New St. Paul climbing gym, with steep indoor bouldering terrain, opening Saturday

The Bouldering Project’s newest gym opens Saturday in St. Paul with some of the steepest indoor climbing terrain in the Twin Cities.

The gym at 42 W. Water St. aims to tap into the enthusiasm for indoor bouldering, which is rock climbing without ropes on artificial walls. Thick, padded mats are in place to cushion falls from heights of up to 15 feet.

Steve Schreader, chair of the Twin Cities chapter of the American Alpine Club, said there’s been a growing interest in climbing across the metro. Climbing festivals like the Sandstone Climbers Festival and Flock to the Rock in Duluth have seen a resurgence — much of it from people who started climbing at indoor gyms.

Attendance at the Sandstone Ice Climbing Festival has grown by more than 30% over the past three years, he said. A 2019 National Geographic article on climbing in the Olympics credited the “burgeoning indoor climbing gym industry” for introducing “thousands of new enthusiasts.”

Though slightly smaller than its Minneapolis location, which opened in 2017, the Bouldering Project in St. Paul features 11,300 square feet of bouldering terrain, said Brett Jessen, head of climbing environments at the Bouldering Project.

Infrared panels in the yoga studio can heat up the room to 105 degrees. A large cave — nicknamed “The Arch” — has long horizontal routes and a gender neutral locker room with individual shower, toilet and changing rooms.

“We look a lot towards outdoor boulders for inspiration,” said Maranda Gerga, senior architectural designer at the Bouldering Project during a tour Tuesday evening. ”We also tried to lay it out so that wherever you are in the climbing gym, you have awesome views."

The endeavor was funded by Massoll and four other families who wanted a climbing gym in the west metro.

“We all went to different climbing gyms in the Twin Cities and thought there was a gap in the market, there wasn’t a gym in the west suburbs,” Massoll said. “There was an opportunity and we thought ‘Why not us?’ and we jumped on it.”

The St. Paul location is the latest addition to the Bouldering Project’s portfolio, which includes 13 gyms in eight cities across the nation. The St. Paul gym took years to design, but was the Bouldering Project’s fastest build to date, Jessen said.

The new build includes contemporary designs. The build crew used radiata pine panels, which they bent to create smooth curved walls for climbing. By contrast, the Minneapolis location has stiffer boards that create rigid angles, Jessen said. There also isn’t a top-off, where climbers can stand at the top of the route, because such designs have proved to be dangerous with people accidentally falling off, Jessen said.

Despite its modern design, there could still be upgrades in the future.

“As a company we’ve put so much thought [into it],” Jessen said. “We’re going to do our best to figure it out.”