New climbing gym planned for Great Barrington

Berkshire Boulders, a rock climbing gym, is set to open in the Berkshires later this year, aiming to do more than fill a gap in indoor recreation — it could help bring climbing further into the region’s mainstream.

Its co-founders already have their sights set beyond the roughly 2,000 square feet of climbable wall planned for a site off Route 7, just north of downtown Great Barrington.

“There’s an opportunity that I felt was on the table to bring outdoor recreation and these other sports into the public domain,” said Nick Friedman, a Sheffield resident behind the project, alongside Dan Yagmin.

Friedman said that while underground communities in the region around more adventurous outdoor sports, such as rock climbing and mountain biking, have long existed, they have often been overlooked compared with more traditional pastimes like hiking.

With the gym, “I feel like we could make a start in formalizing these forms of outdoor recreation,” Friedman said. He described it as a way to create a more tangible connection between the broader community and a climbing scene that has developed quietly for decades.

Berkshire Boulders is the brainchild of Friedman, who began climbing 20 years ago on the gneiss boulders and bluffs that dot the hills around Great Barrington, and Yagmin, a climber with three decades of experience originally from central Connecticut who now lives between Winsted and Colebrook.

Both bring entrepreneurial experience to the project. Friedman co-founded Theory Wellness, a cannabis dispensary in Great Barrington where he now serves as chief strategic officer. Yagmin combined his passion for climbing, training in fine arts and years as a climbing gym route setter to start Decoy Holds, producing nature-inspired climbing grips.

Yagmin is shaping the climbing experience at the new gym at 325 Stockbridge Rd., which will focus on bouldering, a form of ropeless climbing on walls typically under 15 feet tall, with padded floors for protection. His holds take cues from real rock types, including the granitic gneiss found across the Berkshires and prized by climbers

Even though the gym is indoors, the connection to the rock outside is central to its mission. Friedman serves on the board of the Western Massachusetts Climbers Coalition, which works with governments, landowners and land managers to keep climbing areas open and accessible.

He said the project is structured so that any profits from the gym will support organizations that advance access to climbing.

“I have no investors, no lenders, and I’m self-financing,” he said. “So I plan on donating any available profits to an organization that aligns with the mission, which is really to make climbing more accessible.”

Accessibility, he added, also means affordability. He plans to offer reduced memberships for those facing financial hardship.

“Then hopefully as the gym gets going and grows,” he said, “that can become a bigger and bigger component.”

Yagmin said the gym could become both a hub for local climbers and an entry point for newcomers.
“I think a lot of people just don’t really understand the sport,” he said. With the gym, “hopefully people stop in, start getting familiar with it and see that it’s a positive thing.”

Friedman said that when he and Yagmin were introduced through the local climbing network, the idea of a gym had been “percolating around the Berkshires for decades.”

Until Berkshire Boulders opens — which he estimates will be this summer — the closest dedicated climbing gyms are roughly an hour away, including those in Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Albany and West Hartford.

Until then, Friedman and Yagmin have their plates full. Since announcing the project last month, Friedman said interest from prospective members has been strong.

The pair are in the process of gathering information to plan adult and children’s programming, though details are still to come.

In addition to bouldering walls, the gym will include climbing-specific training equipment and a standard fitness area. An FAQ page on the website, berkshireboulders.com, also references a hangout space, retail section, outdoor area overlooking a bend in the Housatonic River, and possibly a sauna and cold plunge.

Friedman said the final product will reflect the needs of its users.

“This gym is really oriented to be there for the community,” he said, “so we want to reflect that community as best we can.”