A Good Start

Yesterday's competition was a blast. We had 218 competitors, and the energy in the place was buzzing all day. Thanks to Luigi for staging a great comp, to the setting crew of Jody Miall, Kellan, Dustin, Stephen and Luigi for setting a great slate of problems, and to all our sponsors for providing a great array of prizes, and contributing to a large cash prize pool for the Open category winners. Laura from the Toronto School of Circus Arts (among our very cool neighbours at the Downsview Park Sports Centre) blew everyone away with her half time silk performance. I'd go on, but I need to get some breakfast and get ready for another exciting day: our first day open to the public for all kinds of climbing.

Several people asked yesterday whether they could lead climb today, and the answer is: yes, of course! We will be conducting top rope belay tests and lead tests for all who need them. Please be patient as we are expecting a large crowd, and it may be a challenge to keep up with those at first.

Come join us and check out the new gym. A reminder that all annual and continuing monthly EFT memberships come with your choice of a free TNCI T shirt or water bottle, for a limited time only!

Live Blog of Today's Tour de Bloc Competition

If the above doesn't update live, you can also follow today's live blog at
http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/Beta__True_North_Tour_de_Bloc

This is It

Ten months of planning (and years of dreaming before that) have brought us to today, when we open our doors to the public for the first time for our inaugural Tour de Bloc bouldering competition. We have surpassed our goal of 200 competitors (we were a little over 210 last night, with a few more expected to sign up at the door today), making this the largest Tour de Bloc debut turnout (but not the largest turnout ever at one of these comps). Much more important, our team has done a fantastic job and we are ready (though a lot of important stuff happened yesterday!). Come join us this weekend to see what we have built. We're proud of it, and we hope you like it.

This is It!

Free Stuff

We have two special offers as we kick off life at our new climbing gym:

1. Climbing will be free on Sunday March 28th. We will be open from 10am - 6pm that day. We're closing earlier than usual to help us recover from an intense week of preparation for our Tour de Bloc competition the previous day, and general craziness as we put all the finishing touches on the gym!
2. For a limited time only, all new annual and EFT monthly memberships will include your choice of a True North Climbing T shirt or water bottle. This offer will last until our Grand Opening Celebration on April 17th, or while supplies last (whichever comes first). This offer does not apply to monthly prepaid admission.

The Press Release

[Note: We are planning a Grand Opening Celebration for April 17th, a few weeks after we are up and running. This gives us time to mail out brochures in the community with the exact date of the celebration pinned down. We are of course launching the gym this Saturday, March 27th with our Tour de Bloc bouldering competition, and opening for regular business the next day.]

True North Climbing Rocks Your Week! Toronto, March 23: True North Climbing, the newest addition to the Downsview Park Sports Centre, holds its official grand opening event April 17.


With over 14,000 square feet of climbing terrain, including the largest fully-suspended artificial stalactite in North America and a huge top-out bouldering area, True North Climbing is a state-of-the-art indoor rock climbing facility. Built in what used to be an airplane hangar, the gym features ceilings of up to 36 feet, with abundant natural light coming in from windows in the high space.


Owner John Gross, a former computer animation software developer, fell in love with climbing over six years ago and is excited to realize his dream of turning an obsession into a career.


"The first time I tried climbing, I went to try something new and to have an enjoyable activity with my kids," said Gross. "I knew from day one I was hooked. I walked out of that gym with a new sport at age 45. Since then, I've seen three year olds take to climbing like a duck to water and I know individuals in their 60s and above who are as active climbers as they were three decades ago. From birthday parties or an unusual date night, to team-building exercise or for a social way to get in shape -- it truly is a sport for everyone. Our focus is to provide fun climbs for climbers of all abilities."


Indoor climbing is reaching new heights in Toronto, which now boasts five indoor climbing facilities in the city and more within an hour's drive in the GTA. This is more than any city in Canada. True North Climbing's location just north of Highway 401 makes it especially convenient for those who live in the northern half of the city or the surrounding suburbs.
Gross brought Eldorado Climbing Walls on board to design and build the custom climbing terrain. Eldorado has been building climbing walls for over 15 years, and has installed hundreds of walls across North America.


