June Gym Round Up
June offered a wide variety of developments from across the continent, although in a first for us there were no gym entries from Germany! Consolidation and expansion appear to be a continuing trend, with independent gyms reinvesting in existing sites to remain relevant and competitive.
Our first Beta Bounty is complete, articles with💰highlight winning entries - Every month we’re giving away 3x £25/€25 BananaFingers Gift Cards at random for news submissions with a source link.
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Be sure to check out our podcast The ECN Podcast, if you have a project to share in podcast format please do get in touch!
Belgium
Lizard Reborn
Sint-Niklaas bouldering gym City Lizard will reopen to the public on 5th July with a two-week competition. Whilst information is near non-existent across social media and their website, we can predict customers can expect an updated MoonBoard, more cohesive and flowy wall angles, training and cafe spaces.
Klimzaal #3
Bouldering chain Klimzaal have announced their third location, this site will be in the Arsenaal area of Ghent and opening this winter. The teaser video offers a good look at the building and, combined with impressions from their existing sites, suggests a premium, bright and spacious gym. Customers can expect extensive bouldering across a variety of angles, training space, competition wall and large cafe area.
Czechia
The New Jam
A 750sqm bouldering gym has opened in Prague, JamJam opened to the public on 6th June after hosting the national Youth and Adult boulder cups. The gym offers an extensive range of angles, a MoonBoard and training space, kids zone, and large cafe area. The AIX team has built the wall and supplied a substantial percentage of holds and volumes.
France
Altissimo Opens Second Metz Site
The new 2050sqm location opened to the public on 14th June. Built by the in house Altissimo team, the large gym features 80 roped lines up to 14m and over 110 boulders. With the opening of the Loisrama site, the Altissimo chain now boasts 11 sites across France and 1 in Lisbon.
South Block Park Opens
Situated just off the Cote d’Azur in south eastern France, South Block Park opened to the public on June 14th. The ground-up build, featuring a large tent-like structure, was accomplished by EP Climbing and features 40 rope lines across 465sqm, 463sqm of boulder walls, 114sqm kids zone, and an additional 10-lane Clip’n’Climb section.
Bloc Session Doesn’t Slow Down
Expansion-hungry chain Bloc Session has announced its first western gym in Saint Nazaire, this would mark the 26th site for the business with 27 and 28 also teased on their website. France is well known for mega chains and this trend shows no sign of slowing down, we hope that previous staff concerns elsewhere are heeded and operators are ensuring staff sustainability throughout.
Double Withdrawal Leaves Complex Empty
A large, €70 million multipurpose complex in Angers has been left without a key climbing gym anchor tenant after both the original and replacement businesses pulled out citing economic reasons. “We hope to find a solution so that a climbing gym can indeed open on this site, but we are not closing ourselves off to other projects." explained Geoffroy Petit, director of promotion and urban planning at the Giboire group, which have funded and built the complex.
Montpellier Chain Grows
Local bouldering gym business Boulder Line have teased their third Montpellier location which is well into the build phase. While not much information is currently available, the EP Climbing built wall will thankfully feature air conditioning as do the other sites.
Seaside Resort Town Gets New Gym
The idyllic south western town Archacon has seen a new bouldering gym open its doors. On June 6th Bassin a Bloc welcomed the public to their bright, spacious, OnSite-built site. The 700sqm gym features a dedicated kids zone and cafe space.
Germany
2024 Accident Stats Published
The German DAV and Austrian VKAÖ have published their climbing gym accident statistics for 2024. As is generally to be expected with their rampant popularity, 75% of accidents occurred in bouldering gyms. Click here to read the full report.
Iceland
Icelandic Shuffle
Icelandic gym 600Klifur have sold their original Hjalteyri location and completed construction on their new Akureyri site in the north of the country. The ArtRock-built and Blocz-matted gym features a quirky range of angles across bouldering and roped walls, cafe space and viewing balcony.
Italy
Rebuilt Gym Teases Progress
As part of an architectural initiative in the Lecco province, the partly completed Ragni di Lecco climbing gym was opened to the public to highlight the role of architects in urban and social contexts. The tall building is structurally complete and now owners are raising the remaining €600,000 with an eye to opening fully in 2026. The event highlighted the value of architecture as a driver of urban and social regeneration, capable of combining functionality, beauty and participation.
Summer Refurbishment
Central Italian climbing gym Arezzo Verticale have announced a refurbishment over the summer holidays between 12th July and September. Whilst they haven’t released details of the works the small, 150sqm gym will likely look to increase their offering for the local customer base, making the most of the existing footprint.
Malta
Lone Gym to Close
The sole bouldering gym on the island nation has announced its closure. Gebla Climbing will close its doors in December and pivot fully to outdoor operations to make full use of Malta’s extensive rock offering. The owners have cited economic difficulties in maintaining the gym on an island of 600,000 inhabitants which include a large transient expat population. We will be following this up with an in depth article.
Netherlands
Vrijhaven Makes 8!
