Today we’d like to introduce you to Dustin Lyons.
Dustin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I and my business and climbing partner Susan Sims had just finished climbing Denali last year and we were looking for a new project. Susan was looking to train for a type of climbing called dry-tooling at a gym I had in my warehouse.
We then decided to bring in in a professional coach and athlete, Marcus Garcia to teacher training at a clinic, and the response to that was so positive that we decided to open the gym up full time. After that, we decided to start coaching a youth team and host competitions that brought in competitors from all over the country to compete.
Since then we have been involved in growing the sport of ice climbing and mixed climbing and building up our business.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are only two other dry-tooling gyms in the United States so the market is very small. Also, the sport is one of the youngest forms of competition climbing so we are having to introduce a lot of people, including climbers, to a whole new sport.
Also, ice and mixed climbing have traditionally been considered to be very seasonal forms of climbing, done outside, in the winter. Being able to climb indoors year-round is something that we are trying to get people excited about doing.
There are also the same challenges all new businesses face, but we’ve encountered a lot of enthusiasm for what we are doing too, not only from the community but in the outdoor industry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Scratch Pad Drytooling Gym?
We are an indoor dry tooling gym. Drytooling is a form of climbing where you climb on rock, using tools normally used on ice. We are unusual in that we are a climbing gym that is dedicated to dry tooling.
Many gyms around the country allow Drytooling climbing in their gyms on tools made out of wood that people can use on plastic holds, but we have specialized holds that people can climb on with the same tools which they would use outside, which isn’t allowed in other gyms, but is much better practice.
We are open for recreational climbers to enjoy climbing, we offer private instruction and guiding, we host national competitions at our facility, and train a youth program with the current world champion for his age division.
What matters most to you?
Building community. We love to see the enthusiasm people experience when trying out dry tooling for the first time. We’ve had people come in who have never climbed before and received tremendously positive feedback. We also want to help grow the sport and introduce more people to it.
The hope is that it could be an Olympic sport soon, so it is really amazing to be training people in our gym that could go on to be professional athletes competing to represent our country in the Olympics someday. But on a day-to-day basis, it’s just fun for us to do.
Pricing:
- Day pass $12
- The monthly pass is $49.99
- Gear rentals are available.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.climbthescratchpad.com
- Instagram: @climbthescratchpad
- Facebook: @thescratchpad
- Youtube: The Scratch Pad
- Other: @climbthescratchpad
Image Credits
David Frietz
