Social climbing

Terrain Park Climbing Center, co-owned by Paul Hendricks and Mitch Robison, is not only a public climbing gym, it’s also a new kind of community and social gathering place. Born and raised in Red Bluff, Hendricks (pictured) and Robison have known each other all their lives. They both attended Long Beach State, where Hendricks got a degree in marketing and Robison studied accounting. After graduation, they had a shared goal and the skills they needed to launch Terrain Park, which opened last month. In addition to features like a large and colorful climbing area with lots of mats, there’s a full weight room as well as a lounge. Terrain Park also plans to offer activities like workshops, camps, movie nights and more. Hendricks recently took the time to sit down and answer a few questions for the CN&R. Drop by 931 W. Fifth St. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Friday or 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday or visit their website at terrainparkclimbingcenter.com.

Are you the only climbing gym in town?

We have the only public [climbing] gym in Chico. There’s the Chico State WREC Center; they have a [climbing] gym in there that’s open for students. It has bouldering and rope climbing. We’re strictly bouldering here ….

What do you offer besides bouldering?

We have not only the climbing wall, but also the slackline area and then a whole upstairs lounge area with board games, TV, couches, ping-pong, foosball. We see people coming in, trying out the climbing and having a ball with that, and then their fingers and muscles get sore—it’s a new thing, you’re working new muscles. They’ll take a break, hop on the slackline, have some fun with that, go upstairs, play Uno with their parents or we have a Wii.

Do you get a lot of college students?

Yeah, we’ve been getting a lot of students. I would say, surprisingly, we’ve been getting tons of families. It seems like there was a demand for something more family-oriented that had an inexpensive price point—our day pass is $10 for unlimited use.

So, parents can send their kids here?

We’ve actually had a ton of that. Been getting the high school crowd in here—they come in with their parents for the first time and get their membership taken care of and, as long as they’re 14 and older, they can ride their bike here after school and do their climbing and then come up here and do their homework.

What kind of community are you building?

The clientele that we get in here, you couldn’t pick better people. They’re outdoor-oriented and very friendly. It’s really cool to be able to have these role-model-type people walking around as our members, like they’re an extension of us, so when we have guests and families come in and they get to see these successful, fit, friendly, nice, welcoming people. It just adds to the whole experience of the gym.