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Blog Entry 431 of 539 What's Going On
Whats Going On
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Urban climbing in Stapleton's new Central Park

Contributed by: Brendan Leonard/YourHub.com   on 11/7/2007

Hey, there's a new retaining wall in Stapleton.

Big deal, right?

Well, if you're a city dweller who likes to climb rocks in your spare time, this one IS kind of a big deal.

This 30-foot long, 10-foot high wall was designed by Monolithic Sculpture Inc. of Boulder to be both artistic and a place for people (and kids) of all abilities to climb. There are easy places for kids to clamber up to the tops of all three sections of the wall, and Mom and Dad can easily help them down from the top if they can't climb down themselves.

As Eric and I found out yesterday afternoon, the sculpture and a freestanding satellite "boulder" next to it provide enough challenges to keep big, strong desk jockeys like ourselves busy for a long time. The overhanging sides of the rock make you use a little bit of body English just to get off the ground, and the handholds higher up are just big enough to hold a few fingertips.

We played around for a little less than hour, with kids running around the tops of the wall yelling, "There's an easier way up back here!" It was a little less than serious (we actually brought, and wore, climbing shoes), but it was enough to give me Popeye-feeling forearms in that short time, and I don't think we even got to the hard stuff.

The bouldering wall ( click here for a Wikipedia definition of bouldering, which seems pretty nonsensical unless you actually take part in it) is part of the $1 million playground at the center of the new $20 million, 80-acre Central Park in Stapleton, which also features a 35-foot sledding hill, fountain, pond and a 3,500-foot promenade. The playground with some interesting architecture -- 5-foot high purple cones straight out of some cartoon I forgot from when I was young enough to play on big purple cones.

The boulders are at the high point of the park, says Dennis Piper, the director of parks and environment for Stapleton, since "It's kind of a cross-section of Colorado landscape." The area around them is cushioned with wood chips, far enough out in every direction to spot a 45-degree fall from the highest point on any of the rocks, Piper said.

"The littlest kids can find a route up, and there's some more challenging stuff on the backside," Piper says. Nothing a couple YourHub.com employees couldn't handle, right?

Well, the retaining wall and boulder were designed and built by climbers who work for Monolithic, or Monolithic employees who climb, however you want to look at it. The boulders are made out of construction foam, the same stuff highways are made out of, then sprayed with concrete, carved, then sandblasted to take off any sharp edges, says Rob Guinn, the office manager at Monolithic.

If you've ever seen an artificial climbing wall, you've seen the often bright-colored screw-in handholds that can be moved to change the routes up the wall. When Monolithic designs an outdoor wall or boulder for a public park, they avoid using pieces that can be removed, Guinn says. The result is a more natural-looking rock, like the ones in Central Park, which, to the non-boulderer, just look like a funky piece of playground art for the kids to play on.

Or, of course, for a couple of guys like Eric and I to thrash around on for a few minutes, muttering, "Wow, I'm out of shape."

Here's where I first heard about the urban climbing at Central Park. Thanks, Nathan.

Parking for Central Park is just north of Martin Luther King Boulevard on Xenia Street. From downtown Denver, take Quebec St. to MLK Boulevard and turn east on MLK. Drive east on MLK .9 miles to Xenia Street and turn north into the parking lot.


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