The rock climbers inched toward the summit of Colorado’s Mount Blue Sky (formerly known as Mount Evans). They tiptoed along ledges no wider than a dime, wedging their fingers into stony cracks and ascending higher with every move—defying gravity itself. Suddenly, Sebastiaan Zuidweg notices ghostly spiderwebs crackling through the air. The metal gear clipped to his clothes begins to hum with electric energy. A massive storm sweeps abruptly over the summit.
“It just unleashed on us. It was snow, hail, sleet, and a lightning storm. It was terrifying!” Zuidweg recounts the harrowing experience with wide eyes. With a rueful headshake, he concludes, “Everyone lived.”
But Zuidweg, a lifelong climber, knows that a tango with high-stakes danger is not (necessarily) the goal of the sport. Instead, he explains, “There's this real applicable, metaphorical experience of overcoming your obstacles and challenges and maybe facing your fear. And it's not so much a physical challenge; it's more mental.”
Because rock climbing is so transformational, Sebastiaan and his wife, and climbing partner, Laura, decided to build a crag inside a massive industrial building on Durango’s outskirts. They put out a call for helpers in 2022, and locals turned out in force for the demolition party. Others acted as patrons, purchasing annual memberships for an indoor climbing gym that wasn’t even built yet.
“The community deserves some credit for our success and for helping us out,” Zuidweg affirms.
Today, Gravity Lab serves up a 6,300-square-foot playground packed with 130 different bouldering and rope routes, as well as weight and cardio training equipment and yoga classes. The gym offers a bountiful selection of courses, clinics, youth programs, league competitions, and adaptive programs for people with disabilities.
“I think there's a misconception that climbing is scary, that it's only for really strong upper-bodied people, and that it’s dangerous. But it’s not. Climbing is for everybody,” Zuidweg declares, noting that inclusivity is a core value within Gravity Lab’s mission. “We’ve got people of all ages, sizes, and types that climb here. You'll see brand-new climbers mingling very seamlessly with really strong, expert climbers. It's a pretty open and welcoming community.”
Zuidweg took up climbing as a teenager. Growing up in Washington state, he was innately outdoorsy, but when he and his brother took an outdoor education class that included climbing—at that time a newer sport, relatively unknown and largely mysterious—Zuidweg was hooked! Every crag or tower taught him how to convert impossibilities into opportunities. He climbed throughout his college years in Boulder, worked as a climbing instructor for youth programs, and wove the benefits of climbing into as many sectors of his life as possible. “That’s how I met my wife. We were both climbing partners first before we started dating. She was a climbing guide for a long time in Crested Butte. And most of my friends are in the climbing community. Like-minded people. Like-hearted people,” he says, grinning.
The more Zuidweg climbed, the more he noticed evidence of profound and surprising self-improvement. “For me as a kid, it was a way to practice mindfulness, self-awareness, and linking my brain with my body,” Zuidweg says.
Ultimately, he realized that climbing trains mental, emotional, and physical muscles. Zuidweg describes climbing as a slow sport, akin to doing tai chi while dangling from a cliff. Learning to navigate routes—in the wilderness or in the gym—promotes crucial bilateral brain-body connections. It demands focus and develops better balance.
With so many wide-ranging benefits to be gleaned from rock climbing, Gravity Lab naturally partners extensively with local schools, homeschools, adaptive sports organizations, veterans’ groups, and corporate entities—any one of which might be looking to cultivate physical fitness, team-building, effective communication, and dynamic social-emotional skillsets. Of course, visitors need not undertake a deep, transformational journey of the soul when visiting the gym. Anyone can show up and simply have a blast ascending the brightly colored crimps, slopers, and jugs dotting the walls. Additionally, the entire gym can be rented out for private birthday bashes or staff retreats.
“Anybody brand-new to climbing can come in here and, on their first day, pretty quickly have a really fun, positive experience,” Zuidweg says.
Over the next two years, a planned expansion will double the height of the gym’s climbing walls. For Zuidweg, Gravity Lab’s growth is a clear sign that the community is ready for a full send—that is, people are eager to overcome their limits and seize new opportunities.
“Anybody brand new to climbing can […] have a really fun, positive experience.”
…climbing trains mental, emotional, and physical muscles.