SME FEATURE
EXPLORING NEW
HEIGHTS
IB: Where did the idea to set up a climbing wall come from? BB: My business partner Al had always wanted to open one. It had been on his mind for quite some time but he never really 38
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had the right person to do it with. I had taken voluntary redundancy from Dell and was looking for something to do but didn’t want to go back and work for another multinational. I wanted
to do something fun and cool. I was having dinner with a friend of mine and we were chatting about the possibility. I texted Al and he got back and said “let’s do it!” It all happened very quickly.
IB: Why did you choose to focus on bouldering rather than top rope and lead climbing? BB: It’s more where our heart was. When we originally decided to do it Al was adamant that it had to be just bouldering. I was unsure and thought that perhaps it should be a bit of both. I travelled over to the UK and did a tour of all the walls there and noticed that the vibe with bouldering walls was much better. There just seemed to be more craic than in lead walls or top open
Cristian Gâitan
Brian Bliss and Al Sarhan left high flying corporate jobs to follow their dream of building a climbing wall in Ireland. InBUSINESS caught up with Brian to discover how the new Dublin-based indoor facility aims to cater for the growing number of people interested in the sport of bouldering.
InBUSINESS | Q1 2015
14/04/2015 14:55