Hours/Rates/Directions

Our History

Non-Profit Status

Construction

Staff/Governance

Photo credit: Chris Bersbach

Our History

We here at SLO Op are proud of our rags-to-riches story.

In answer to the limited local climbing opportunities, SLO-OP (a loosely formed co-operative bouldering gym) was established in a Self Storage unit in 2002 by founding members Paul Hatalsky, Julie Workman, and Yishai Horowitz.

Despite the odds against it: small size - only 400 square feet and ten feet tall, the very overhanging, bouldering-specific homemade walls, financially broke even within its first month of operation, and no advertising budget, SLO-Op continued to grow and attract new climbers until the loss of its lease in July 2005.

No one wanted the good times to end. SLO-OP served as a meeting place for climbers and hosted four successful climbing competitions. In the interim, Dan Delisle's rental property provided an outdoor wall for us to meet at, dubbed the "Dan-Op." Waning light and increasing wetness made it begin to lose popularity.

Finally, in March 2006, Horowitz found a new location and galvanized the community into action, using volunteers to construct a steel-framed building using money on loan from interested climbers. The result? SLO-Op II.

The new SLO-OP Climbing expanded on what the first SLO-OP Climbing started while taking advantage its increased size, legal entity (now an LLC and 501(c)7 non-profit), and extended membership base.

A comp at SLO Op II - quite a bit larger and more populated this go-round, eh?

And then it got bigger and we got better. And now we've moved again, to a bouldering facility that boasts about 3500 square feet of sick bouldering with top outs, a crack machine, slackline, and hangboard. We hope to offer clinics, teams, and more great climbing related goodness.