Big News: Mystery Tower at Oak & 7th to Become Steamboat’s First Urban Climbing Wall!
Ever looked at that towering concrete building at Oak and 7th Street and thought, “That would be perfect for a climbing gym”? Well, turns out your wildest downtown adventure dreams are in the works!
But first… what is that building anyway?
Theories have abounded for years:
- Is it a secret rocket launch pad for high-altitude snow reports?
- A manufacturing facility for ski-jumps?
- Or perhaps where they hang up the hot air balloons at night?
As much as we wish one of those were true, the tower—originally constructed as a fire watch tower in the 1960’s—has since been repurposed as a communications tower. The building is currently owned by CenturyLink, which uses it to beam mysterious digital signals (weather data, cat memes, and snow dance tutorials) all over the Yampa Valley.
In a move to “scale up” their telecom infrastructure—literally—CenturyLink has announced it will begin leasing the outside of the building to a brand-new startup called Top Out Telecom, a company that repurposes unused urban vertical spaces into family-friendly climbing experiences.
That’s right: Routt County’s very first ice and rock climbing tower is coming to downtown Steamboat.
“We saw a giant gray monolith and thought, that’s the mountain we’ve been looking for,” said Top Out Telecom’s co-founder Cliff Hanger.
The tower will offer routes for beginner climbers all the way up to elite “urban alpinists.” In the winter months, the tower will be iced over for a world-class downtown ice climbing experience. In summer, participants can rock climb with a view of Lincoln Avenue and the scent of fresh coffee from nearby cafes.
The opening date is today, April 1, 2025! Come on down and bring your climbing harness and sense of humor!
We’ve obtained exclusive photos of the test climbers already scaling the tower. Rumor has it they’re local parents—already being driven up the wall by their kids, so this felt like a natural next step.
So next time your kid points at the tower and says, “Can I climb that?” The answer might finally be a resounding… Yes!
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Happy April Fools’ Day!
This post is meant to be humorous, and there is no current plan to build an outdoor climbing tower in Steamboat, or any involvement by CenturyLink in this proposal.
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