Clearly, I am interested. I would suggest creating a poll. And I will email it to my club. I would ask: Would you climb? How many of your friends do you think would try it? How many of you and your friends do you think would become regulars? and for these answers have options 1, 1-2,3-4,5+.

Do you want me to create this poll? I think it should not be hard.

Dave - Thanks for commenting (and volunteering to help the cause!)

I like the idea of a more targeted poll. We may want to do a brainstorming sesh.. Put a list of questions together and figure out the best venue for getting the most responses. I've already thought about F-Book ads, google adwords or adcents, youtube ads, etc.

May be good to find out if the Alexandria or Richmond would mind if I do a survey on "climbing participation" on their premises. The most valuable pieces of info to gain there would be "What town to you hail from?" "What town do you work in?" and "How strong an influence did/does having a climbing gym close to your work/home have on: (1) Your becoming a "climber" in the first place (2) Your choice to become a gym member (if you're a member) (3) Your choice to buy day passes, etc.

Thoughts?
-E

I would spend $50 a month for a climbing gym that also offered yoga, pilates and similar classes. I'd prefer the cost of the classes to be sucked up into a membership and available for single sessions.

I'd keep the classes simple so that you wouldn't need loads of extra equipment, just enough room for some of the less-is-more fitness systems. You might also consider offering informational classes for nutrition and intro to "insert cool stuff here."

I think a neat tool to gauge interest would be to setup a website for your ideal climbing gym, with prices and things you offer and push the site out through facebook, google adwords, etc... You could use site traffic and a contact form to help analyse the publics interest, your prices and what all you could offer. It'd be a relatively cheap way to start research and development on the gym.

Ethan, I beleive we talked abotu this the other day. So I am offering to back you up (us) with funding tomorrow after I win the lottery. IF for some reason the lottery does not come through (highly unlikely) then I will continue to keep my eyes out for investors and other ways of supporting this venture.

Thomas :)

If I lived in Fburg, I would absolutely sign up for a membership at a climbing gym. We currently go to SR 2-3x a week in Sterling.

Personally, I would love to see one open up where we live. Manassas cinemas is closed and it's the perfect height for a climbing gym. If I had the funding and determined that there was a solid market here (and if I had a tad more climbing experience) I wouldn't hesitate in starting my own gym.

Sarah,
Thanks for the feedback! Mananas actually has a good market. Let me know if you are interested in networking .. sounds like you've done some thinking already. I am working on building a team (financiers, allies, potential partners) so if you or anybody you know might be a good resource, I'm all ears.

David - I would definitely contact Fredericksburg Parent and Family Magazine to see if they can assist you with your polling via their website www.fredericksburgparent.net and their Facebook. They cover F'burg, Stafford, Spotsy, Westmoreland, Culpepper, King George, Orange, and Warrenton areas...all the areas you would hope to draw from. Between Patch and Fredericksburg Parent and Family, you should clearly get a feel for the need/want in the area. I, for one, have twin 'tween boys who are very active Boy Scouts...I can safely say we would go to the Rock Climbing facility for events.

Hey Ethan, I'm moving back to the Fredericksburg area after graduation from the University of Maryland this May and have been bitten hard by the climbing bug. If you do manage to get everything together for your gym, you can count on a membership from me, as well as trying to suck as many of my friends in the area into the sport. Good luck!

Just moved to Fredericksburg from Northern Virginia...I would definitely be interested.

Also, I am interested in finding people or groups that take weekend climbing trips; if anyone on this message board has info to share I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Martin, welcome to the area! Did you see all the runners this morning?

Check out http://www.meetup.com/Outdoor-Adventure-Athletes/ for area and weekend climbing.

Just got back to Washington-Dulles from the Climbing Wall Summit in Denver! Was a great trip - I have a much better network now to help make this thing happen!

Hey Ethan,
A friend of mine and I looked into opening up a bouldering gym down in Richmond last year but decided not to because there already is already a very well established gym down there (Peak Experiences). I dont currently live in Fredericksburg, but I live about a half hour south east in Mineral by Lake Anna.

I worked at a gym up in upstate New York (where I grew up) for about 5 years, just after they opened up so I have a good idea of the daily workings of a gym and also a ton of ideas when it comes to opening up a new one.

I have wanted to open up a gym for a long time and thought Fredericksburg would be a pretty good place to open one up. The person I was going to do it with didnt want to move to Fredericksburg which is why we stopped looking into it but I still want to open one up and would love to partner up / help you out / do anything.

Also, I am a web designer so I can def help out with the creation of a web site for the gym. Thats the best way to get out information about the gym to people. Any advertising that you would do would also point to your website.

Let me know if you want to talk.

Chris,
We absolutely should talk / get together! Where in upstate did you work? I'm from Rochester! I'd like to avoid putting my contact info up at this site, so find me on Facebook and friend me. Then we can get in cahoots.

Cheers,
Ethan

I just stumbled upon this article, recently moved to Fredericksburg from NOVA as well... Any new news, Ethan?

Hi Kate,
I'm still in hot pursuit. Have an excellent location picked out and have built up some alliances that will help make this happen. If you're on Facebook, feel free to track me down and I'll help tie you into the climbing community down here.

Cheers,
Ethan

Hi all - If you have found this post and are interested in getting a climbing gym up in Fredericksburg, please give my facebook place / business a "like": http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rappahannock-Rock-Gym/169379386461660

Hey Ethan,

This looks excellent! I don't have a facebook page but am very interested in learning more. You can e-mail me at kar.6519@gmail if you get a chance!

Best,
Kate

Hey all, I'm progressing on this effort. I have a concept I'd like to throw out to the community: Would anyone be interested in making a smallish investment ($2000 to $4000) into a holding company that owns stock in my gym? In exchange for this investment, you would receive a gold pass which would provide free gym membership and free entry to all events. The gold pass benefits would end once you begin receiving payments out of profit sharing. I have to pay all my formal loans down a good deal before profit sharing would come, but I'd anticipate that to start in the 3 to 5 year range.. If you are interested in this idea please contact me directly at ethanvb@gmail.com

Have another website up now (a more official business page). Take a look, let me know what you think: http://www.rapprockclimbing.com/

VERY INTERESTED. Would buy membership, as well as multiple friends. Bouldering is a must though!