{"id":20430,"date":"2019-12-04T15:59:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T22:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61863"},"modified":"2019-12-04T15:59:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T22:59:06","slug":"climbing-teams-successful-season-could-lead-to-bouldering-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/climbing-teams-successful-season-could-lead-to-bouldering-gym\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbing team\u2019s successful season could lead to bouldering gym"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Never Summer Senders are Grand County’s first climbing team. Another eight-week session is planned for the team after the holidays.<\/strong>
Courtesy of Chris Michalowski<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

After an eight-week session, Grand County\u2019s first ever climbing team is growing fast and setting sights high.<\/p>\n

This fall Chris Michalowski helped organize a new youth climbing team, The Never Summer Senders. The team practiced twice a week at the Fraser Rec Center and Snow Mountain Ranch climbing walls.<\/p>\n

After word got out, the two practices started seeing 18 children a week from preschool to high school ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to turn the kids into really competent climbers,\u201d Michalowski said.<\/p>\n

This includes learning what it means to be a climber outside, to respect resources and to respect other climbers.<\/p>\n

Most members of the team were pretty new to climbing when they started. Michalowski said the practices are meant to be social and have been structured in a way that helps climbers hone a new skill each practice.<\/p>\n

While competing is not required to be on the team, four members went to a bouldering competition in Steamboat and another competed in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

The team of 18 also ended up outgrowing its local facilities, which Michalowski saw as both good and bad.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
The Never Summer Senders climbing team saw around 18 participants a week from preschool to high school ages.<\/strong>
Courtesy of Chris Michalowski<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe want to take that enthusiasm and expand the program to get all the kids who want to climb climbing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Organizers discussed how to deal with the limited capacity and decided they didn\u2019t want to hinder participation using tryouts or a waitlist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the kids are psyched to practice and psyched on climbing, we\u2019re going to do our best to serve them,\u201d Michalowski said.<\/p>\n

Organizers decided the best option would be to create a nonprofit bouldering gym for the county, and the Stoke Factory was born. The idea is to create a gym that the climbing team could use but would be open to all locals and visitors in the county.<\/p>\n

To Michalowski, a climbing gym would be a great addition. He sees it as a healthy way to pass time and a place to facilitate community connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cool piece of social infrastructure that our town desperately needs,\u201d Michalowski said.<\/p>\n

While the idea is still pretty new, fundraising for the gym is underway. The climbing team is selling tickets for a two-hour film festival to begin raising money.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $15 for a showing of the 5Point Adventure Film Festival and all sales will go to support the climbing scheme. The showing will be from 7-9:30 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Headwaters Center in Winter Park.<\/p>\n

The climbing team will start back up after the holidays for another eight-week session. Michalowski hopes to plan some family-oriented weekend climbing trips this summer too.<\/p>\n

Find tickets for the film festival and follow the gym\u2019s progress at StokeFactory.co<\/a>. For more, email Michalowski at chris_michalowski@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Never Summer Senders are Grand County’s first climbing team. Another eight-week session is planned for the team after the holidays.Courtesy of Chris Michalowski After an eight-week session, Grand County\u2019s first ever climbing team is growing fast and setting sights high. This fall Chris Michalowski helped organize a new youth climbing team, The Never Summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 08:53:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}