"When I first visited the True North Climbing facility I instantly found inspiration," said Jason Plumb, lead designer at Eldorado. "The building's architecture and history played a huge role in the look and feel of the climbing wall designs. The ideal size and structural conditions were available to create climbable features that I had been dreaming about for years. I know I speak for the entire Eldorado Wall Company team when I say that we are proud to have built a facility that will give the climbing community of Toronto a unique climbing experience."


The look and feel of the space uses the building's original purpose as inspiration. The hangar was the site of de Havilland's production of Mosquito bombers in the early 1940's. Plumb was inspired by the look of these planes, and used that to drive the design of the shapes of the walls and the colour scheme as well.


The True North Climbing management team also includes Gym Manager Clint Searle and Head Instructor/Routesetter Dustin Curtis, a member of the Canadian national climbing team. "These guys are top-notch, and I was thrilled to be able to hire them to join my team" says Gross. "They are both well-respected in the climbing community, and they bring many years of experience that will help us make True North Climbing an exceptionally safe and fun place to climb."


Fact Summary
What: True North Climbing Inc. Grand Opening
When: Saturday April 17th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Where: 75 Carl Hall Rd, Unit 14 [map]
The entrance to Parc Downsview Park is off Sheppard Ave, onto John Drury Drive (the first set of lights east of Keele St.). Turn left on Carl Hill Road. The sports complex building is on the right and True North Climbing has a separate entrance on the back of the building.
BY TTC: Take the 101 PDP bus from Downsview Station.
Information: www.truenorthclimbing.com or 416-398-ROCK (7625)

Media Contact:
John Gross
john.gross@truenorthclimbing.com
(416) 398-ROCK (7625)

Amy Stewart
amy_stewart@hotmail.com

Treading Lightly

One of the things that is really important to us as we launch our new business, is to find ways to be environmentally responsible in everything we do. It is in our minds every day, but it can be hard to do, and we aren't perfect.

There are some easy things to start with: all of the paper products we use, whenever possible, are made from 100% recycled content. This includes our copy/printer paper, toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towel, and the paper used by our printers for brochures (in the works!) and signs. We also ask our printers to use only vegetable-based inks. When the Tour de Bloc started working on the posters for the comp, we asked them to do the same. We also buy only ecologically friendly cleaning supplies, and insist that our cleaning service do the same.

During construction, we made the decision to take down all of the existing high bay light fixtures (dating back to World War II?) and replace them with new, efficient ones that use compact fluorescent bulbs.

We will become a business customer of Bullfrog Power, who have a programme for businesses whose power is supplied by the landlord (as ours is).

And speaking of our landlord, Parc Downsview Park also has a commitment to operating responsibly with respect to the environment. One example of that is the waste disposal service they provide for the tenants. Turtle Island Recycling takes care of all the garbage, recyclables and food waste from the entire Downsview Park Sports Centre. While their service does not require us to separate all these materials (apart from cardboard), we decided to do so anyway as part of sending a clear message to our customers that recycling and minimizing waste is important to us.

Another decision we have made is not to sell bottled water. We have a drinking fountain with a bottle filler spout that provides good quality water for free. If you don't have a refillable water bottle, we'll sell you one with our logo for a reasonable price (once). The amount of waste generated by the bottled water industry is staggering, and there is no reason for it. We will not be a part of that.

While we are doing what we can, we're far from perfect. Building a climbing gym means buying thousands of climbing holds made from polyurethane (though we have decided to avoid the use of polyester resin holds, which we believe are less environmentally friendly). It also involves thousands of cubic feet of foam. We have been assured that our foam contains a certain (small) amount of vegetable content (still working to verify that), but the flooring is still a part of the business that represents an impact on the environment that we wish could be smaller.

We'll continue to work to come up with ways to operate more environmentally responsible, and we welcome your suggestions to help us do that.

Ceci n'est pas une mise à jour de construction

This is not a construction update. The construction is all done. This is just an update on some stuff we've been doing since construction wrapped up, and before we open the gym.

