January Gym Round Up
It has been a strong start to 2025, topped off with a massive announcement out of Germany!
As always if you have announcements to share with the world be sure to tag/email/DM us, and don’t forget our FREE job listings.
Finland
New Partnership in Helsinki
A passionate group of climbers including Nalle Hukkataival and Anna Liina Laitinenhave partnered with established chain Kiipeilyareena to bring a new, independent bouldering wall to the Konepaja area of Helsinki. Situated in the upmarket leisure space The Train Factory. The gym is being built in collaboration with Altline Studio and Walltopia and will make full use of the existing windows to bring in plenty of natural light. As an added bonus for customers, anyone with an existing membership with Kiipeilyareena will also be able to access this new gym.
France
Avignon Welcomes Vertical Park
On 20th January, Vertical Park officially opened to the public in north Avignon. The large, purpose built gym features over 2000sqm of wall space, including rope walls up to 15m both indoors and out, and was built by Walltopia. The full service gym offers autobelays, extensive bouldering, speed walls, cafe/bar, training and retail spaces.
ClimbUp opens 32nd Site!
Opening your thirty-second anything is impressive, but a climbing gym even more so! The 31st January saw ClimbUp open the doors to its Nimes site, near Montpellier. The gym offers 500sqm of wall space, fixed KilterBoard, training spaces, kids area and cafe. Matting was installed by TYYNY Sport Loisirs and climbing progress provider is Oblyk Climbing. The gym opened with a bouldering comp attended by big names including Paul Jenft and Naile Meignan
French Alps see New Growth
New French bouldering gym entrant, Le Bloc de L’Ours announced on Christmas Day their formation and acquisition of a site in Villard de Lans - a short, uphill, drive from Grenoble. They aim to open in July 2025 and will be a modern, well-lit 2 storey facility and will likely be built by EP Climbing.
Germany
Dynochrom Adapts
Frankfurt bouldering gym Dynochrom has partially remodelled its walls to make better use of the space, and offer an increased range of wall angles to its customers and the wider Frankfurt community. This is a great investment and a sign that gyms are actively keeping up with increased local competition.
BoulderEck Fully Operational
Having experienced a successful soft-launch in late December, BoulderEck in Erftstadt is fully complete and operational. Situated inside a modern, timber-forward warehouse, the natural/teal accented gym offers plenty of natural light, a wide range of angles for customers to play on, a decent training space including a fixed KilterBoard, and cafe.
Urban Apes x Steinbock
In a stunning finale to January, Urban Apes has announced that it has acquired the Steinbock chain of gyms, this also includes CafeKraft Nuernberg and Escaladrome Hannover. The result of this merger creates Europe’s third largest gym chain with 19 gyms by this summer across Germany and Austria, over 700 staff, and apparently 15000 new boulders across the group per year. We have reached out to Urban Apes and their backer Family Trust for further information on the deal which we hope to publish soon in an article.
Italy
Open the Gates!
Compact bouldering gym Gate51 opened to an excited local audience on 13th January in San Vendemiano, north of Venice. The well-lit gym was built by CityWall and also includes a 2024 MoonBoard. The opening set was led by 360Holds routesetter Giacomo Busato.
Netherlands
Boulder Chain Continues Expansion
On January 10th Dutch chain Boulder opened their 5th site, this time in the bustling city of Amsterdam, right on a waterfront. The walls were installed by CityWall, providing plenty of angles to play on. The gym includes a training mezzanine space, cafe and small retail offering. It’s also not long until they open site 6 in Eindhoven!
Norway
Vestfold to gain Elite Training Facility
SAVE Sandefjord and Vear Climbing Club have announced that they will build a new, ground-up regional training centre in Vear, Vestfold. The site will include a 20m competition lead wall, 20m outdoor wall, top ropes and extensive bouldering and training facilities. The project is expected to cost ~NOK40 million (~€3.4million), with NOK400,000 already secured from Vesfold County Council.
SAVE is Busy!
Continuing with SAVE, in a news article that slipped passed us last month, they have received a NOK230,000 (~€20,000) grant towards a new bouldering gym in the town of Horten. In a good sign of sustainability, SAVE has been donated the existing wall panels from the former Horten Climbing Club and they will be made use of in the new site.
Switzerland
BoulderArea gets a Rebrand
Swiss bouldering gym BoulderArea in Baar has undergone a substantial rebranding and is now known as BoulderBaar. The name highlights the area of the country in which they are based, and also a play on words for bar as an area where people meet. Their new site opening in March will highlight the new branding in full glory, the site will also include a full bistro, further playing into the Baar theme.
UK
CityBouldering Comes into the Light
London gym chain City Bouldering have expanded their original Aldgate basement site to include a ground floor extension, making use of floor-to-ceiling windows to allow natural light into the space. People passing by will finally be able to see the gym in action! Built by DreamWall, the new space offers accessible angles and a new seating area.
Japanese-style Gym Opens in London
MURO Peckham opened their doors to the public on January 11th after a rapid buildout process by EP Climbing. A passion project of 4 climber friends brought a boutique, Japanese style gym to London for an impressively skinny budget of £150,000. The gym features a massive spraywall, stretching space, full-height competition wall and good coffee.
