Wouldn't It Be Cool To Open A Climbing Gym?

How many times did this idea cross our minds, especially in the first couple of years of climbing. When you are completely obsessed and all you can think and dream about is your current project, and your next climbing session. Sitting around a fire after an awesome day of climbing, “Man i can't focus on my corporate job anymore! Why don't we open a climbing gym? You can see how many are opening up all over the place in Europe, they must be doing super well. And we would climb all the time while making a living!! Yallaaa”

To put it simply, this is probably how the first climbing gyms were established all over the world. By psyched climbers that wanted to rebel from their existing lives and pursue a dream of climbing with friends and earning a living from it. Now in 2024 things have changed a lot, the climbing industry has grown so much that it's almost impossible to open a higher-end facility without financing; even Venture Capital is becoming a source of funding due to the scale of the financing needed to build indoor climbing facilities. But let's not get demotivated yet, we are excited to share Ascent’s story with you and hope this will get more climbers to pursue their dreams because it's worth it.

Ascent was established in 2020, after almost 4 years of the inception idea, then finding the right location, then the right partners, then opening up to the world. We could go on about the details of how this went, but we feel it’s more exciting to share the story of how our community grew in parallel with the gym.

When we opened our doors there were probably a handful of climbers in Egypt, naturally the first few months were euphoric and all the climbers were inviting their friends to try out the first bouldering gym in Egypt and to share their passion. But to our surprise bouldering wasn’t for everyone! “What, you don't like it? That's strange. I thought everyone would be head over heels from day one like me!” These were some of our first doubts, could it be that we made a bad decision? Did we buy the wrong holds? Is it our route setting? These questions are almost guaranteed to go through your head all the time as a gym owner.

Very quickly we realized we can't operate like a gym in the West, where the climbing culture is already established. In Egypt and most of this region, climbing is still not a popular sport. This is a double edged sword. You have much more opportunities to be the first in the market but it comes with the responsibility to grow the culture and love for movement, nature and adventure.

This is truly what has been the most exciting and rewarding part of the Ascent journey since 2020. From introducing climbers to both indoor and outdoor climbing, starting from age 6 to taking climbers on their first trips where they experience the feeling of freedom and adventure. With the aim to pass on what we were lucky enough to experience while being true to the ethics of the sport, and surprise surprise climbers kept coming back with their friends and family and this translated into more memberships and fuller classes.

So after almost 4 years in this journey, we truly feel we are so early. So grab that friend w yalla!!