The padded floor is all done, and looks beautiful. The floor was a collaborative effort between Asana Climbing (the modular custom pads in the advanced bouldering area look beautiful) and Kyle Wilson and his gang from Rock Climbing School. Kyle came up with an elegant way to set up the padding around the slackline posts so that when they are taken down (for example, for the Tour de Bloc comp next Saturday) the floor will be seamless with no indication where the posts were. It's much better than the design I had in mind!

With the ropes all up, routes covering most of the walls, and the flooring now in place, the place looks really stunning. We've been too busy this week to take new photos (seriously), but I'll try to take some fresh ones next week. Or you could come out to the comp or come climb after that and see for yourself! I have to say that the photos do not really capture the scale of the place, or the magnificence of what the Eldo gang have built for us.

All of the late crises now seem under control. The leak in the roof is fading to a distant memory; luckily it was in our office area, and not near the climbing walls or the padded floor. Our credit card terminal got installed today (connected to our fax line instead of the DSL line we are still waiting to have installed). And we have an appointment Tuesday afternoon to get the fire alarms wired into the landlord's system, so we can then get occupancy approval and open our doors for business!

A lot of hard work has gone into getting us this far. The routesetters have put in a lot of hours this week, and we'll have a good selection of routes to try out after the comp. They'll be back at work after the comp as well, filling in routes on the areas where the comp problems will be. And Clint and Dustin are both doing a great job of knowing what needs to be done to build and run a great gym, and then getting it all done.

We're all taking a bit of a breather this weekend, to gather our strength for the final push. We are tired! But we are also incredibly excited and very proud of what we have put together - together.

There is still time to register for the comp, and I'll remind everyone that you don't need to be a great boulderer to sign up in the Recreational category and come have fun trying out some of the problems. We look forward to welcoming you to Toronto's newest gym.

Opening Day

Since last fall, when I arranged to hold a Tour de Bloc competition in the new gym, our main target has been to be ready for that comp. We are still on track for that.

We had hoped to be able to hold a preview this weekend, letting people come climb for a couple days to check out the gym, before closing down again to prepare for the comp. Unfortunately, as is the case with almost every construction project, there are a few things that have not been completed in time to have the preview weekend. The main reason is that our electrical contractor ran a couple weeks late on their work, and that has cascaded into delays in integrating the fire alarms into the landlord's system, and the installation of our DSL connection, which we need to support credit card processing. There are a number of other things we ourselves still need to do, and the week or so before the comp will give us the time to put the finishing touches on what is starting to look like a pretty fine gym (and I do say so myself!). Our inspections, while not yet complete, are proceeding well, and we're taking care of the minor deficiencies that have been noted. I'm confident there are no big obstacles to being ready for the comp.

Last I heard, we already had 150 competitors signed up, with more than a week left to go, so I think we are on target to have the 200 we are looking for. There will be great bouldering problems (as is always the case at a Tour de Bloc event!), some very interesting and unique features to climb on, and a "half time show" to help get us through the wait between finals and results/awards. Note that our slackline posts will be down for this event (yes, they are removable!), in order to allow more room for the large crowd to move around, and to provide a large seating area for finals.

We will launch True North Climbing with a great comp, and then open for "normal" business on Sunday, March 28th. Our hours (which I will post on the web site once we are open) will initially be 10am-10pm on weekends and 2pm-10pm on weekdays.

Pricing

Several of you have been asking about pricing, and now we're ready to share that information. Our web site now includes a Pricing page which outlines the services we offer, and the cost of each.

Our prices are at or near the top of the range of gyms in our area, but not out of range. We feel we have put together a first class facility with some features that are unmatched by any other gym. It takes a huge up-front investment to build a place like this, and with that comes a long-term commitment. Our lease is for 10 years, with an option for another 5. Our 2 bank loans run for 10 and 20 years. Our pricing is set to produce a good return on that investment. We aim to provide excellent value for the money you spend with us, and as much as possible we have tried to keep our pricing structure simple and free of additional fees and conditions. And all of our staff have the goal of delighting our customers on every visit.

