Gym Climber and USA Climbing Join Forces
Gym Climber is now the official publication of USA Climbing!
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Big news over here at Big Stone Publishing: Gym Climber, the magazine launched last year by Rock and Ice, has, as the sport heads to the Olympics in 2020, joined forces with USA Climbing, the national governing body for competition climbing. The move makes Gym Climber the official publication of USA Climbing.
“The partnership will utilize Gym Climber to promote USA Climbing and grow its competition climbing awareness as the climbing world heads towards its debut at Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo,” said Ben Yardley, Gym Climber’s associate publisher. “With GYM CLIMBER in over 500 climbing gyms nationally, it will raise awareness for USA Climbing across the entire growing indoor-climbing demographic.”
As part of the partnership, USA Climbing members will receive Gym Climber electronically, while the magazine will be distributed at many of the 300 plus USA Climbing competitions each year. “Gym Climber’s increased exposure thorough USA Climbing,” says Yardley, “will let us deliver content to inspire and educate indoor climbers, and help them become stewards both indoors and outside.”
Visit the Gym Climber Website!
According to the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), there are 25 million gym climbers worldwide and 39 percent are under the age of 18. The United States has over five million indoor climbers, according to the Outdoor Industry Association’s 2018 Recreation Participation Report, and nearly three million of those climbers are ages 6 to 24.
As a group, gym climbers are twice the number of traditional climbers and mountaineers (5 million compared to 2.5 million), and more than double the number of sport climbers and boulderers (5 million compared to 2.1 million). By 2020, and competition climbing’s debut at the Olympics, gym climbing is projected to be a $1 billion business in the U.S. alone, according to the Climbing Wall Association’s 2018 Indoor Climbing Industry Report.
“The investment in and popularity of indoor climbing is unprecedented in our sport,” says Yardley. “Gym Climber is in a unique position as the publication for gyms, about gyms, and in gyms, and we’re pleased to partner with USA Climbing to grow the sport as whole.”
Gym Climber issue No. 2 is hot off the presses and available at over 500 climbing gyms nationwide—snag a copy today!
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