Big Red: The New NOLS Southwest Climbing Wall is Open!

The newly renovated thirty-two foot wide climbing wall is officially open for branch pleasure! This past spring the existing climbing wall, located behind the outfitting building at the NOLS Southwest, was showing serious signs of sun and water damage. The compromised structural integrity was a hazardous issue for student and staff climbers. As a result, the branch decided this fall to rebuild the existing wall and expand the square footage, making the wall twice as wide as the original size. Since water damage was an issue in the past, a gutter was installed above the wall to prolong its life.

The primary builders of the wall, Dennis Sanders and Andrew Megas-Russell, would like to extend a thank you to the many people who helped complete little bits of work on the wall here and there. We are also grateful to NOLS for providing the funds to make this project happen. Students from all three semesters have climbed on the new wall during their transition days at the branch. They have been excited to climb and are grateful for the hard work put into the wall.

Check out the complete climbing wall photo album on the NOLS Southwest Flickr account!