Gemstone Climbing Free Solo Net

Chandler Lamb, Staff Writer

      Many people feel that Twin Falls is mundane, ordinary, not an extremely exciting place.  They think that there are not enough events or landmarks that are in our town. But there are several places we can visit that are plenty of fun.  For example, we have the I.B Perrine Bridge, one bridge out of two in the United States that you can legally base jump off. Tourists come from all over the world to jump off our bridge.  We also have the famous Evel Knievel jump site. But there is something else that is entirely and unique, it is the only one of its kind, there is only one of these in all the United States, and it is located in Twin Falls, Idaho.  What I am talking about is Gemstone Climbing’s free solo net.

      The Gemstone is Twin Falls’ first indoor climbing gym. It’s a great place to go learn how to climb and belay.  The gym has challenging routes, both for top-roping and bouldering, but at the same time, there are routes for beginners if you have not climbed before.  It is very family-friendly, and the gym offers fantastic classes to learn how to belay or to lead climb. There is also a ninja warrior course and yoga classes.  One attraction that was recently developed was their free solo net, something that allows climbers to ascend challenging routes you would typically need a harness and a rope to climb.  But this net was designed so that climbers feel virtually nothing after falling about 25 feet. Falling into a net would typically be a painful experience, but it has been designed to distribute weight evenly.  The designers of this project fell into it over and over again at different angles to see if you really could get hurt by taking a jump like that, but they still proved that landing on your head was still almost nothing.  Though there were no injuries from falling in just about any position, it still gets everyone’s heart racing. Falling from 38 feet, the highest point you can fall into the net can strengthen confidence about climbing more challenging things.