The Good, The Bad, And the Beautiful

To the Members and Friends of the Minnesota Climbing Co-op

The good – Sprinklers are going in today.

The Bad – We have to put in sprinklers.

The Beautiful – We plan on opening this Saturday, April 16th.

Unfortunately, the City of Minneapolis has put its foot down and is requiring that the Co-op install sprinkler heads to protect the areas under our overhanging walls. There will be four in total. The good news is that only two will be on actual climbing surfaces and those heads will be recessed and out of the way for the most part. We still believe that this is an unreasonable and overreaching request by the City, but after running it way up the totem pole, we feel that it would be far more costly and time consuming to get into a legal battle (with no certain outcome), than to comply with the City’s demands.

So the sprinklers are going in today and we see no reason why we won’t pass inspection come this Thursday/Friday. This means we will be opening on Saturday April 16th! We are still working on figuring out the exact hours we will be open to the public (and for those of you who have already bought passes to come in and pick them up) but rest assured, we will be open plenty for the first week or so. After that we will have open hours listed on the web site and non-members can always sponsor up to three personal guests (for a day pass fee of $10.00 each). And remember, if you buy a full access pass you get 24 hour access! How sweet is that!?!

The members of the Board and some dedicated volunteers have been feverishly working on the build and have been left with little time to communicate effectively. We would like to apologize for this and ask your forgiveness. We will be updating the website in the coming days and weeks to help you better understand the Co-op’s policies and how it will operate. Please be patient with us in our infancy. As always, we are open to suggestions. They can be voiced to board members directly or by emailing us at info@mnclimbingcoop.com.

We have a good amount of holds available to use, but more can never hurt. If you have holds you would like to donate to the Co-op, please let us know. We are also open to taking in loaner holds. We are currently drafting a loaner hold policy and/or agreement, but the gist of it will be that loaner holds need to be distinctly marked, we ask for one months notice before reclaiming any holds, and the Co-op will not be held responsible for any damaged, broken, lost, or stolen holds. If you have some holds sitting in a box at home, please consider putting them to use.

We would also like to put together a used shoe bin that guests can use (free of charge) during open hours or when they accompany a member. It is my understanding that the University of Minnesota has something like this at their climbing wall and that it works well. We all know that a heavily used climbing shoe is better to climb in than a pair of street shoes, so if you have some old shoes that you don’t use anymore, please consider dropping them off at the Co-op. Even shoes with blown toes or separating seams are ok if the damage isn’t too bad.

And lastly I would like to reiterate that due to the completely unexpected cost of installing sprinklers, our build out budget has been stretched to the max and then some. Many of the board members have chipped in more, and a friend of the Co-op in Alaska even donated $100.00, but we aren’t there yet. If you like what we are doing and believe it is a good thing, please consider donating a few bucks or even buying some stock (Disclaimer - In order to buy stock you must be a member of the co-op and a resident of Minnesota or Wisconsin. Stock should not be considered an investment as there will be no financial gain, but it is a goal of the Co-op to someday buy back the stock that helped to get us started). You can donate via PayPal (follow the link at our website www.mnclimbingcoop.com) or you can contact us at info@mnclimbingcoop.com if you are interested in purchasing stock. Shares of stock cost $25.00 per share and there is no minimum purchase required. Every little bit helps. Even 5 bucks, so please consider chipping in.

Remember that this is a Climbing Gym run by its members for its members. Everyone gets a vote. We can only do this together.

Thank you

Jacob A Gerber – Vice Chair