February Gym Round Up

The solid foundations for 2025 set in January are being steadily built on this month with a staggering number of announcements, openings, and even another merger.

Grab a hot drink and find out what’s been going on across Europe.
As always, if you have announcements to share with the industry, be sure to tag/email/DM us. Don’t forget our FREE job listings.

France

Techno in Haute Loire

Techno Bloc has opened in south-central France; the EP-built, 450sqm gym welcomed climbers on the 15th Feb and offers an extensive range of angles to play on, a small training space, and a huge double-layer cafe/bar/retail space.

Altissimo Flies Higher

French gym chain Altissimo has announced an enormous 2050sqm site, its thirteenth overall and second in the city of Metz in the east of the country. The full-service site will include bouldering, roped walls up to 14m and the usual, premium Altissimo offering of training, cafe and retail spaces. A fun stat the company gives for the new location is that it will have over 92,000 t-nut inserts!

The Next Session

Gym chain Bloc Session have teased their 25th location in the small town of Doubs, on the French/Swiss border. The gym will offer 600sqm climbing surface spread across bouldering, roped walls, spraywall and campus boards. It will also feature a kids space and cafe.

Germany

Koln Climbers Spoilt for Choice

On 1st Feb German gym chain Stuntwerk opened their sixth location, and their 2nd in the city of Koln (Cologne). The well-lit, large gym, built by CityWall offers the usual Stuntwerk mix of premium, exciting bouldering, ninja challenges, training and yoga spaces including a TensionBoard2, retail offering and a comfortable bistro.

Netherlands

More Boulders!

As we teased in the January Round Up, the Boulders/Neoleit gym chain has continued its expansion with a large, ground-up build in Eindhoven. The gym opened its doors to locals on 7th Feb and offers a well-lit multilevel gym space, adjustable KilterBoard, and training and cafe spaces. The gym is also conscious of its environmental footprint and has implemented EV charging points, roof solar panels, extensive insulation and a heatpump system.

Expansion Teaser

Boulderhal Roest teased a planning application for the expansion of their facility, the seventh of their Netherlands sites. With more wall space, multiple KilterBoards, meeting/multipurpose room, physiotherapy studio and more changing rooms.

Poland

A Grand Murall

We love reporting on gym development in Eastern Europe and fully encourage new gyms to reach out to us to share progress with the wider community. On 15th Feb Murall Warszawa Gorczewska opened their third, huge facility in Warsaw to a keen climbing community. Built by Walls Street Climbing, and matting installed by Polskok the gym offers extensive wall angles, gym and cafe spaces.

Surprise Redpoint

Breaking cover on Instagram for the first time, Hala Wspinaczkowa Redpoint has revealed their impressive full service gym. Located in Wałbrzych in the South West of the country; apart from tall lead walls built by Walls Street Climbing and a wood fired pizza oven, not much is known about the gym! We look forward to learning more when details become available.

Portugal

Community and Comfort

Upa! Climbing Centre in Coimbra, central Portugal, opened on the first weekend of February. The relaxed, community-focused gym offers a cafe/bar space, training area and an accessible range of angles which facilitate more technical routesetting.

Slovenia

Klajmber Outgrows Original Site

On 22nd Feb, Klajmber moved to a new, larger location in the North Eastern city of Maribor. The brighter, modern and spacious gym features a huge range of wall angles, a 2016 MoonBoard setup, bar/cafe and training spaces.

Spain

Fanatic Temporarily Closes

On 19th Feb, Edu Marin’s climbing gym, Fanatic Lleida, announced it was forced to close temporarily due to a planning regulations issue. The issue resolved around the lack of a fire hydrant close to the facility and so are unable to operate until one is installed. At the time of writing, expedited works are taking place in cooperation with Lleida council, and a reopening date will be announced soon.

Mallorca Mega Gym

The island of Mallorca welcomed a huge new, full-service climbing gym on the 25th Feb with the opening of In Rock Escalada on the outskirts of Palma. The gym offers 2000sqm of climbing surface, spread out over 65 roped lines, 10 autobelays, extensive bouldering, a 16m wide spraywall and adjustable KilterBoard. There are also a large dedicated kids zone, isolated co-working space, cafe/bar, yoga/pilates studio, and an on-site physiotherapist. We aim to visit In Rock in April for a gym tour!

Alberto Ginez Performance Centre

In early February the Alberto Ginez Climbing Performance Centre opened in the Extremadura region of Spain. In the article we wrote highlighting the development, the €3million elite training facility will provide Spanish, and visiting, athletes with a world class space to develop their skills ready for international competitions. It was also highlighted recently that the Portuguese FPME have agreed a contract to secure access for their athletes to also make use of the walls.

Switzerland

Manola Brings Class

Manola Langenthal opened on Feb 1st. One of the most visually striking gyms we have seen - imagine if a ski chalet, art gallery and climbing gym had a baby and this is what you get. The gym combines vertically aligned veneered-ply walls, a low, warm and relaxing lighting setup, extensive mezzanine with training space, bespoke spiral staircase, retail/cafe/work space and all the angles a climber could want.

UK

Twin Pinnacles

Northampton-based Pinnacle Climbing opened their second location within the city. The bouldering and Clip-n-Climb city centre site opened their doors on Feb 8th with Kids specific zone, studio and viewing space to be completed soon. The gym includes a 2024 MoonBoard, cafe/work space, extensive training space, and full height 4.5m bouldering walls with an extensive range of angles.

Hangar #10

The Climbing Hangar has announced its tenth site, this is the first new site announcement since securing a £20million investment last year. The 24,000sqft (floorspace) bouldering site will include a large competition wall, 50deg Kilter and 40deg Tension2 Boards, training and cafe spaces. The budget will undoubtedly include a huge array of premium holds for customers to enjoy too. Hangar is aiming to open this site in June.

Highball Relocates

The Norwich bouldering gym has relocated and grown significantly. The new Whiffler Road site opened 14th Feb and offers a huge array of bouldering angles, digital woody board, cafe space and top-out boulders. The gym was built by Climbing Collective and matting installed by Core Climbing. An available studio space has also been rented out by a tattoo studio, definitely a unique offering within a climbing gym.

Climbing District Acquires Four London Sites

As detailed in our article, Parisian gym chain Climbing District has announced the acquisition of Stronghold (Tottenham Hale & London Fields) and Arch Climbing (Bermondsey & Surrey Quays) in a multimillion pound deal which sees the brand become the city’s 2nd largest chain, behind LCC. With another site planned to open end of 2025/early ‘26, it is a bold and welcome addition to London’s busy climbing scene.

London Japanese Style Take Two

Strong climbing couple Mabel Lew and Hayato Furusugi have announced that they have secured an arch unit in central London to realise their dream of a Japanese style training and spraywall gym, Sen Climbing. A short walk from multiple tube stations and the Waterloo hub railway station it could be an idea location for commuters wanting a hard training session before and after work. The wall will be built by Walltopia.