Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Off to California!

Things continue to move ahead. We have a logo now, as you can see to the right, or on the gym's nascent web site. The lease negotiations with the landlord appear to be nearing a conclusion, and we're close enough that the loan application has now been submitted for approval based on the latest lease proposal. The bids came in last week from the 4 climbing wall building companies. I've narrowed it down to two of them, and will try to come to a decision between them within the next few days. Both are great companies, and I know I can't go wrong with either of them, but the choice is a tough one. I'm still awaiting proposals from 2 architects on the non-climbing areas of the gym (changerooms, etc.).

So with all of that brewing, it's time for a road trip! I'm off in the morning to San Francisco, for a whirlwind tour of many of the climbing gyms out there. The Bay Area has two major chains of climbing gyms: Touchstone and Planet Granite, and I plan to visit at least a couple of each of their facilities. I'll also visit a few of the other independent gyms, stopping in at as many as 8 gyms in all. The goal of the trip is to collect as many design ideas as I can, in preparation for planning what True North Climbing will look like. Every time I go to a new gym, I see things I really like, and maybe a few things I don't like so much, and I learn something new. This is great timing to fill my head with ideas, and then come back and get to work with whichever wall company I've chosen to play with designs for the new facility.

When I'm back, I'll also see about hooking up the forums to the web site. Once I have the lease wrapped up and can speak openly about the location of the gym, it will be time to start spreading the word within the climbing community, and engage them in brainstorming ideas for the gym.

So off I go. If I can (free time and internet access willing), I'll blog about my California gym visits while I'm out there.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

It Looks Like This Will Really Happen!

Welcome to Tales of the True North, a blog aimed at sharing the progress of the new indoor climbing gym we're planning for the north end of Toronto, opening (if all goes well) in early 2010.

A lot has come together in the past few weeks. True North Climbing Inc. has been incorporated. We have a lawyer and an accountant on our team. Loan applications have been prepared, and will be submitted when we have a lease offer signed, and we're in the midst of negotiating the terms of that with the landlord. The web site is up, and email is working. And we're running a contest at 99designs.com to choose the logo; check out the designs!

Once we have the location secured (i.e. the lease has been signed and the financing is in place), we'll share the details of what we believe to be a fantastic location. That should all happen within the next few weeks. Four wall building companies are currently preparing their bids on the project, and once we choose one of them, we'll get going on the design of the climbing walls, which is probably the most exciting part of planning the gym!


Stay tuned for more info about our new gym.