Up the Wall: Lexington's newest indoor climbing gym

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From the outside, the building at 916 North Broadway could be mistaken for a new warehouse in Lexington’s north end, perhaps home to a start-up manufacturing business. But inside, one enters an almost-alien open space. To the right, small human forms, secured by a rope and harness, scale colorful 50-foot walls; to the left, the forms reach the top of a 14-foot-wall and drop to the ground, gently landing on the hefty gymnastic mats that line the floors. Welcome to the world of L’Escalade Fitness – Kentucky’s newest and largest climbing gym.

L’Escalade was founded by rock climbers Nicole Brown and her husband, Chris Shotwell, who both grew up nearly 200 miles northwest of Lexington in Indianapolis. They met at small now defunct climbing gym in 2010. Shotwell was an experienced climber, coach and route setter (a person who designs artificial rock climbing wall routes), with several years under his belt. Brown was a nationally ranked former equestrian rider, seeking a more affordable sport to dive into after finishing her graduate degree. After sparking a connection through climbing, the couple traveled together to one of the most prolific climbing areas on earth, Kentucky’s Red River Gorge National Geologic Area, for Brown’s first outdoor climbing experience.

“The Red is where I discovered my passion for climbing,” Brown said.

Building on the connection they had made, the couple eventually hit the road for an epic climbing pilgramage. Living out of a red Toyota Prius, they traveled around the country seeking to learn, prove themselves and experience various disciplines of climbing at idyllic locales, documenting their journey through their joint blog, “Stories From a Climbing Life.”

“We had a ton of adventures, the most amazing of which was a trip to Bishop, California, for several months of bouldering,” Shotwell said. “We both made tremendous mental and physical strides in our climbing in Bishop and thought that we would be happy living in California with its plethora of outdoor opportunities.”

They made the move to California in 2013, and Shotwell took a job as a climbing coach and route setter at a mid-size climbing gym outside of Los Angeles, advancing rapidly into the role of head setter. The couple eventually made an offer to buy the gym with a plan to expand, but as negotiations advanced, they reexamined and re-evaluated their quality of life in California.

“We quickly realized that we were too far from home, weren’t developing the type of relationships we craved, and didn’t really ever have the time to get out and enjoy the outdoors,” said Shotwell.

“We were far away from family and felt very out of place,” Brown added. “The cost of living was so high that we bought a fixer-upper home and spent all of our time working and remodeling the house – I am pretty sure we only made it out to climb once or twice the entire year we lived out there.”

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These musings led them on a path to starting looking for other cities with opportunities that would better serve their business and personal goals. They curated a list of potential cities, and found that Lexington rose to the top. For the couple, even without having spent any time in the city, Lexington’s advantages were plentiful: Most of all, it was close to home, and it was university town, less than an hour from the Red River Gorge.

“The city itself is reasonably progressive, the airport presents an easy point of exit to more exotic adventures, and people are friendly and more willing to create real personal relationships,” said Shotwell.

And thus the couple committeed to relocating to the Bluegrass to open a climbing gym here. After settling on a property in Lexington’s north side, L’Escalade – whose name is derived from the French word for climbing – opened at the end of July. The fitness center serves a broad spectrum of athletes and fitness enthusiasts with a myriad of options spread across 25,000 square feet, including a 3,000-square-foot exercise room; fitness classes that include cycling, Acroyoga (a form of yoga that combines yoga and acrobatics), and strength training; and multiple relaxation areas equipped with Wi-Fi.

The main attraction, however, are the variety of rock climbing walls, which support a variety of disciplines including bouldering, rope climbing and lead climbing. Splashed with brightly colored resin grips, the walls almost look like a work of art, enticing gym-goers to get up and start climbing. The design process for the walls was a year-long joint endeavor among Brown and Shotwell, the Bulgarian-based climbing wall manufacturer Walltopia, and the Paris, France-based international route setter, Tonde Katiyo. Their goals were to mirror the outdoor crags (climbing areas) that the couple had encountered during their climbing careers but also to accommodate a range of abilities, from newcomers to hardened climbers.

Most new climbers at L’Escalade start off with bouldering, a form of climbing that focuses on movement and building power, generally done on short walls without ropes. The gym’s bouldering area features 14-feet-high walls with padded flooring to protect any gravity-challenged clients from harming themselves. The goal of bouldering is to pack as much physicality, balance and precision as possible into routes that may require just a few moves but still manage to make climbers work up a sweat.

L’Escalade’s crown jewel, the rope climbing area, a 50-foot-artificial wall that looks like the side of a mountain cliff. Whereas the bouldering areas feature a padded flooring that cushion a fall, the climbing area utilizes fixed quick draws to which climbers attach their rope to arrest a potential fall. The room features angled inclines and outright vertical routes, all dotted with holds of different shapes and sizes to guide climbers closer and closer to the distant ceiling.

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Head setter Adam Taylor, who has been climbing for over 20 years, leads the gym’s route setters who work diligently to ensure clients consistently have new and interesting routes to climb.

“Our walls are inspired by French crags, namely Buoux, Ceuse and Les Gorges du Verdon. Also, a lot of us climb at the Red, and we try to create challenging routes that change constantly,” Taylor said.

The gym also features an area geared toward children and has a competitive traveling youth team for ages 6-18, coached by Shotwell, as well as several “intro to climbing” classes each month. Led by a certified instructor, the classes last two hours and cover top-rope belaying (a technique used to exert tension on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far) and basic climbing movements, helping orient climbers who have little or no prior experience.

According to the Outdoor Foundation, a national nonprofit established to inspire and grow future generations of outdoor enthusiasts, indoor climbing has recently breached the top 10 among sports attracting new participants. Since opening, L’Escalade has gained approximately 400 active members and over 3,000 visitors – including Lexington’s mayor, Jim Gray, who has stopped by for private coaching lessons.

“He is clearly an active, passionate outdoorsmen, and we really appreciate his support,” says Brown.

With around 400 members and more than 3,000 visitors in their first three months of business, Brown and Shotwell find themselves comfortably settling into their north Lexington home, and succeeding in at least one of their primary business goals: to provide Lexington with a place where climbers and the curious can be a part of a healthy community, year round.

“We want this to be a place where many people feel like they belong and get to enjoy spending their free time,” Brown said. “We believe that we can help be a driving force for change in the NoLi neighborhood. It is already moving in a positive direction, which was a prime reason we chose this location, but there is plenty of room for growth.”

“We hope that we can encourage businesses and individuals to invest time and money in this community to help [NoLi] become a cultural hub in Lexington,” she added. cc

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