Construction Update #12 (last one!)

Yes, indeedy, this will be the last Construction Update entry. We are almost done, and from here on it's just a lot of finishing touches before we are ready to open. A lot, though.

The Eldo gang have been cruising, and are just about done, right on time. They have a few lead anchors left to install, a few hours of training for us on care and feeding of the beautiful walls they have built for us, and then they'll pack up their truck and head off to build someone else a gym nearly as nice as ours. :-)

Steve and Mark from Asana are now on site, installing our padded floor. See the photo below for a peek at their work in progress. The custom modular pads in the advanced bouldering area are now in place, and they're working on the 6" blue carpet stuff now. That should all be in place by the middle of next week.

Some of the other construction has taken a little longer than planned to wrap up, but there too we are down to finishing touches like soap dispensers and toilet paper rolls. Yes, after about 3 1/2 months of construction, we now have indoor plumbing! There was much rejoicing.

We are holding our initial staff orientation day on Sunday, and then we'll be routesetting like mad, and doing a million other things to get ready for opening day. We're certainly on track for the competition on the 27th, and we are hoping to have a little preview before then, but can't announce anything until we get past the required inspections and have approval to open our doors for business. Stay tuned!

This will be the final Construction Update, but we'll continue to post updates on our opening plans and everything else that is going on in the gym.

Here are a couple of recent shots of the last bits of work.

The stalactite, before it got painted.

The custom modular pads in place in front of
the advanced bouldering area, and the open cell
foam is going down in the rest of the north side.
The foam gets cut out to make room for the
slackline posts, and we'll have foam inserts/caps
to cover the holes when the posts come down
(for example, to make a nice large spectator
area for the Tour de Bloc comp).

Farewell To the Old Girl

Toronto Climbing Academy is closing the doors at its original location today, after having opened their spiffy new gym last month. It's a sad day, as many of us spent a lot of time at the old gym. I have been a TCA member for over 6 years, and brought many friends in to climb there, mainly on Wednesday nights after work. It was a good gym, with a great relaxed social atmosphere, and I always felt welcome there.

The new location on Curity Ave (near St Clair & O'Connor) is bright and shiny and new. It's spacious, with glass on 2 sides bringing in a lot of natural light. They have put in a ton of lead lines, and there are some great routes up on the walls. Overall it has a lot of improvements over the old location. While it's sad to say goodbye to the old gym, it's great to see the new location looking so good.

Here's the Facebook event for the closing ceremonies: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=10150114401555402

Getting Ready

about 5000 climbing holds, 3 ladders, carpet bonded foam, big rolls of open-cell foam, fold-up tables, folding chairs, dishes, cutlery, garbage cans, garbage bags, shop vac (make sure you get a "Ridgid"), track lighting, bolts, wood screws, 4 maillons ("what's a maillon?"), find a fridge on Craigslist, power supply for the thermal printer, replace the cash drawer that was ordered with the wrong interface (serial vs printer-driven), water bottles ready yet?, membership cards, rope & quickdraws, harnesses, rental shoes, quicklinks, meet with window consultant, alarm system connected to phones?, DSL installed, meals for staff during training sessions, belay tags, laminating pouches (what sizes?), reconsider paint colours, review brochure mock-ups, inventory of prizes for the comp, register with additional police departments for police reference checks/vulnerable sector screening, offer packages for new staff, epipen for first aid kit, attend Toronto Sports Summit, plan for trip to Boulder for Climbing Wall Association Summit, plan staff orientation, update policy/procedure manual, microwave, toaster oven (reuse old one from basement?), coffee machine, "what do you mean my house needs a new roof now?", run payroll, arrange for sales of climbing magazines in the gym, couches?, lighting for exterior sign, music service, cleaning service, audio system, build training area, posters, talk to day camp operator about working together, sprinkler system modifications for climbing wall, copies of all first aid certificates, routesetting tape ("but John can't tell the yellow from the green!"), get leaking pipe fixed, membership forms, soap dispensers, benches for change rooms, install locker numbers (need rivet gun?), hangboards, campus rungs, comp boxes, helmets, bent-gate biners, locking biners, ascenders, aiders, daisy chains, gri-gris, slacklines, 800 m of rope, all waivers into Rock Gym Pro, set up all purchase items, write construction update for blog, arrange half-time show for comp, scaffolding behind the walls, about 25,000 T nuts, hand cleaner, get second porta-potty, replace drinking fountain (need one with bottle-filler spout!), make sure we have hand dryers that actually work, shoe cubbies, price list, block spammers from overrunning the online forums, forerun new routes as they go up, I'll have a double-double, assemble quickdraws, design route tags, corner braces, concrete anchors, padding for steel beams & slackline posts, malware cleanup software, drill bits, more 2x6's, paper cutter, propane torch, rope cutter, strip basement cave to sell holds to the gym (sigh), barcode scanner, printer cable, stencils, power bars, U bolts, pick flavors of drinks to sell, buckets for hold storage, buckets for routesetting, ...

