The Evergreen Gym

Woah, the Evergreen gym. SO many fond memories. In fact, the absolute birth place of the inspiration that lead to my climbing career (part 2). I used to work in the TESC climbing gym. For nearly three and a half years I inhaled stale sweat, chalk dust, normal dust, and patchouli oil. I dragged giant foam mats from one corner to the next and got blisters on my finger tips from screwing and unscrewing countless holds from the plywood paradise painted grey which transformed an ordinary racquetball court into a rock jockeys artificial play ground.

My first memory of the rock gym was stepping inside of the musty dimly lit room after a basketball game. I had just started attending TESC and was more interested in getting in good with the basketball coach then I was with trolling local climbers for beta on the best crags. I took a look around and on the next trip up to Seattle I made a point to look through my old climbing gear and find a pair of shoes and a chalk bag. Upon my next trip to the climbing gym I donned a pair of Anasazi Mocasyms (the red slippers) that I hadn't worn since I was 14, an old CG chalk bag, and my usual basketball attire. I traversed around and even got to set a problem. The people in the gym were extremely nice and welcoming. The atmosphere was a good one and I remembered why I had fallen in love with climbing all those years ago. So, I started climbing again. From that point on I would show up on a regular weekly basis. Basketball still took priority, but every now and then I would stop in at the rock wall and try to throw down on the latest problem. I met a lot of people who were continuously stoked on climbing and improving their skills. Travis, Daniel, Eligh, to name a few. Travis was really the catalyst bahind the Olympia climbing community at Evergreen having people over on a weekly basis to watch the latest climbing flick, eat good food, drink, and just talk climbing. A year went by and I finally started to garner a wage by coming into the gym, setting routes, and just climbing and encouraging other people to climb (ahh, the cycle continues).

The gym was always kind of a thorn in the side of the College's recreational budget and never really got the kind of attention it deserved without some severe teeth pulling by the student organizations that begged and pleaded for money. We did however manage to get $5,000 worth of holds one year and boy was that like Christmas everyday.

As time went on I started to meet more and more people just by working and climbing in the gym. I never went downtown to the Warehouse Rock gym at this point, I was too enamored with the tall grey walls of 'my' gym (affectionately 'my' gym). For almost a year I climbed solely inside before I finally was invited on a Smith Rock climbing trip. As I met more and more people the inevitable happened and I found myself drenched in terror and quick draws over-gripping my way up some real rock. It took a few trips but I eventually caught the real-rock-bug and became an outdoor junky. This only made me want to improve so I could climb the dream lines outside (and impress my friends). I started to set more and more in the Eevergreen gym. I can remember when I was the only one setting, besides a few others, and I had full creative range. I would try and set anything that I thought would stop me, but was doable. I became a bit selfish with what I would set and I started setting 'projects' (back then a project was in the V.6/7 range) specifically tailored to the kind of movement I enjoyed or found challenging. I set long circuits of V.3-V.5/6 traverses and would try to link them into one another for endurance training (this definitely became one of my favorite activities in the gym). My favorite wall in the gym was our 45. It was short, but utilised correctly, you could really get strong on this thing. I would try and plaster every t-nut with crimps on the 45 and just go around and around until I couldn't close my hands. Such good times!

The best sessions in the gym consisted of Dom, Nick, Jimmy and myself all sessioning the sick futuristic lines I was trying to envision and bring to life. The gym had a sort of intimate feel to it somedays, almost an exclusivity to it that when talking of where you climbed made one puff up there chest and declare "I train at the Evergreen gym" (maybe that was just me?).

My boulder problems and traverses started to gain notoriety within the small community drawing suitors from every corner of Olympia (okay, it was more like a few of my friends that I would spray endlessly too about my problems until they finally came to try them out of sympathy). The first major boulder problem (really a traverse) was Black Beauty. It was only V.6 (more like a .12c route) but it took me ages to finally get the send. Nick, Jimmy, and Dom were all fighting for the second third and fourth ascents and soon it was falling on a regular basis. I can remember when Jimmy came in for the first time since I had started setting hard boulder problems and made a flash ascent of Slap Face which was shutting everyone down at the time. I met Laura and Dom through this gym, and Nick was an old time gym goer who I met through the gym's guru Travis. The people I met through the Eevrgreen gym are still my climbing partners to this day!

I loved this gym, and have easily climbed and set some of the hardest and most classic boulder problems of my entire life. Some of the problems I remember the most were 'Knock Out Mouse' (V.7), 'Chemical Cat' (V.8), 'Triton's Daughters' (V.7), 'Poisoned Catalyst' (V.6), 'The New Hotness' (V.9), 'Where the Sidewalk Ends'(V.10/11), and 'I've Got Mono'(V.4, probably the best boulder problem I have EVER set). There are so many more amazing problems that this gym has given birth to, but I just can't remember them all.

Finally, time took it's toll on the gym. No money was being spent on maintenance, the walls started to get worn down, and the large foam mattresses started hemorrhaging foam to the point to where they were not as fun to land on anymore. I finally gave up my post as caretaker and moved on to a more professional setting and the gym fell into obscurity. I started setting at the Warehouse and eventually just forgot abut the gym and it's golden years.

I have been going to the Evergreen weight room lately and noticed that the TESC Rock Gym has finally received funding to install brand new certified rock gym floors!! A HUGE step forward for this gym. Now, all they need to do is buy all new holds, re-finish and patch the existing walls, re-t-nut the entire gym, add new lighting, and install a ventilation system and it will be all good. But I guess new floors is a decent start. I owe a lot to this little gym. It has changed my life. I can honestly say that I probably would not be where I am today, know the people I know, or enjoy life as much as I do if the Evergreen gym had not existed. And for that, I salute you!