Climb In!
Aaron Parlier, Chris Grasinger, and Keith Shockley have all followed different routes in life.
But the co-founders of Center45 Climbing & Fitness Center (right next to Hatchet Coffee!) have something important in common: a love for climbing and a passion for the Boone outdoor community.
Let’s travel back in time to early December 2013 at the Boone Saloon on King Street where an ‘interest meeting” was being held for a local indoor climbing facility. The first meeting was packed. It was clear the community wanted a gym for climbing. So Chris arranged a second meeting the next week and only two other people showed up besides himself. Can you guess who? 😉 “That started the mutual friendship and ideology that Boone needs a place to climb and train,” Aaron remembers. Fast forward two years and a lot of chalk and tricky handholds, and Center45 reached summit.
Aaron’s history in rock climbing originates from growing up in the vast outdoors of Virginia. From this childhood passion grew a love for discovering unexplored and unclimbed areas. When he finds somewhere new in the wilderness or on a rock face, he documents and shares it so that others can explore, too. Both Chris and Keith got involved in the climbing community in college, and have stuck with it ever since. Chris said he got into the sport because of its uniqueness. “It was new and challenging for me, but there was a level of independence to it that I really liked.”
All three went to @appstate and loved climbing at the recreation center. “When I started climbing at the SRC (Student Recreation Center - or just tag it) I realized from other people that there was so much good climbing in this area,” Keith says. However, once graduated, they couldn’t enjoy their Alma Mater’s gym without the sponsorship of another student. With such a deep rooted historical outdoor climbing community here in Boone, the need for an indoor climbing facility for non-students was clear.
“We want to continue to build a community here. I think a lot of that has to do with listening to the community that’s already surfaced.” Chris explains, “In conjunction with that we want to continue to create stronger and stronger climbers and provide the proper resources for people that want to accelerate in the sport to be able to do so better and better.”
Aaron adds, “A gym can build a community. But in reality when we opened there was already a super vibrant outdoor climbing community. So we have to be able to bring enough value and enough attention to detail to a community that’s already one of the best on the East Coast...we have to bring enough work to the table to where the Boone area climbers are going to want to be here. That’s a huge focus of what we do.”
The gym is not only a place for experienced climbers, but for those who want to cross train for other sports and those who just want to get started in the sport. Center45 strives to incubate an environment that is welcoming to everyone, no matter their experience. So why not stop by, do a little bouldering, meet fellow climbing enthusiasts, and maybe have a cup of coffee too.