Climbing to the Top: So why would a Sandia engineer chuck it all and build a climbing gym for rockhounds? Well, why not?

New Mexico Business Journal, Dec, 2001 by John D. German III

THE CAREER MOVE BRYAN made in 1997 was a real cliffhanger. He left his comfy, high-salaried job as a robotics engineer at Sandia National Laboratories to chase an obsession he calls an "expertise."

Banks wouldn't talk to him about a loan because the startup he proposed was too unusual. He could provide no good statistics about revenue projections or success rates for similar startups. His sole local competitor wasn't sleeping on silk either.

But Pletta was determined. Intuitively he knew a market existed for the services he wanted to offer. Most important, he was tired of working at Sandia and was ready for a new challenge. And perhaps he had watched "Field of Dreams" too many times, the baseball movie that provided the American entrepreneur with the all-time most inspiring mantra: "IF you build it, they will come."

So Pletta built his own corporate ladder, and then he climbed it straight to the top.

Pletta is sole owner and president of Stone Age Climbing Gym in Albuquerque. The gym provides 4,700 square feet of vertical and super-vertical wall space for rock hounds to climb, hang off of, and look up at.

Stone Age climbers get 25-foot-high walls to scale. A professional route designer comes in weekly to adjust hand and foot holds to give the gym's repeat customers new feats to master. A bouldering cave allows those who prefer to go ropeless with a variety of angles to cling to.

On a recent Monday afternoon the gym's 15 patrons looked like so many spiders slinking up vertical walls or rappelling to the spongy floor on ropes attached to body harnesses.

Pletta's customers include outdoor types who know the differences among free climbing, soloing, or toproping, or why a cliff face with a 5.14 rating is something to fear and aspire to. Many of his hard-core customers buy monthly or annual memberships, much like those offered at a fitness club.

But Stone Age's success is due primarily to the diversity of services the gym offers, says Pletta, and the ease with which a newcomer can become involved in the sport of rock climbing by way of his gym. A beginner wanting to try rock climbing with no strings attached can walk in the door, pay for a day pass ($9.50), rent all the needed equipment ($6), and get personalized attention in basic safety skills the same day. Discounted five- and ten-visit punch cards are available as well.

A series of classes is designed to take a new rock climber "from Day One to whatever level they want to be at," says Pletta.

To get young newcomers in the door, the gym offers afternoon "kids climbs," catered birthday parties, summer day camps, a junior climbing team that competes in national events, and a merit badge program for Boy Scouts- all with an emphasis on safety.

A company can treat employees to a half-day program of basic skills instruction followed by group problem-solving exercises and teamwork development. Stone Age also books day trips that include personal climbing instruction at one of New Mexico's outdoor recreational climb areas.

"This is the key to what has made us successful," says Bryan. "It's all about our customers. We want people to want to come in here regardless of their skill levels, enjoy themselves, and then come back. It's a meeting place for anyone who enjoys climbing."

Pletta began climbing rocks in the mid 1980s while he was in college. "Rock climbing tends to be something you like or you don't, and it tends to become an obsession with a lot of people," he says. "I guess I'm obsessed."

He's since scaled cliff faces all over the U.S. and in Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe. To turn his love of ascent into a money-making venture, he visited some 20 other climbing gyms (there are about 300 in the U.S.) and discussed the nuances of the industry with their owners, although most were reluctant to discuss financial information.

He struggled to develop a business plan without reliable industry benchmarks. Even with the business plan, "banks would have nothing to do with me," he says. Pletta took out a second mortgage on his home, secured a loan against his Sandia Labs 401K, and invested in the stock marl et.

"You might say I gambled everything I had," he says. "If this plan hadn't worked, I'd be penniless. I could have recovered, but I'd have been broke."

He surveyed local rock climbers to find out what they wanted in a climbing gym. He hired a professional company that specializes in building climbing walls. And he put in a lot of sweat equity, doing the plywood work himself.

Pletta says the business hasn't been phenomenally profitable. But Stone Age is enjoying steady revenue growth of about 20 percent per year. He is planning an expansion to make room for more climbing walls.

You could say bushes is, well, up and down.

"It's definitely hot and cold," he says. "When people want to come in, everybody comes in. When it's slow, nobody comes in."

JOHN GERMAN IS A FREELANCE WRITER AND FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO THE NEW BUSINESS JOURNAL.