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Get a grip on the new Uptown Climbing gym


When you first step into Uptown Climbing, the sheer scope can be intimidating.

The new gym on Coursey Boulevard includes more than 10,000 square feet of space, with climbing walls that stretch right up to the 30-foot ceilings.

Co-owners Lee Guilbeau and Robert Antrobus are longtime climbers who’ve braved rock faces all over the country. They met in 2014 at a conference for climbers looking to open their own gyms. Antrobus, a Baton Rouge native, was trying to open a gym in California at the time, but the market was competitive. It took little convincing for him to sell his house that December and move back home to join forces with Guilbeau for Uptown Climbing.

Today, the duo leads me through a tour of walls with hundreds of climbing routes, a speed wall and 90 feet of bouldering terrain, as well as rooms for weight training, acroyoga and aerial silks.

Standing next to one of the towering walls of the Oak Tree Tower, I mention that I doubt I could make it to the top, since I’ve never climbed before.

“Oh, really?” Guilbeau says.

I point to the high-heeled ankle boots I’m wearing. “Not in these shoes.”

Guilbeau reaches behind the counter and slaps a pair of climbing shoes down on the front desk.

That’s the attitude at Uptown: If you can climb a ladder, you can climb a wall. With nearly two dozen instructors on staff and new members signing up regularly since the November opening, Uptown has the potential to become the city’s biggest alternative gym for people at every fitness level.

Fifteen minutes later, I’m 20 feet in the air, strapped into a harness in borrowed lime-green climbing shoes and my work clothes. Antrobus acts as my belayer—the person at the other end of your rope to counterbalance and catch you if you fall. Against all odds, with Guilbeau and Antrobus cheering me on, I make it to the topmost handhold. I rappel back down, winded but exhilarated. They’re right—anyone can do it.

In a city where climbers have to drive eight hours in any direction to find a mountain, Uptown offers a hub for beginners and a surprisingly robust local community of climbing enthusiasts.

“I knew there were climbers here in Baton Rouge,” Guilbeau says, “but there are more than even I realized. And it’s been amazing to see how many people come in here for the first time and walk out with a membership, or come here to see if they like climbing and come back having gone out and bought all their own gear. It’s exciting.” uptownclimbing.com


This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.