Central Illinois isn’t particularly known for mountains, hilly landscapes, or rocky terrain. But that doesn’t stop many Peorians from engaging in an unlikely sport for this region: rock climbing.
First Ascent (FA) Peoria is an indoor rock-climbing gym located on SW Washington Street in the warehouse district downtown. The gym opened in January 2019, and with it came a huge community of climbers from all around Greater Peoria.
While it may seem out of the blue, a climbing gym is something that Peorians wanted for a very long time, according to gym manager Amanda Villager, who is also a climber herself.
“The climbing community here in Peoria was really strong before the gym opened, but we’ve also seen the gym and the climbing community grow. It’s amazing to see parents coming in with their kids and everybody really enjoying the activity together. It’s a really cool sport that you can enjoy at any age,” said Villager.
Building an indoor rock-climbing facility is a huge undertaking, one that requires precision and patience to build walls of up to 48 feet high. The facility at First Ascent Peoria features two disciplines of climbing. Bouldering is a climbing style that features walls of about 15 to 20 feet. The climber does not wear a harness or rope, and free falls onto the padded mats surrounding the walls.
“That can be a really interesting type of climbing that most people aren't familiar with. Bouldering is … shorter walls, more powerful movements, a lot of technique involved,” explained Villager.
The second form of climbing the gym offers isrope/lead climbing, which is what most people think of when they think of the sport. The climber wears a harness and a rope and climbs walls reaching heights of about 48 feet. While this style of climbing still requires technique and skill, it poses a hefty endurance challenge as well.
Regardless of the style of climbing you choose, as Villager mentioned, climbing is a sport that individuals of any age can and do participate in.
“We have climbers as young as 4, 5 years old who climb at the gym, and our oldest members are considered seniors. They’re in their sometimes 60s, 70s,” Villager said.
This large audience the sport caters to is a key part of what makes climbing so popular, even in Central Illinois. However, it’s not surprising that many people are still hesitant to try out climbing.
Not a boy's club
Gyms in general can be intimidating, especially for women. They have a reputation of being a primarily male-dominated space, and typically don’t specialize in offering a welcoming environment for people who identify outside of that range. While rock climbing was also once a male-dominated sport, Villager said that has changed drastically in the past few years.
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m in the minority at the gym. We have a couple of women at the gym who just crush it, they’re amazing, so I think it’s definitely becoming something that everybody feels comfortable doing. It’s not a boy's club in the gym,” Villager said.
Not only does the gym offer a safe and inclusive space for all people, but it also provides women with the opportunity to succeed in roles of leadership, and challenge assumptions of what strength is and looks like.
Brooke Fredrickson, a 12-year-old climber on the FA Peoria youth climbing Elite team, is a prime example of this. Brooke began climbing when her parents brought her to the gym when it first opened in 2019.
“I didn’t think I was going to go, but I did, and I really liked it. Then I was on team. Now I’m happy,” Brooke said.
Brooke’s strength and skillfulness when it comes to climbing is something that distinguishes her from not only youth climbers, but adults too. Madison Penn is one of the head coaches of the Elite team, along with Alex Kroenke. FA Peoria has two different teams for youths. The Development team features about 17 climbers and is the entry-level climbing team. The Elite team has just four kids on it, and Penn says they are an incredibly strong group of kids.
“It’s really fun to watch them because they are stronger than most adults in the gym. It’s crazy,” Penn said.
In fact, Brooke's strength and determination has landed her a ticket to the 2022 USA Climbing Youth Nationals competition where she will compete in bouldering and represent Peoria later this summer.
This was no easy feat, as Brooke had to compete against stiff competition from several other states, many that have bigger outdoor climbing communities because of where they are located. Penn says the fact that she was able to beat out competition from such strong climbing teams is definitely something to be proud of.
“It’s super exciting. We’re a lot smaller, not everyone has heard of First Ascent Peoria. That being said, I think that most people don’t expect someone from a smaller team to make it this far, so it’s a huge deal … her teammates on the Elite team especially are really excited for her and proud of her,” said Penn.
Also proud of her are her parents, Becky and Scott Fredrickson. As climbers themselves, they know how hard the sport can be.
“She just has a good natural skill and talent and she’s worked really hard and she’s shown that she’s among the best in the area, and that’s pretty neat I think,” said Scott.
Brooke said while making it to Nationals was extremely challenging, for her it was more of a mental game than a physical one.
“You couldn't let yourself think you were doing really badly or else it would go really badly, so you had to just say ‘Oh, I can do this as long as I just keep thinking I can do it’,” Brooke said.
In actual competition, the boys and girls climb the exact same routes, just at different times. Scott Fredrickson said watching this in real time is very impressive.
“You could tell that the girls were just as strong, if not stronger, than a lot of the boys, and that’s pretty exciting to see too. It just doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, you can be very, very strong in this sport,” Fredrickson says.
Next steps in representation
And this strength reaches far beyond the gym too. Providing not only space for women and girls in sports, but allowing them to succeed, blaze trails, and reach new heights provides them with self confidence they can take into the workforce, their relationships, school, and other aspects of their lives.
While the climbing community has expanded in recent years and now includes tons of powerful women, the work to make climbing an inclusive sport for all doesn’t stop there. Madison Penn says people of color need more representation as well.
“Climbing is also a very white sport, and I would love to see more people of color get into it as well, because I think that representation is super important, and I would hate for the reason that someone is like ‘I’m not sure if I want to get into climbing’ be because they don't see anyone that looks like them…at the climbing gym,” explains Penn.
She says not only welcoming women and people of color, but putting them into leadership positions like head coach and route setters is crucial.
“Then little girls or women can see oh, I can be taken seriously in this sport, it’s not just a little hobby for me,” Penn said.
Brooke said her experience as a young girl on the Elite climbing team has been nothing but positive.
“Everybody respects everybody. Nobody is ever like oh yeah you can’t get it. Everybody’s like, oh yeah, she has the same chance as me getting it as anybody else”.
Since debuting in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, it’s clear that the sport of rock climbing is well on its way to supporting all types of climbers, even those in the middle of Central Illinois.
First Ascent Peoria will be hosting the2022 Youth Rope Regional Championship competition on April 9-10. For more information on the youth programs and all the climbing opportunities FA Peoria has to offer, visit theirwebsite.
