I chose to write about this little gem because I feel like so few people know about it. We have a world class outdoor climbing wall right in downtown Columbus! In Columbus, we really don’t have a strong outdoor community. You would expect to find a public outdoor climbing wall in a city like Portland or Denver, but in Columbus it is a welcome surprise. Supposedly, this is the largest free outdoor climbing wall in the country. The park system spent $600,000 to build it. This park sits just on the edge of downtown on a former industrial site between some good neighborhoods and some not so good neighborhoods. This gives it an interesting feel. Some visitors are well heeled, and others not so much. The other thing that I noticed is that because this wall is in a metro park in the middle of downtown, there are a lot of non-climbers using the park too. It is always interesting to watch their reactions when they see rock climbers in action. Having a park like this really draws attention to this fringe sport. The other thing that I like about this park is the size of it. This is a large chunk of green-space in the middle of the city. This helps to make the city feel less dense and really improves the quality of life by giving everyone that lives downtown some elbow room I have not seen another city with anything like this. It really makes Columbus unique.
