Cispus Learning Center Hosts Free Climb Day During Rock Wall Unveiling

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Cispus Learning Center unveiled a new traverse wall to the public with a free day of rock climbing. During the event, attendees got first-hand education on rock climbing techniques and safety as staff showed them the ropes.

“It’s really cool. I had several people come up and say, ‘Thank you’ for building this,’ ” said Woods Stonecypher, an instructor and employee at Cispus. “People enjoyed that it was close; it’s a good resource in the Valley. We don’t have a lot of stuff like this here and I think the nearest climbing gym, the one I go to, is in Olympia.”

The learning center is set to add new curriculum for visiting students and open new opportunities for possible winter workshops now that the wall is open.

“It’s going to be strictly educational,” said Stonecypher, who has a six-year background in various climbing activities. “Students will come in and we’ll teach them the basics of top rope climbing and bouldering and then give them a chance to practice.”

Construction on the gym began last winter and took about six months to complete before this first unveiling. Currently, only one face of the gym has a location to scramble safely but plans are already underway to transform this basketball gym into a rock climber’s dream.



“I live and work here so this was my project all winter, I’m actually the Challenge Course Manager here on site so I run all the experiential ed stuff outside like the zipline and giant swing.” Stonecypher said. “Most of our participants come in the summer because it’s all outside, so our thinking is, if we have a rock wall we can open up some winter programming to have resources for students during the winter here as well.”

Anchors are set in place to continue the build on the opposing side of the gym with plans to add varying levels of difficulties and paths for guests to experience.

“In addition to this, once I have the time and funds, we plan on doing the same thing on the other side,” said Stonecypher. “Eventually I hope to get it inverted and buy more colored bricks to give students a path to follow if they need it.”

The event on Saturday brought in upwards of 50 visitors of all ages to scale the gym wall at the Cispus Learning Center in Randle, but prior to that students were already sampling the adventure.

“We just ran our first program two weeks ago with a group of eight students,” Stonecypher said. “It’s really basic and we’re working with really young students but it went really good.”