Excitement in Southern California is building as the grand opening Touchstone’s newest gym, the LA.B approaches. The Los Angeles gym features 13,000 square feet of climbing terrain and is modeled after Dogpatch Boulders in San Francisco.
The gym will offer two designated areas for fitness. The cardio area will house treadmills and exercise equipment while the weight area will contain freeweights, a campus board, hangboard, and other training equipment. “While we won’t be offering studio classes at the time of the grand opening, we are looking into the possibility of adding a space for group fitness in the future,” said Remi Moehring, LA.B manager.
Located in the Arts District of downtown LA, LA.B resides next to a host of small businesses and great food. “Urth Cafe, Umami Burger, Angel City Brewing Co., Little Tokyo, and Egg Slut food truck are all local favorites within three blocks of the gym. It’s a unique, up-and-coming neighborhood, and we’re excited to be a part of its growth,” said Moehring. Beyond the location, the LA.B will be a great place for the climbing community to gather.
“People are insanely psyched about the presence of a new, large, state-of-the-art bouldering gym, and are chomping at the bit to get on the walls,” said Moehring. Touchstone’s Head Route setter, Jeremy Ho, agreed. “There’s a really strong community and they haven’t had a central place to band together.” Ho expressed his amazement at how excited everyone was for the new gym.
Perhaps a large part of the excitement stems from the amazing terrain. The gym includes bouldering top outs with the walls being as high as 18 feet. Stone Age holds produced over 7,000 holds. So Ill, Tecniks, EGrips, Pusher and other companies have supplied another 1200 holds. Starting in December, ten route setters from the bay area Touchstone gyms will fly to Los Angeles to help the five current LA.B setters establish hundreds of new problems. With the walls done and Flashed climbing finishing the flooring this week, the LA.B will soon be the biggest bouldering gym in Southern California.
“We keep getting emails with subject lines like, “SO EXCITED! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHEN WILL YOU BE OPEN?” said Moehring. “So based on that, we can safely conclude that people are looking forward to it, and so are we.”
