get San Diego climbers seeking out his facilities.

This winter, climbers inclined to go hit more conventional walls can visit a few climbing gyms in the San Diego area.

Using simulated, detachable rock holds, gyms have a convenience not available through Mother Nature-controlled conditions for practicing specific skills. Typically, a rock gym has several different types of climbing routes to develop well rounded climbers: upper body strength in rope-less bouldering, stamina from side to side traversing, finesse to form in top-rope climbing.

This is illustrated in both of the local climbing gym chains: Solid Rock Gym and Vertical Hold.

“The winter season definitely brings a lot more climbers indoors.” said Neil Simpson, an employee at the Vertical Hold climbing gym in Mira Mesa. “The shorter days and colder temperatures really affect the climbing community.”

However, even the gym has its limitations. With only three San Diegan locations between the two chains, the gyms are not highly accessible to the general public. Economically speaking, minimal accessibility allow the gyms for creative license in pricing (one can get anything from a one day pass to a “ten-punch” card to a gym membership).There are still other climbers that are daunted by the challenge to continue to find other venues of climbing.

A number of climbing magazines run adverts for personal climbing walls. While the idea is one that is generally kept within the confines of daydream in the mind of the average climber, there do exist a handful of underground climbing walls.

Wander the back roads of Vista and you’ll find one.