Building a new business from the ground up while keeping up a day job can be too much for most people, but fortunately, Mike Kinnick has a good grip on things.
A longtime rock climber and adventure enthusiast, Kinnick recently opened the doors to the Charlottesville area’s newest rock climbing and bouldering gym, Rock Revolution Climbing.
“I just saw the opportunity to bring a modern gym to town and this side of town too,” Kinnick, who is managing director of a bank by day, told The Daily Progress. “I thought it was a good location.”
Located at the head of Old Ivy Road within eyesight of the University of Virginia’s baseball stadium, Davenport Field, the former two-story office building Kinnick acquired in 2023 and transformed into a state-of-the-art climbing facility is well situated for climbers whether they be UVa students or residents of Charlottesville and western Albemarle County.
Built in 1975, the 6,620 square-foot structure at 2200 Old Ivy Road has sat vacant since the pandemic. Prior to that, Kinnick said Har-Tru, a tennis court and equipment company based out of Troy, operated the space.
The majority of the gym is dominated by 16-foot-tall walls for bouldering, a form of rock climbing sans ropes and harnesses, totaling around 4,000 square feet of climbing terrain. Under the direction of head route setter Jeremy DeBaere, a quarter of the bouldering walls will be reset on a weekly basis, offering 10 revolving routes to keep things interesting and challenging for climbers.
Rock Revolution’s year-round members and day-pass holders also have access to yoga and movement classes, a workout area with traditional and climbing-oriented gym equipment, a kid’s zone with automated-belay lanes and, the pièce de résistance, a “Tension Board.”
While a Tension Board may not mean much to nonclimbers, Kinnick said the adjustable wall is “very popular” among those in the bouldering community. The climber can adjust the degree of the wall’s angle and, through an app on their phone, select one of “hundreds of thousands of routes” available to be displayed by LED lights on the board’s climbing holds.
“This is the only one in Central Virginia, so people travel just to use this,” he said.
Raised in Michigan, where he climbed in college, Kinnick said he’s long been drawn to the physical and mental demand of the sport, but also the people.
“Any gym you go to the community is super supportive. It’s a really cool sport,” he said. “My goal is to bring that community here, to expand that community. Our hope is to offer something for everyone, from beginner climbers to very experienced climbers.”
Kinnick and his wife, Jessica, moved to the area with their two young daughters from Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020, largely attracted to the abundance of recreational activities offered by Central Virginia’s mountains and other geographic features.
Though a handful of outdoor climbing opportunities, or crags, lie within an hour’s drive of their new home, Kinnick quickly realized that the Charlottesville area was lacking sufficient indoor spaces, especially after encountering other Charlottesville residents while training at Triangle Rock Club all the way in Richmond.
“So obviously, there’s a huge opportunity,” he recalled thinking at the time.
For decades, the city has only had one indoor rock climbing and bouldering option, Rocky Top Climbing, which has been based in McIntire Plaza just north of downtown since 1994.
Given the grand opening of Rock Revolution drew a crowd of 300 people over Labor Day weekend — with a home UVa football game taking place at the exact same time — Kinnick feels comfortable that the “market is big enough for both of us.”
Looking ahead, the budding entrepreneur plans to build out the Charlottesville gym to include full-service rope climbing walls to provide other options aside from bouldering. Additionally, he hopes to organize a youth club team to compete in meets.
He may have only just launched Rock Revolution, but Kinnick said he’s already eyeing expansion into the Harrisonburg and Staunton markets. Some may call it ambitious, others might say, “Climb on.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com