GT Rock Fuels Healthy Climbing Sub-culture in Northern Michigan

June 16, 2004

Imagine playing a game of chess, except instead of manipulating the pieces from outside you are actually in the game. You maneuver each piece and place it according to its position, abilities and strength, and if you make a mistake you directly reap the consequences, instead of simply losing the game.
The previous thought is a more accurate description of rock climbing than any sort of thrill-seeking representation a Nike commercial can show the public.
“There is a perception around climbing that it is an adrenaline sport, but it’s not. It’s closer to yoga than to bungee jumpin…It really is a game of chess to climb a wall,” says Tim Barrons, an avid climber and employee at Just for Kicks Sports who is in charge of the GT Rock, a unique climbing wall in Traverse City.
GT Rock has become the center of a climbing sub-culture that has been growing throughout the area over the past few years. Barrons also talks of a time before this when he, and his friend and fellow-climber Tim Jenema, tried to build a wall in the area, but their attempt failed.
“Tim and I had bought another climbing wall from Petoskey and moved all the stuff down here, but we kind of ran out of steam and didn’t have a place to do it at. So we took all of that stuff and donated it to the New Campus School and there was a great group of people who turned it into a great thing. These were young people who went on into the world and are climbing all over the place.”
The rock is the largest climbing wall north of Grand Rapids, covers an area of 2,500 square feet, rises to a height over 30 feet tall and has 18 different climbing routes. The wall is located inside Just for Kicks Sports and was constructed by the Eldorado Wall Company of Boulder, CO. It comes complete with five state of the art auto-belaying devices and was made with the intention of being as similar to a natural climbing experience as possible, but without the dangers of cliff climbing.
“The texture on the wall is actually made to be like real rock texture. This is for both the holds and the wall itself. The method of roping is actually the same [as outdoor climbing] too. The only mean difference is in the outdoor setting–you have lots of different options, whereas in the gym we have routes to use to make the difficulty level harder or easier,” Barrons says.
The wall is perfect for practicing climbing fundamentals in an area where there is literally no rock face. “In the climbing world they call this pulling plastic; it’s great for training. If you live in Colorado you might have a giant wall to climb right in your backyard but you can’t get onto it all the time so you go to the climbing gym to practice those climbing muscles,” Barrons says. “There are a lot more head games going on outside, but in the gym it’s totally controlled and very safe.”
And Barrons says you don’t have to be well-endowed physically or be an experienced climber to have access to the wall.
“It ranges in difficulty from easy, what we call slab climbing, which has less than vertical climbing surfaces with lots of bigger handholds, to larger overhangs with smaller handholds,” says Barrons.
There is no typical climbing age either, according to Barrons.
“We get a lot of young people. But in the evenings we are open 5 to 9 so we get a little bit older crowd. We can have people that range from high school to people in their 40s.”
Many area young people got involved in an event held at the rock this past April.
“A couple of buddies of mine and I came up with this idea of climbing for conservation. In fact, three years ago three friends and myself were doing a bigger fundraising drive for the Conservation Resource Alliance and we attempted a climb on Alpamayo, which is in the Peruvian Andes. So we were doing this alpine style climb and at the same time trying to raise awareness for the CRA. Then we came up with this idea and said lets do something that will get the kids involved too,” Barrons says.
So Barrons and his friends decided to organize an event that would rally the youth of the area.
“We did an event called a climb-a-thon and we had 70 people climbing in here and the goal was to get to the top as many times as we [could] to raise money and awareness for the CRA. We had a boy and a girl win first and second place that climbed up this wall hundreds of times. Throughout the day we tallied up the amount of feet that we got to the top of the wall. There were some kids that came in and just went crazy and climbed to the top as many times as they could. It was great to see eight-year-old kids climb 2,000 feet,” Barrons said with a smile. “As far as raising awareness and getting kids to think about conservation, I think it was very successful.”

Day passes for GT Rock are available to adults for $10 a piece and run at $8 for children ages 12 and under. Punch cards can also be purchased for $99 for adults and $70 for children and are good for 10 visits to the wall. Newcomers can try out the wall for $5 and get three climbs on the auto-belay device. For more information visit the website for the rock at www.gt-rock.com.