CWA Blog Archive-A Review Of Climbing Gym Reopening Policies

A Review Of Climbing Gym Reopening Policies – May 2020

Pdf Summary

This article shares findings from the CWA's research into climbing gym reopening policies as of May 2020, work done while shaping the CWA's Roadmap to Reopening. The CWA had been monitoring guidance from many states, counties, provinces, and countries responding to COVID-19, speaking with gym owners and operators, and surveying the industry to gain insight into trends and individual choices. The article covers hot areas of discussion and some surprising results, with full data available on the May 2020 Reopening Survey Dashboard. On opening dates, the first official survey at the end of May found 25% of respondents had already opened their gyms or climbing walls, while the remainder expected to open by the end of July, with a few outliers eyeing September and November. At the time of writing, it looked like a little over half of North American gyms were open, with the next survey round in late June expected to give a clearer picture. On reopening guidance, the article notes gyms relied on a number of different resources when creating their individual plans, and highlights the hyper-local nature of laws and regulations, meaning gyms faced a patchwork of rules varying by jurisdiction. The throughline is that the CWA systematically tracked and analyzed how climbing gyms were approaching reopening in the pandemic's early months, providing the industry a data-grounded snapshot of opening timelines, policy choices, and the challenges of navigating hyper-local, varied regulations. By surveying members and monitoring guidance across many jurisdictions while building its Roadmap to Reopening, the CWA captured both the pace of reopening (25% open by late May, most expecting to open by end of July, over half open at writing) and the complex reality that gyms had to assemble reopening plans from many different resources amid a patchwork of hyper-local laws. This research served the industry by revealing trends and individual choices, helping operators benchmark their own decisions against peers and understand the landscape. For gyms navigating the uncertain, jurisdiction-specific process of reopening, the article and its underlying survey offered valuable collective intelligence, timelines, policy patterns, and shared challenges, that informed the CWA's Roadmap to Reopening and gave operators data-based context for their own reopening decisions during a chaotic, rapidly evolving period.

Asset Caption

This piece shares CWA research on gym reopening policies as of May 2020, gathered while building its Roadmap to Reopening. It found 25% of surveyed gyms open by late May, most expecting to open by end of July, and highlighted the hyper-local patchwork of regulations gyms navigated by assembling plans from many different resources.