‘Climbing will prevail.’ Couple keeps Youngstown gym open for community to reach new heights
Climb Youngstown is here.
When the owners of the only local climbing gym announced they’d have to shut their doors, a couple stepped up to save the facility and keep the climbing community together.
Youngstown native Josh Boyle is the newest co-owner of Climb Youngstown, formally called Ascend, which officially re-opened for business at the beginning of the month.
Ascend was founded in Pittsburgh and expanded to the facility in Youngstown in 2022.
Early in 2024, owners of Ascend announced they were closing and gave customers a two-week notice that their memberships would be over.
“We’re not Pittsburgh, we’re not Cleveland. We’re our own thing, and if if you don’t reach the people where they are, the people don’t find out about you. That’s just the nature of it here,” Boyle said.
The gym has over 3,000 square feet of climbing and bouldering walls that are 15 feet tall.
“When we heard they’re closing, we reached out to the one of the owners that we had been in touch with from coordinating programs and he put us in touch with a couple other guys locally that were willing to help get the operation off the ground,” Boyle said.
Boyle worked with Ascend through his job as director of education at ECO with his wife, Courtney, who’s the director of technical services.
“We’ve been doing after school climbing and hiking programs with the gym the last three years. Two months from when they first announced they were going to close, we were able to reopen the doors on May 1,” said Boyle.
Seeking new members
Now that all the ownership’s been transferred over, they’re ready to get new members to sign up and give climbing a try.
“We’re really focusing on making sure the community knows we’re here and get more families and kids in the door,” said Boyle. “We want to try to start some high school teams where they’re competing against each other locally and then... to regional competitions and trying to get kids to the Olympics.”
He said a lot of the climbers that were already Ascend members back in February and March stuck around for Climb Youngstown.
“We’ve had a pretty good reception and now we’re trying to hit the ground running with getting new people in the door by reaching out to local booster organizations, kind of starting with Boardman but we want to work with all organizations in Mahoning County, or even beyond to and let their community members know that we exist and can help raise money for their causes. That’s why we’re doing this is for our community,” he said.
Why try climbing?
Some of the physical benefits of climbing total-body muscle engagement, there are no weather restrictions and the welcoming but competitive community, as Boyle describes it.
“There’s a very big social aspect and our members are really great with first timers,” he said. “They know to like go talk to them and like oh, I haven’t seen you here before or what do you do there to get to the top right. So it’s competitive, but community competitive, it’s not traditionally competitive like ‘I’m gonna do this better than you did.’ “
Boyle said it’s a great conditioning and team-building exercise.
“No matter what you do -- gymnastics, football, baseball, this is a great activity. You’re a parent, this is something to get you moving. There’s very low injury risk than I like, I think like some people with bad knees sometimes when they jump off the wall,” said Boyle.
To bring a party or group in or organize a fundraiser at Climb Youngstown, call (330) 330-8878 or send an email to info@climbyoungstown.com
They’re open from 4 - 10 p.m. Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 1221 W. Western Reserve Road in Youngstown.
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This story was originally published May 10, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
