Snowball

The first developers of Spearfish Canyon were sworn to secrecy. No one was to know that Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota, held a wealth of steep, beautiful, bomber lines—over 800 limestone routes, twice as many, for example, as in Rifle, Colorado, would eventually appear here.

The boom in indoor climbing is remarkable considering just 20 years ago indoor walls were dusty, dark, often converted industrial sheds or garages. Today’s gym would be unrecognizable to those early indoor climbers.