After 12 years of vertical adventures, first climbs, and memorable moments, Camptown’s indoor climbing gym, The CRUX, is coming down. While we can’t quite yet share what’s coming next, we can look back on a place that means so much to our community.
In celebration of its life, and the thousands of kids who reached new heights upon it, we look back at the story of our beloved climbing gym.
Contents:
- A Blank Canvas
- Planning Our Future
- It Takes a Village to Raise a Rock Wall
- A Need for Speed
- If You Build It…
- Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead
A Blank Canvas
In 2012, Camptown was in a period of transformation. After over a decade in our original homebase, we moved to our current location at 7998 Georgetown Road.
Our new home gave us more than just larger offices and a better lit conference room; nestled in the middle of the building was a large indoor space with high ceilings and unpainted walls. Where some may have seen a future storage space, we saw a blank canvas for Camptown’s future.
For years, our team dreamt of building a place for our students to grow and play, and now we finally could.
Planning Our Future
According to Don Schafer, our former Executive Director, it was Eric Bond who first envisioned a bouldering wall within our office space.
The Program Director at the time, Eric noticed a need within the community: while the climbing craze was beginning to spread across the country, the Indianapolis area still lacked any serious bouldering facilities. Even the most popular climbing gyms, like Climb Time and Hoosier Heights, primarily offered only belay options — the latter had just a small bouldering wall.
After leading Camptown bouldering trips to Red River Gorge, Eric knew just how valuable a bouldering gym could be to the Camptown community. Beyond any revenue opportunities, bouldering offered children a safe way to build confidence, confront fears, and use their bodies in different ways. And the facility itself, with its equipment largely confined to the walls and floor, could be used for a myriad of other activities and functions.
Needless to say, the idea grew roots and never let go!
By the end of 2012, the Camptown team selected Nicros to plan and build the original bouldering wall; the regionally-based climbing company had previously constructed both Indiana University and Purdue University’s climbing gyms. Notably, they also offered a realistic looking rockface, rather than simple plywood walls with holes.
As dreaming turned to planning, Camptown honed in on their expectations for the space. According to Don, the original intent of the gym was to:
- Provide an interesting play space for Camptown students,
- Create an indoor program space for inclement weather,
- Enable new programming options for winter months,
- Open new revenue opportunities (birthday parties, private climbing, etc.), and
- Empower our Youth Leaders with a designated program space.
With the help of Larson Engineering and Nicros, these goals began to take shape.
A copy of the blueprints for The CRUX.
It Takes a Village to Raise a Rock Wall
In early 2013, Camptown launched a fundraising campaign to turn our imagined facility into a physical reality. Through the generous support of individual Hoosiers and corporate donors we raised over $100,000.
With plans in hand and funds in the bank, construction finally began. Over the course of a few months, Nicros transformed our blank canvas into a vibrant climbing space. Finished on February 26th, 2014, the space was dubbed “The CRUX.”
A Need for Speed
How often do you receive spam mail and actually do something with it? Once in a blue moon, right?
Don received a flyer from a New Jersey-based company shortly after the CRUX’s original walls were built. On it was an advertisement for a “speedwall,” a standardized wall specifically built for timed climbs.
Much like bouldering itself, there was nothing like it in Indianapolis.
In 2015, the Lilly Endowment awarded Camptown with a grant to build the CRUX’s speed climbing wall. Further expanding the gym’s programming options, the wall offered students opportunities to practice setting attainable goals, build confidence through measurable improvement, and engage in friendly competition against themselves and others.
Once the speedwall was fully erected, the CRUX was complete.
Students from George Buck School 94 participate in a teambuilding activity (circa 2014)
If You Build It…
They say if you build it that “they” will come. For us, the CRUX brought us thousands of community members from Central Indiana.
As a bouldering gym, the CRUX saw climbers of all ages reach new heights. It was like a second home to the Legore Boys & Girls Club, who often visited us twice per week for weeks at a time, and the Zionsville Trailblazers Program, who visited every year since the space opened. It was home to birthday parties and climbing lessons, and so many groups of so many shapes and so many sizes.
As a multi-purpose space, it quickly became more than just an indoor spot for bad weather days and cold weather months. It prepared future wilderness leaders with CPR courses, Wilderness First Aid trainings, and backpacking classes. It provided special needs students with a safe space to practice their teambuilding. It even hosted special events like Camptown’s Trivia Night, our Wacky Christmas celebration, and Indiana Youth Institute’s luncheons and meetings.
But most importantly, it was a place for our community members to grow. What made the CRUX special was not its size or its programs, but how it was used. Reflecting on the wall itself, Don shared:
“What stuck with me the most was how versatile the CRUX programs were. You didn’t have to climb to the top if you were scared. Climbing one foot up and straight across was perfectly acceptable. The wall made it so easy to set personal (and buildable) goals and intentions to strive to, so each child climbing could finish their program ecstatic and proud of what they accomplished — no matter their skill level or comfort.”
Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead
The CRUX closed its doors on October 7th, 2025. That evening, members of the Camptown community joined us in one final community climb, where we not only bouldered to our hearts’ content but reminisced about the people and the moments that filled the space for over a decade.
We are so thankful for everyone who joined us over the past 12 years.
As this chapter of Camptown ends, our future remains bright and unwritten. While we can’t share details quite yet, 2026 promises to be a big year for our community and our kids! If you’re interested in helping us continue to bring Central Indiana’s youth to new heights, please consider making a planned gift — for more information, click here.