True North Climbing: About the Owner

I thought I should say a few words about myself, so people can know who is behind this company.

I grew up in North York, about 6km from the gym, and went to high school at York Mills Collegiate. I studied Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, graduating with a Bachelor of Mathematics degree (co-operative progamme). I then did a Master's degree in Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley.

I worked at 3 jobs in the computer animation software industry over the next 25 years, in Vancouver, Sunnyvale, California, and then in 1994, back in Toronto. I was in attendance at the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science ("the Academy") in March 2003 when my company (then known as Alias | wavefront) was awarded an Oscar statuette for the software tool Maya that I worked on for many years.

So basically I've been a big-time computer geek for most of my life.

I first tried rock climbing on January 5th, 2004. I had taken my kids on a cross-country skiing vacation near Horseshoe Valley, but there was no snow. We decided to try climbing at Off The Wall in Barrie, and I was instantly hooked. When I got back to work in Toronto I found a co-worker who had also just started climbing, and we started going each Wednesday after work, at Toronto Climbing Academy, near our office. Within a few months I was a member there, and our climbing group grew (I recruited more climbers so I would always have a belay partner!).

About 4 years ago, I built a home wall on the outside of my house. When I moved, I pulled down as much of it as would come off, and rebuilt it as a cave in the basement of my new home.
Neither of these home walls really got used enough, because I'm really a "social climber", and I don't really like to climb alone.


[time-lapse sequence by John Schrag]

I would call myself a hard-core recreational climber - hard-core because of how much I love it, not because I'm very good at it.. I started climbing when I was 45, not in great shape, and somewhat overweight. I'm not the greatest climber. I struggle on 5.10s, and just recently flashed my first V2 bouldering problem. I recently learned to lead climb. I have "competed" in 5 of the Tour de Bloc competitions and a couple of the recent SweatFest comps, consistently finishing among the top 100% of competitors in the Recreational division (i.e. you'll always find me at or near the bottom of the list!). I love these comps, even though I'm not about to win any prizes.

I've been interested in owning a climbing gym for a few years, and explored a few potential opportunities to buy into other gyms before deciding to build my own.

So what the hell do I know about this business? A fair bit, actually, and I'm still learning. I've been climbing in indoor gyms for 5 1/2 years. I spent a few months talking to people in the industry this spring before deciding to do this, and attended the Climbing Wall Association's Summit Conference in Boulder, Colorado to learn a lot more. I've climbed in about a dozen gyms, and in June spent a week visiting 8 gyms in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've surrounded myself with a number of experts to help me figure this out, and I'm getting amazing support from the local climbing community. And in a few months I'll need to hire a few great staff members to help me get to the finish line. I will first be looking for:

• a gym manager to run the day to day operations (staffing, scheduling, keeping the place running safely and smoothly while delivering outstanding customer service) while I focus on spreading the word and expanding the operations.
• a head routesetter and instructor to oversee the climbing programme. This person needs to be an expert climber and routesetter of course, but just as important, they need to be a great leader, teacher and communicator.

Later on we'll be hiring a bunch of part time staff to run the front desk, teach lessons, belay groups of kids at parties, and put fantastic routes on the walls.

I am very excited about this project, and I'm confident that I can build and run a great new climbing gym for the northern part of Toronto. I hope you'll all help me do that!
Please join our online forums to engage in the discussions about what the new gym should be like, or email me at john.gross@truenorthclimbing.com to share your ideas. I want to hear from you, and you can help make the gym a great one.