The First Full Month

April is over, and we can look back at our first full month of business now. It has been a pretty good start. We have had over 1,500 people through the door since we opened, and more than 100 of those have become members: a mix of prepaid monthly, monthly electronic funds transfer (EFT) and prepaid annual. We have given introductory lessons to about 150 people, so we're also off to a good start at introducing climbing to new people and growing the market. We're not quite profitable yet, but we're getting there, and as we add after-school programmes for children (now available; info at the front desk), summer camp, lead classes (now available!), school groups and more birthday parties, we'll get where we need to be.

While the feedback we have heard so far has been overwhelmingly positive, there have been suggestions on how to make the gym better, and we're trying to listen. We have already added lockers, removable shower heads in the change rooms for foot-washing and the training area. We now sell climbing tape (important for those trying the cracks!), and are ready to teach lead climbing. We have heard from a fair number of people who would like us to extend our hours (in both directions), and I expect we will respond to that soon, once we find a way for a few of us to work a little less and sleep a little more.

We have also heard clearly that our route grades need to be more consistent, and we agree. It is taking a little time for our 7 routesetters (who bring experience from at least that many other gyms!) to come together in a consensus of what each grade ought to mean. With the first refresh of our routes this past week (belay bars 1-16, the "Atari Arete" of the main bouldering wall, and some of the lead-only routes have been replaced) we started having all the routesetters forerun each other's routes and problems. This generates more feedback on how to improve them, and gets us closer to a consistent set of grades. You may not necessarily find that our grades exactly match what is at other gyms, but we are trying hard to make things reasonably consistent across what we offer.

I want to thank everyone who has come to climb at our new gym, and especially those who have trusted us with their membership. We are working very hard to make this gym better every day (there is a lot to do!), and we haven't yet got everything we have in mind rolled out.

OK, I gotta get some breakfast and get to the gym soon...