In the very first months of the pandemic, fitness gyms were shut down leaving people without an established place to exercise.
People resorted to simply exercising outdoors or building their own gyms at home.
That wasn’t necessarily an option for members of VITAL Climbing Gym.
“(Climbing is) not something most people can do if the gym isn’t open,” VITAL general manager Celina Meza said. “Some people ended up building training walls in their garage if they had the space, but some people don’t have garages.”
The gym was initially shut down in March 2020 and did not reopen until September 2020.
Meza said they were technically allowed to reopen before then, but getting to the point of being ready to reopen took some time.
VITAL is owned by David Sacher and Nam Phan and originated in Carlsbad, California in 2010, but also has gyms in Washington and New York states. Local managers said they’re not certain whether pandemic relief funds were requested or made available to ownership.
They used the shutdown as a time to catch up on facility maintenance, hire and train new staff, and put safety protocols in place.
“We wanted to make sure we had all of our operations to a tee before we reopened,” Meza said.
Getting to that point meant putting tape down so only one person would be climbing per 17-foot section of the wall, a lower overall capacity, no food or drink, removing the upstairs loft and a reservation system to stay under capacity.
Meza described VITAL as a social gym, so there was a bit of a transition coming back for members and staff when they reopened their doors.
She said there was some apprehension at first, but people felt comfortable again and were happy to be back climbing after readjusting.
“We set our capacity well under the state guided limit just to make sure people could ease back in and had reservations even though we didn’t have to,” Meza said. “We just took extra steps to help people normalize getting back out in public and in space.”
After a group of gyms throughout the state lobbied together to get climbing gyms put in a separate category from typical fitness gyms, VITAL was able to operate under different guidance and remove the tape dividing the wall.
An overall larger facility, more airflow, ventilation and being an inherently socially distanced activity, gave climbing gyms the go ahead for new guidelines.
“There are a lot of elements that make it ‘safer’ than being at a gym with side-by-side treadmills,” Meza said. “Once we were able to get in that separate category and get new guidance we were able to facilitate a more normal experience.”
VITAL has slowly been bringing back its activities and programs over the last year and a half.
Clinics are being brought back, the youth group has returned and the adult team that hasn’t run since before the pandemic is starting again. Meza said as they’ve been able to bring more and more programs back, things are starting to feel normal again.
Even though the pandemic is still ongoing, Meza said there is a feeling that the worst of it has already come and gone and with it comes a sense of thankfulness for the community and members.
“At this point it all feels like a dream almost. Our members pulled through, our community pulled through and our staff pulled through,” she said. “As hard of a time it’s been, I’ve been so impressed by everybody’s support of one another. It’s been hard, but also really heartening in a lot of ways.”
