east valley
Volume 4 Issue 09 Mesa, AZ
September 12, 2021
Mesa business helps folks climb to new heights BY MELODY BIRKETT Tribune Contributor
A
IN THE BIZ
rock climber for 28 years, Joe Czerwinski turned his passion into a business. He opened Focus Climbing Center near Dobson and Broadway roads, Mesa, in 2013 – years after a friend had told him about a rock-climbing facility in Tempe. “I got into climbing in general by hiking Camelback Mountain every week with a friend,” explained Czerwinski. “My friend asked, ‘I wonder if there’s a company that takes you outside and does this?’ I said, ‘I don’t think that sounds very safe.’ That’s how I left it.” The following week, Czerwinski’s friend told him about an indoor rock-climbing facility in Tempe. “‘It’s totally safe. It’s a great place to meet girls,’” Czerwinski recalled. “I said, ‘Let’s go.’ Oddly enough, I ended up meeting my future girlfriend and wife at that facility.” Czerwinski and his wife have been married for almost 21 years. Making a business out of his hobby seemed only logical. “Climbing is an instinctual sport,” Czerwinski said. “Every person has tried to climb. We’ve all have climbed out of our cribs, up the counters towards the cookie jar, on the couch.” At Focus Climbing, he said, “We offer a variety of accommodating angles, all types for kids, adults, all shapes and sizes. The youngest one who has scaled the full Public Notices ............... page 2 © Copyright, 2021 East Valley Tribune
height walls in our gym at 28 feet was 18 months old.” “What sets us apart is we don’t have any top ropes,” said Czerwinski. “When I was growing up as a climber, a lot of these other gyms I went to in Phoenix had a lot of top ropes with their main style of climbing of vertical walls at full height. “I would always run into people who weren’t climbing or didn’t come in for a couple of weeks because their partner was on a work trip or was sick.” Instead, the gym offers fullheight climbing with auto blades which allow people to climb by themselves. “Auto blades is a device that allows you to climb a full height Joe Czerwinski has been climbing for nearly three dewall without a partner,” Czer- cades and decided to turn his passion into a Mesa busiwinski said. “There’s some fancy ness in 2013. (Special to the Tribune) technology in this device that sits Bouldering has become increasingly at the top of the wall and if you happen to popular over the past 10 years, Czerwinfall or slip off the wall, it’ll lower you down ski said. to the ground at the same rate as if you’re “Saying I’m a climber is as general as walking across the ground at a regular saying I’m a car racer. With climbing you pace. can be a big wall climber, you can be an Al“It’s a very comfortable control of de- pinist climber, you can be a sport climber, scent as you get down to the ground. Then tread climber, boulder climber or someyou start all over again.” one who just goes to the gym. All of those Each auto blade gives climbers access to give you a different experience.” about eight routes for a total of 64. Czerwinski said indoor rock climbing The 6,500-square-foot gym also has a has both similarities to and major differbouldering area with 3,000 square feet of ences from outdoor climbing. seamless landing area. “You’re moving the same way but out(USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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