True North Strong & Free?

I just had to get closer to the flame than that stupid fence would allow...

Construction Update #11

We're in the home stretch now. Eldorado has just over a week left, and the non-climbing construction is just about done as well. Here are the latest updates:

The locker rooms are nearing completion,
with just a few finishing touches remaining.

The reception desk is in place.

The tile is going down; here is a view of the party area.

Dustin had a bunch of boulder problems up
a week and a half ago, but this is the first roped route.

This is the view from under the stalactite,
looking up, taken before all the wood was in place.

This thing is seriously cool,
and larger than I had expected!

So things are still on track, though we keep thinking of a million more things we have to get done before we open. It's an exciting time.

Tour de Bloc is Approaching!

As we put the finishing touches to our new gym over the next week or two, we are getting very excited about our big launch event: our first Tour de Bloc bouldering competition. If you're not familiar with the Tour de Bloc, check out their website, and you can catch up a bit on our earlier blog post about it.

Our comp, on Saturday March 27th, will be the eighth and final local competition of the season for the Central region (Ontario & Quebec). After that come the Regionals at Centre d'escalade Délire on April 9th & 10th, and the Nationals at Joe Rockhead's on May 22nd & 23rd.

Jody Miall will be the head setter for the comp, as usual, and he will be ably assisted by our own Dustin Curtis. We'll be giving them plenty of time to get ready, so expect some great problems, including a few on our stalactite! Can you climb upside-down?

Because this is the major launch event for our new gym within the climbing community, we are pulling out the stops to make it a great comp. I have decided to add the gym's share of the gate receipts to the cash prize pool, and have also secured a few other contributions. We have the usual comp box provided by the Tour, and have added to it with contributions from other partners. A nearly complete list of those who have donated cash for the prize pool or prizes to be raffled off includes (in alphabetical order):

• Asana Climbing (our flooring supplier)
  
• Beta Clothing
• Bluewater Ropes
• Blurr
• BS Productions
• Climbing Hold Review
• Climb-It Holds
• Delire
• Detroit Rock Climbing Company
• Eldorado Climbing Walls
• Evolv Sports
• Grand Prix Kartways
• HoopDome
• IM Boulderer
• Metolius Climbing
• Mountain Equipment Co-op
• Petzl
• Project Holds
• Revolution
• Rock Empire
• So Ill
• Toronto Roller Derby
• Toronto School of Circus Arts
• Tour de Bloc
• True North Climbing

In all, the cash pool and raffle prizes add up to over $5000 in prizes to be given out at this comp. There are over 70 raffle prizes, ranging from chalk balls and T shirts to ropes, shoes, a hangboard and a crash pad. And there are some great prizes from our local partners in the Downsview Park Sports Centre as well. We also have a half time show planned, to entertain you between the end of finals and the announcement of the winners.

This is looking to be a great comp. Registration is now open at https://www.tourdebloc.com/TDB7/registration1.php. Don't think you need to be an amazing climber to participate, as the recreational category is there for those who just love to climb. We invite you to join us as we launch our new gym.