Indy Crux

All sales benefit local at-risk youth.

Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook
  • CRUX Home
  • Birthdays & Groups
  • Corporate
  • Events
    • Community Events
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Camptown

A Wall for Everybody

April 10, 2018 by Trey Clayton Leave a Comment

It started slowly at first, then began to gain momentum. As the climber neared the top, the noise level rose with it. What was a few people saying, “You can do it!” became a raucous crowd of frenzied supporters. By the time the climber reached the red button near the peak of the Speed Wall at The CRUX, the entire room was cheering them on. When the climber finally struck the flashing red light that marked the summit of their climb, the entire room eruptsed into elated support.

We work with Zionsville High School’s special needs program on more than one program throughout the year; we also do team building sessions with them at Jameson Camp and we even take them out camping at McCormick’s Creek State Park. The subject of today’s event with them, though, was their experience rock climbing.

If you compare our facility to the for-profit climbing gym down the road, we are a pretty small space, but the shrunken-down experience we provide means we can cater to new climbers and those who might not feel wildly comfortable in a setting like a large gym. In this case, we were hosting almost twenty high school students from a special needs population. Our climbers ranged from being kids on a graduation track to those who were simply there to practice life skills. Some of the students were as coordinated and agile as any athlete, while others seemed like they would blow over in the slightest breeze. In spite of these differences, they were all able to come up against an appropriate challenge for who they were.

The ability to reach everyone is as stated before, our advantage. The athletic students? They were able to race each other up the Speed Wall and take on harder routes. The more wobbly students? Some of them only reached the first rock but were able to get to the second rock by the time they left. Was it any less impactful because the latter student did not climb as high? No. Each student was asked to set their own goals and then challenged to complete them, or adjust them to be more appropriate to their skill level. Thus, when they did accomplish said goals, it was their own goal they beat. We saw genuine smiles across the whole spectrum of students.

It is is a hard balance for most gyms. You want to be the best gym, host the best climbers, and have the best climbing routes. However, sometimes it is just as important to have the routes and setting where the rest of the world can achieve success at their level…even if it means the pros don’t get their way. That’s what we do, and the smiles and sense of pride we see in kids from places like Zionsville H.S. are why we do it.

Students cheer for a climber completing the speed wall.
Students cheer for a climber completing the Speed Wall.

Filed Under: Blog Items

Climb, Fail, Repeat

December 18, 2017 by Trey Clayton Leave a Comment

Climb, fail, repeat. In a time where failure is largely frowned upon, we love it at the CRUX. It teaches us why we failed, and it teaches us the grit that drives us on through failure until we succeed. Take the following story for evidence.

We just brought our eight week Fall climbing club to a close. This time around we had a resounding two climbers, both were elementary aged girls who were relatively new to the sport. Lindsey, in particular, had very limited experience with climbing. She was with us for our first Fall session, and stuck around to go through the second session as well. While our attendance was low, the impact was nonetheless huge.

Part of our climbing lessons for this age are to teach goal setting, and how to work towards that end. One of Lindsey’s goals was to climb as far as she could straight across the bouldering wall. For roughly fourteen weeks, she struggled across the first section and ALWAYS failed at the exact same spot. Many weeks she would leave club, frustrated that she could get no further than she did. However, she stuck with the goal, kept practicing, kept failing, and kept trying again. Finally, two weeks ago, she walked in and nailed it. She immediately jumped onto the wall and climbed right past her failure point. In fact, she more than DOUBLED her record. Overcome with joy as she fell off the wall, she exclaimed, “I’m  getting better!”

Lindsey learned the value of failure, and repetition. The natural consequence of this was she worked even harder, and failed even more, as she kept trying to expand her record…which she has done in her final two sessions.

What then, can we say climbing teaches us? Like Lindsey’s story teaches us: Climb, fail, repeat, succeed.

Two of our climbers watch another take on the Speedwall during our first Fall Climb Club session.

