New Rock Climbing Gym Finds Foothold in East Lansing
As staff at the newly opened Terra Firma Bouldering Co. rock climbing gym in East Lansing were giving East Lansing Info a tour of the new facilities, a steady trickle of interested climbers stopped by inquiring about membership options.
Terra Firma, located at 2655 E Grand River Ave in East Lansing in the space previously occupied by Foods For Living, boasts 6,000 square feet of climbing terrain for bouldering where climbers navigate short routes without ropes or harnesses above padded floors.
A rock climbing gym is long overdue for the Greater Lansing Area, where the nearest indoor climbing gyms are an hour long drive or more away, Alexandra Zevalkink, co-owner of Terra Firma in East Lansing said.
“We figured out that the Lansing area is the largest metro area in the entire Midwest … without a climbing gym,” Zevalkink said, adding that Holland, Michigan alone has two climbing gyms.
The nearest climbing gyms for East Lansing residents for years have been in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Detroit, and as a decade-long Okemos resident and lifelong climbing enthusiast, Zevalkink said she and her husband grew tired of commuting in order to climb.
So a year and a half ago, Zevalkink called Cody Erickson, owner of the Terra Firma Bouldering Co. rock climbing gym in Grand Rapids to see if it would be possible to open a similar gym for Mid-Michigan residents.
From former high school and collegiate athletes to individuals from different geographic and cultural backgrounds, the East Lansing and Michigan State University community are a perfect group to introduce indoor climbing to, Erickson said.
Failure is part of the fun with the climbing community, Erickson said. With bouldering, climbers can enjoy the process of figuring out the route and challenges of the climb and try over and over again until they can succeed.
“It’s a pretty diverse and open community … You have people who grew up like myself, skateboarding, and so you’re used to watching your friends fail at something and try again and again and hang out in a third space,” Erickson said. “What’s kind of bringing everyone together is to be able to be in community. What we’re looking for, the vision of our company is to be a place of refuge through climbing.”
Terra Firma in East Lansing is a gym where experienced climbers will be able to enjoy challenging routes that will be redesigned periodically to pose new challenges, Zevalkink said, but there’s a place for all skill levels.
“Even people who climb a lot, they’re working on a project, they’re working on something and failing at it over and over again. Nobody’s judging you if your project is the easiest route in the gym … people always love to give advice and encouragement,” Zevalkink said.
Currently, Terra Firma in East Lansing is only open to individuals with memberships and members are able to access both the East Lansing and Grand Rapids Terra Firma locations. The East Lansing location will be open to all members of the public on June 5.
Terra Firma offers a range of membership options, including annual and monthly memberships, as well as day passes. During the summer the hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.