Imagine challenging yourself to climb a 35 ft. vertical. You are focusing hard and carefully co-ordinating your next step. It’s definitely not what you do every day, but you’re doing it anyway because it’s something new, something different.
Well, Londoners don’t have to imagine the scene for now they can experience the thrill at Junction Climbing Centre at 1030 Elias Street.
Junction Climbing Centre is a dedicated indoor climbing gym and was started by Dave Perozzo and John Kudelka. There are 80 different climbs available with varying degrees of difficulty. The facility opened in July 2014 and offers membership-based access as well as drop-in options to people interested in exploring climbing as a way to stay active, enjoying a fun activity with family and friends or even throwing a parties!
“The response has been great. Most people think rock climbing is an extreme sport and that’s really not the case,” said Kudelka, who started climbing about 16 years ago. “Even in choosing the name — Junction — we really wanted to build a place where everyone could come together.”
The clientele making use of the 7,000 sq.ft. facility has been quite diverse. Kudelka said he’s seen families; seniors as well as athletes use the facility. Typically, Junction sees about one hundred check-in’s on weekdays and that number could be as high as 250 on weekends.
“Business has been great,” Kudelka said of the gym, which employs 20 full and part-time employees.
Junction Climbing was also a finalist at the Small Business Centre organized 2014 Venture London business competition held in June. Being selected to be among six businesses competing for more than $50,000 in cash, prizes and services was a big honour, Kudelka said.
“We’ve really tried to build a facility that can be recognized around the province as a fantastic climbing centre,” he said. “It’s great to receive the recognition from local people in London and to be included among a high calibre group like that at Venture London.”
The gym has been attracting climbers not only from around town, but also all over the region. Recently, gym hosted a competition that brought in more than 100 participants and there are a few more similar competitions on the schedule for the coming months. Kudelka said he is gearing up for the upcoming year and has already started having conversations about making use of additional space. He is also working on developing a program to promote climbing as an activity for children and youth.
Intrigued? Learn more about Junction Climbing Gym here: junctionclimbing.com