Filed Under: Blog Items, Uncategorized

Climbing a Different Kind of Corporate Ladder (Or Rock Wall)

October 23, 2017 by Trey Clayton Leave a Comment

You might expect a corporate meeting to look like any old Dilbert comic strip. A bland room. Tie-laden business types sitting around an oval table. The smell of cheap office coffee fills the air. It is almost like the room itself is letting out a slow, tired groan. Then you see a corporate meeting done the fun way! In this case, it became a climbing corporate meeting.

Last week we hosted a meeting for Clif Bar (http://www.clifbar.com/). They booked a corporate meeting day with us that included use of our own conference room, which just happens to be adjacent to our bouldering gym, The CRUX. The scene was wildly different than the Dilbert story above.

The Clif Bar staff walked in wearing t-shirts and climbing-worthy shoes, they met as they always before breaking the day up by challenging themselves and each other at the Speed Wall and on our many bouldering routes. When passing through The CRUX, or even by the conference room, you did not get that “another boring meeting” feel that can happen with the monotony of our normal spaces. In fact, there was almost a creative electricity in the air! I imagine those in attendance still found themselves in the midst of meeting blues at certain points during the day, but simply changing the venue and providing a different kind of team experience changed the whole facade.

This begs the question. Are you hosting boring meetings, and what can a simple venue change do for your organizations team relations and creativity? Could it really be as simple as going to climb?

Filed Under: Blog Items

Climbing Up – Youth Climbing Champions

March 15, 2017 by Trey Clayton Leave a Comment

There is a misnomer going around that climbers are all 30 year old masters who have been practicing their art since they were in college. Time and time again I hear parents, in regard to their children, or friends express doubt that they themselves are not great at the sport, nor could they ever be good at climbing. Here is the reality: Some of the best climbers in the world right now are 15 year old girls. Don’t believe me? NBC even picked up on this one.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/15-year-old-ashima-shiraishi-nabs-first-place-usa-climbing-n733371

The article above talks about 15 year old speed wall climbing champion Ashima Shiraishi. This is not her first rodeo, she won the competition last year as well…when she was a 14 year old.

Still doubt yourself or your children? Don’t be surprised when you head to your first wall and they climb it like it is a breeze. In fact, you can do it too. The beauty of our sport is anyone can participate at any level. While chances are I will never be able to make my 30 year old self out sport climb Ashima Shiraishi, I know I can set my own goals and accomplish them at the pace best for me. And, just like your children could be the next best climber in the world, you can meet your own goals as an adult too!

What is the best way to move forward? Find a gym. Meet up with some friends who will try too. Go climb. That’s the only way to know!

Climbing in The CRUX

Filed Under: Blog Items

Christmas @ The CRUX – A First Time Climber

February 22, 2017 by Trey Clayton Leave a Comment

Christmas @ The CRUX is an open climb event where we invite the general public to come in and monkey around on our Speed Wall and bouldering wall. We deck the walls (pun intended) out with Christmas decor and throw up as many Christmas lights as we can! This event proved to be like others, and it brought with it a mixed bag of ages and experiences. We hosted a group of post-college climbers and our ages spanned all the way down to a six year old who accomplished a new feat:

After pandering about all night and never really trying to climb it, the youngest girl at Christmas @ The CRUX decided to give the Speed Wall a shot. She had been pacing up to and staring it down all night, and her first attempt reflected her worried attitude; a quarter of the way up, she panicked and said “NO!” As she let go, the auto belay (we love our Trublue auto belays) lowered her gently back down. Finally though, after much cheering on from her siblings, she climbed past the halfway mark and very nearly made it all the way to the top! As she came down after this last climb, her joy was apparent through a beaming smile. The youngest climber climbed further than she ever thought she could go.

Climbing, especially bouldering, is something anyone at any level can participate in! Time and time again, kids come into open climb, or with rental groups, and claim they cannot do it. They claim they cannot simply because they have not before. And like we tend to do, they compare themselves to other people they have seen climb.  However, just like the above testimony, it really does not matter where you start…what really matters is where you finish!

 
A group of kids climbing on a Speed Wall in The CRUX

Filed Under: Blog Items

7998 GEORGETOWN ROAD, SUITE 700, INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46268 · PHONE: (317) 471-8277 · COPYRIGHT © 2017 CAMPTOWN INC