I Cleaned Toilets in a Climbing Gym All Winter Long

Here's what I learned

When I settled into Albany four years ago, there were rumors about a new Central Rock Gym climbing facility coming to town. My ears perked up immediately for two reasons: I was unhappy with the climbing facility where I was climbing and training. And because I wanted to work there.

After many delays, and a few years later, the gym finally opened in July 2025. Sometime before opening, I was hired as front desk personnel and became part of the original crew that opened the gym. It was exciting to be involved with something new.

Throughout the summer, I worked a handful of hours, but I mainly focused on my guiding season. Then, when November rolled around, I started working more and more. By December, and for the rest of the winter, I was working four days a week. Here’s what I learned.

Modern Indoor Climbing Exists Within a Vacuum, Completely Separate From Outdoor Climbing

Over the past decade of rock climbing, I lived under the assumption that indoor climbing was training for outdoor climbing. Everything I did inside was designed to replicate what I did outside and prepare me to be a better outdoor climber.

I was naive in my thinking.

Modern indoor climbing facilities are not that interested in replicating the outdoor experience. Instead, the indoor business model aims to create a uniquely indoor, recreational, or hobbyist entertainment experience, much like a bowling alley.

More interestingly, many modern indoor rock climbers have zero relationship with the outdoors. Instead, they’re perfectly content being an indoor climber. The experience provides all the physical and emotional stimuli they require to be challenged and entertained.

Speaking of Vacuum, I Learned How to Operate a Backpack Vacuum

There’s a running joke from my dad’s side of the family that the men are obsessed with vacuums. It comes from my grandpa’s genuine interest in vacuums and his attention to detail while vacuuming. My dad got the same gene.

And by god, I think I did too.

Pushing a vacuum over padded and carpeted flooring surfaces in the gym is wildly satisfying. Sure, my eyes glaze over sometimes, and I wonder what the frick I’m doing there. But most times, watching the machine inhale endless amounts of climbing chalk, hair, finger and toenails, and shoe rubber, and leaving manicured vacuum lines in my wake, lights up the pleasure zones in my brain like a Christmas tree.

Plus, backpack vacuums make you look like a Ghostbuster.

Instructing Lead Climbing Indoors is Nothing Like Outdoor

As the only climbing guide on staff, I was quickly trained to instruct lead climbing classes every two weeks. To start, I shadowed my general manager while they taught the sessions. Then, after a couple of classes, I took the reins, and he shadowed me. After each session, we debriefed. Slowly, I felt more comfortable with the curriculum.

It turned out to be much more nuanced than I thought.

Fortunately, I was impressed by the curriculum Central Rock Gym designed. It dovetailed nicely with the way the American Mountain Guide teaches its single-pitch and climbing-wall instructors. In addition to the corporate curriculum I was required to regurgitate, I enjoyed the challenge of distilling what I already knew about lead climbing for an indoor climbing audience.

It forced me to really embrace the indoor climbing context for what it was, rather than always comparing it to the outdoors. Over the winter, I dialed in my sessions and improved my andragogy. I enjoyed seeing my students' progress and the pride they felt when they became lead-certified.

I Was Starved of Social Interaction During Previous Winters

I’ve worked in two other climbing facilities over the years. While each one is different, there seems to be a constant theme: working with other people passionate about rock climbing is a lot of fun.

Many of the full-time folks at the gym came from a different Central Rock Gym facility. And the general manager did a good job hiring new people and building his team. The crew is young, goofy, and motivated.

As a result, my workplace became a weekly hangout, and that did wonders for my mental health during the winter. Every day sort of feels like going to work with friends.

I’ve enjoyed the new friendships and social interaction, especially during the winter. There’s more life, humor, and silliness. And I’ve enjoyed being a friendly face that our membership recognizes.

My Blue-Collar Heritage Came In Handy

Remember my vacuum-loving grandpa from above? After the military, he spent his career owning and operating a tire shop with my grandma. My dad and all my uncles worked there as kids and young adults.

As a kid, I used to visit the shop. And I have a lot of memories of my grandpa working around the house and landscaping in the yard. There is a photo somewhere of me in diapers holding a small axe, working with my grandpa. Likewise, even though my dad got into corporate America, he also managed many household projects. (Some might still be unfinished to this day.)

As a result, I think I inherited that blue-collar work ethic like my dad and uncles. One uncle lives on a ranch in Texas, another paints houses, and the third builds floats for the Rose Bowl. This is good because “front desk personnel” in the indoor climbing industry is actually code for: vacuumer, window wiper, sweeper, mopper, and toilet cleaner.

The work is simple. And after an entire climbing season of taking my life and the lives of others into my hands, I learned to welcome the low-pressure tasks, like scrubbing toilets. (Except when it looks like someone powerwashed the back of the bowl with their feces. That’s just gross. And I’ll never understand the dietary conditions and the physics that create such an event.)

The Gym Is a Funnel

I started this newsletter off with a hot take. I said, “modern indoor climbing exists within a vacuum, completely separate from outdoor climbing.” While I think that’s partly true, I want to challenge that idea and challenge myself.

The climbing gym is not just a vacuum or a place people go to climb inside. It’s a funnel to the outdoors.

Over the past winter, I interacted with many climbers who were craving something more. They wanted to get stronger fingers and fewer injuries. They wanted to learn new skills and deploy new tools. They wanted to experience different styles of climbing.

SHOCKER ALERT: They wanted to go outside.

When I was getting interviewed, I made it clear that I was already invested in the local Gunks climbing community. And that I was excited to play a part in the sport's long-term growth in the New York capital region.

I meant it.

I foresee a long working relationship with this new climbing facility where I can offer my expertise as a climbing guide. (One day, I plan to provide AMGA climbing wall instructor programming in the gym.) And most days, I’m wheeling and dealing, trying to get people psyched about climbing outside and to understand the value of hiring a guide.

But if they just want to be indoor climbers, that’s cool too, I guess.

At the very least, working inside during the winter and being involved in an industry I genuinely love is way more meaningful than hanging Christmas lights.

Climbing Roofs Not Rocks