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The rainy weather this summer was the only thing Diane and Gary Bridgewater didn’t have in their plans by the time they decided to move forward with building Iowa’s largest indoor rock climbing and training center.

Ever since their children were introduced to the sport at SportsPlex West four years ago, the Bridgewaters have been soaking in information about climbing, and touring gyms while traveling and mulling over the idea of building a facility in Des Moines. And with both holding good business positions – Diane is vice president and chief financial officer of Life Care Services LLC and Gary is president of Baker Group – they knew how to cover their bases.

“We had talked about whether we could do this,” Diane said, “and finally one day, my husband said, ‘Look, let’s either do this or let’s quit talking about it.'”

On Nov. 10, Climb Iowa opened in a warehouse-looking building near Iowa Highway 141 in Grimes. It is marked by a 93,000-pound red rock surrounded by a muddy lawn (it was still too wet to lay the sod) and booming residential development.

In the gym’s first week, about 50 people became members. Its introductory class filled up, a group of 22 people visited from Simpson College, the staff booked several parties and the Urbandale Police Department asked about using the wall for rappel training.

“It’s a bigger group that likes climbing than I even understood,” Diane said.

But the Bridgewaters don’t view Climb Iowa as a major business opportunity. “Climbing gyms never make a lot of money,” Diane said, “so our desire is to have this basically cash-flow and provide an environment that allows for a climbing community.”

The bigger benefit, she said, is adding another amenity to Central Iowa that will attract and retain a younger work force – though many of the people in the introductory classes were in their 40s or came as a family. Climb Iowa also could host regional and national competitions, drawing people from out of town to spend money in the community.

Setting the route

Climb Iowa has more than 10,000 square feet of top rope, boulder and lead climbing and more than 100 marked routes. Most of the climbing is in an open room with picnic tables and benches. A mezzanine holds a basic fitness facility, a yoga room and a technical bouldering and training area. On the main level are a multipurpose room, locker rooms and a retail center with merchandise from Back Country Outfitters.

Though there are other climbing gyms nearby, such as Wall-Nut Creek in Kelley, with 3,900 square feet of climbing, and SportsPlex West in Waukee, with about 1,000 square feet, “they’re not training centers,” Bridgewater said. “They’re climbing walls. This is a free-standing climbing and training center.”

After meeting with climbing gym owners and working with two consultants, the turning point in deciding to open Climb Iowa was when the Bridgewaters hired Aaron Stevens as manager. Stevens had been running a Kansas City climbing gym for eight years and could manage Climb Iowa’s day-to-day operations, allowing the Bridgewaters to focus on their main careers.

“We’re not going to be here managing,” Diane said. “We’ll be here enjoying and making sure the environment is what we intended.”

She jokes that they are so hands-off that they had their children, Hailey, 16, and Eric, 14, interview with Stevens for a part-time job, rather than guaranteeing them one.

“The gym is everything I wished we had in Kansas City that we didn’t,” said Stevens. “Basically the problems that we encountered on a day-to-day basis or any facility problems that I saw in the Kansas City gym, I tried to solve here.”

He brought with him from Kansas City Matt Creason, who is the assistant manager. The Bridgewaters also brought in Dylan Huey, coach of a local climbing team, as program director.

Taking the step

Diane jokes that as an accountant, she overanalyzes everything. But a part of her – the liberal arts side that encouraged her to major in French in addition to accounting in college – loves taking on new creative projects.

After Stevens came on full time in July, they met weekly to ensure everything was planned out by the time the building opened. Even the logo was designed intentionally with a woman climber to help break the perception that the best climbers are men with big upper-body muscles.

Diane and her mother, Carol Crane, bought the land for $340,000 and constructed the building at an estimated cost of $1.14 million, according to the Polk County assessor’s Web site. The building was designed so that it could be converted for industrial use with a warehouse door and a mezzanine that can become office space in case the business fails. Meanwhile, Diane and her husband own the climbing business.

Being able to construct their own building not only ensured that the Bridgewaters could build a 36-foot-tall climbing wall, but also allowed them to add “green” features such as geothermal heating, motion-detector lighting and recycled materials.

Vermont-based Leading Edge Climbing Walls Inc. designed Climb Iowa’s wall. The wall is unique in that it includes concave and convex areas, rather than all sharp edges.

Two weeks before the gym opened, more than 10 route setters, many from nearby states, spent the weekend coming up with climbing routes, which range from easy, ladder-like climbing to one expert route that no one has yet completed.

Though Diane has mainly belayed for her daughter (secured her daughter by holding the rope), she hopes to get on the wall more often now that she has her own place.

“People ask, ‘So are you and Gary going to be there working?’ I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to be climbing,'” she said.