NE Albuquerque gym hosts North American Cup Series Climbing Competition

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Stone Age Climbing Gym will serve as the host location for the North American Cup Series Climbing Competition on August 25-29.

The NE Heights gym will host professional North American athletes, including Olympians who competed this year in the Games’ first-ever climbing competitions.

"This is an international climbing competition and we have climbers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico," Stone Age Climbing Gym CEO Bryan Pletta said. "There are three disciplines of climbing; lead climbing today and tomorrow, speed climbing Friday and then finish up with bouldering on Saturday and Sunday."

The Albuquerque stop is the only competiton in the series to feature all three disciplines that Olympic competitions had.

Olympic and professional athletes are not the only ones who can climb at the gym, however. Even if you have never done rock climbing before, the gym has ways to get beginners comfortable with it.

"We have a climbing experience and you can come in for a day pass. If you like it, you can sign up for a membership," the CEO said. "We have classes, our auto-belays that we can teach people how to use to get them up on the wall to see if it’s something they’re into."

The gym also provides equipment for guests if they do not have their own.

"If you want to come in and try it out, we can set you up with equipment and teach you what you need to know so you can get up on the wall safely," Pletta said.

The competition is presented by USA Climbing and Climbing Escalade Canada.

The series competed at Salt Lake City in June and will compete at Bridgeport, Pa. in September. The series will also compete at Kanata, Ont., and Richmond, B.C. in October.

Learn more here about the competition’s Albuquerque stop.