A new location…

The next few years were probably the most hectic of the Schmicks’ lives. Pam quit her job as a Veterinary Technician to run the gym, while Chris worked as a Boiler Maker. The couple spent all of their spare time writing a business proposal, doing market research and looking for a new location. After many disappointments, they finally came across the abandoned grain silos in Bloomington, Il. They wrapped up their 100-page business proposal and took it to several banks before one was found that didn’t think they were absolutely crazy(kudos to Heartland Bank). With a bank loan, their life savings, and another loan from Chris’ grandmother, Pam and Chris purchased the silos on contract from Starks Excavating and began the adventure of their lives.

Chris and Pam packed their belongings and moved to a friend’s house halfway between Bloomington and Peru. Chris quit his job and began working day and night gutting out the grain storage facility that had been vacant for 10-15 years. The plan was to keep the Peru gym open until a month before the silos opened. Pam continued running the Peru gym by herself, helping out in Bloomington whenever possible. The silos required three months of cleaning tons of rotten soy beans and scrap steel followed by another three months of wall construction and the drilling of thousands of holes into the concrete.

The Grand Opening…

September 2, 1995 was to be the grand opening day, six months from the time cleanup began. This date was set in stone when Upper Limits committed to hosting a JCCA regional Competition on that day. Everyone thought the Schmicks must have been crazy! Many thanks to all the friends and climbers who helped pull the new gym through and make the impossible happen. The young competitors were welcomed that morning by a staff with half opened eyes and totally exhausted from preparing all night. Adrenaline must have kept Pam and Chris going, and the comp went very well, considering.

A Frozen Waterfall…

In December of 1995, Chris rigged up an experiment with a sprinkler system at the top of a 65-foot silo and created a frozen waterfall. Little did they know the attraction it would be. Lenore, a local climber and assistant editor for the Pantagraph, a local newspaper, wrote a story that made one of the top five stories of the day in the country. From there the gym made the front page of the Chicago Tribune, Paul Harvey, The National Examiner, Good Morning America and newspapers all over the country. Then, the media snowball effect started and is still going. Upper Limits was featured in Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Year in Pictures, Shape and Fitness Magazines, CBS This Morning and several others. The best publicity came when the Discovery Channel and Travel Channel rated Upper Limits the number one climbing gym in the world.

All of this publicity has brought Upper Limits a nationwide (and in some cases, world wide) reputation as one of the premier climbing gyms around. The Schmicks and Upper Limits staff and friends are very proud of this reputation and know that Upper Limits employees have played an important part in maintaining a fun, friendly environment.

Expanding to St. Louis….

In February of 2001 Upper Limits expanded again. St. Louis was in desperate need of a climbing gym and Pam and Chris filled the vacancy. After much difficulty, they were able to land another bank loan and a suitable space to lease. The construction began in October of 2000 and was finished at the end of January 2001. The climbing walls were built by Eldorado Wall Co. but most of the other work was once again completed with the help of local climbers.

A third gym is on the horizon..

The Downtown gym was booming! As the sport of climbing grew, so did the need for the Schmicks to open a new gym in the St. Louis area. They started looking at buildings that could accommodate the Schmicks’ plans of opening a gym that rivals the biggest and best gyms in the country. After months of searching, they found the perfect building in Maryland Heights. It didn’t look like much at first, but Chris saw a diamond in the rough.

Before they knew it, the Schmicks were owners of the building and construction began. The 20′ ceiling of the industrial warehouse was torn off and raised to 45′. Not long after, Rockwerx came in and began construction of the walls. Again, with help of local climbers, the building was being transformed into one of the premier climbing gyms in the country.

The Grand Opening….

After months of hard work, the Schmicks opened the gym in Maryland Heights. The gym, located in West County, St. Louis, boasts over 14,500 square feet of climbing surface and is one of the only full-service climbing gyms in the nation. Chris and Pam have now bestowed over 41,000 square feet of climbing on the Midwest.

We held a giant party to celebrate the opening of the gym and nearly 1,000 people walked through our doors that day to check it out. We are very grateful to be a part of such an amazing climbing community in St. Louis. We have introduced so many people to climbing and love watching them fall in love with the sport. We’ve made some great friends along the way, and looking forward to many more years of the same.

Despite concluding to be done with gym expansion, the ripe market in Chesterfield, MO appeared more and more fitting to introduce another rock climbing gym. Sure enough, a property became available when a dedicated member of the Upper Limits community connected Chris and Pam to the owner of a gymnastics business who wished to change locations. With open space, a front desk, finished locker rooms, and more, the logistics were perfect for the future site of another Upper Limits gym. With less than a year between deciding to expand and finishing construction, the fourth addition to the Upper Limits family opened its doors in the fall of 2016. The facility offers extensive bouldering areas, rope climbing, fitness resources, and Wacky Walls, a creative and colorful climbing section filled exclusively with auto-belay climbing structures for the young at heart, the first of its kind in the area.