Bouldering gym Vrijhaven in Deventer opened on June 14th (what’s special about the 14th this month?!), making this the 8th gym for the chain which also include Energiehaven - which hosts the legendary DockMasters pre-season competition. The gym was apparently built in-house and has been finished to a high standard with ample natural light and ventilation to keep climbers comfortable year round.
Between a Monk and Squatters 💰
A former cinema in central Nijmegen has become a point of tension for the city, with squatters taking up residence in the derelict building in 2024. Bouldering chain Monk hopes to open their sixth location in the cinema, their plans made difficult by the squatters protesting perceived gentrification in the city, which is making affordability ever more difficult for residents.
Gym Found to be Negligent in Fatality
The directors of Amsterdam gym Klimmuur Centraal have been fined a combined €80,000 and received suspended 3 month prison sentences resulting from the 14m fall and subsequent death of a child on a birthday party in 2023.
Poland
Spider Gets a Refurb 💰
Spider climbing gym in the northern city of Bydgoszcz have recently upgraded their roped wall section with 350sqm of new panelling to make better use of the space and built to a much higher standard.
Romania
That’s the Spirit!
Bucharest full-service climbing gym Vertical Spirit Escalada has completed a bright, modern bouldering extension which includes a variety of angles with space for 35 blocs, and a fixed angle KilterBoard.
Spain
Improved Quality Climbing
On June 29th, recently acquired Quality Climbing Santander (formerly Indian Rock) closed to the public in order to undergo extensive renovation. Customers can expect a unified opening hours and pricing structure at both Santander and Torrelavega sites upon completion. The team at Ingenieria Aventura will handle the build, we look forward to seeing their progress and will report more as we see it!
Sputnik to Expand Further in Madrid
Premium gym chain Sputnik have teased the site clearance for their next Madrid site. This gym initially appears to be bouldering only, going on the provided images, and will be located in the northeast-central district of La Guindalera. Opening is teased to be in 6 months, placing it at years end or the start of January.
Switzerland
Swiss Training Gets an Upgrade
As detailed in our article here, the new national training facility was inaugurated in Bern shortly before the recent IFSC World Cup took place. The impressive elite facility makes use of the WC wall used in Meiringen - regularly cited as one of the all time best competition walls - as well as new boulder, lead, speed and experimentation walls.
Küblis Gym Allocated Emergency Funding
The distressed Rätikon Climbing gym in Küblis has been granted CHF155,000 to perform renovation works and prevent an impending closure, this funding goes toward to overall CHF745,000 required for the works. If funding is fully secured, the works are expected later this year, otherwise 2025 will be its final year of operation and will be forced to close.
UK
Chalk Up Grows Up
Bouldering gym Chalk Up in Somerset has been expanding a second floor training space. Built by a local carpentry business, the new mezzanine will include a 25° woodie, a ‘powerful’ 40° woodie, and a 15° circuit board with plenty of quality holds provided by HardWoodHolds.
Flashpoint Group Exits and Consolidates
As we wrote recently, Flashpoint Group has sold its two Swindon sites to Rockstar Climbing, and also purchased the two Climbing Academy sites in Bristol. These moves display a growing trend of market consolidation to secure future growth.
Basildon Clip’n’Climb
A large former nightclub in Essex, Unit 7, will be transformed into a large Clip’n’Climb facility. These have become very popular throughout the UK as franchise operations, and have encouraged innovation from the likes of NICAS to provide skills courses to youth climbers as a means of continued participation.
New Coaching Product Launches 💰
London-based climbing coach Holly Peristiani has launched a fun yet comprehensive coaching card game. The pack includes 40 photo and 40 word cards designed to empower coaches and inspire climbers.
Hangar Southampton Nears Completion
The Climbing Hangar has announced the opening date of the Southampton site as 21st July. The Adam Fidler-designed, Renegade Climbing-built gym is spread across 2415sqm of floorspace and features a huge variety of angles, 3 training boards, and cafe space. Their trademark bold, low-priced opening offer will surely bring in a crowd this summer, and local competitors may feel the pinch before trading settles down.
Sen-sational Opening
We forgot to mention the opening of Climbing Gym Sen in central London on May 20th. The gym opened with a suitably difficult competition, attracting entrants from across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. The opening set was put together by owners Mabel and Hayato, alongside two outrageously strong Japanese climbers Shinichiro Nomura and Jun Shibanuma. The gym has been welcomed by London climbers for its novelty climbing style and unapologetic grading system.
Following the Waypoints
New entrant into the British market, Waypoint Climbing, have announced their intention to open a bouldering gym in Aylesbury. Part-owner Will Steward is currently fundraising a targeted £250,000 to realise the vision which include a long term target of a chain of over 30 gyms in small/medium sized towns across the country. We look forward to following their progress!
Turn Up the Volume!
Independent bouldering gym Volume 1 have made the leap into multisite ownership with the acquisition of High Sports. The purchase covers the Brighton roped and boulder gym, and the Guildford Clip’n’Climb-style site, and will allow members entry across the newly created chain. High Sports itself had experienced a substantial decline in the past 2 decades through site sales and contract changes with local councils - their gyms have generally been part of larger local council-run leisure complexes instead of standalone climbing facilities.
