Gentrification or Growth? – Unpacking Climbing’s Class Fantasy
- Brainz Magazine
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
Laurence Guyon is well-known when it comes to sports and performance. Former athlete in sport climbing, journalist, and coach, she is the co-founder of La Fabrique verticale, an online media about climbing and health, and the co-author of multiple training books in French.
Has climbing truly become a yuppie sport? In certain climbing circles, a subtle murmur has been heard lately, that of a progressive gentrification of its practitioners. While this preconceived notion is gaining traction, the reality is much more nuanced. For we can clearly see the potentially biased nature of this postulate, with the observers themselves being actors in the phenomenon, with a vision limited to a specific geographical context. This article explores the social dynamics at play in climbing and the latest fashionable clichés. Deciphering.
“Is climbing gentrifying?” “Is it left-wing?” “Are all climbers yuppies?” So many questions that genuine crag climbers and long-time climbers don't care about. But which it seems titillate certain observers of the sport or potential investors in an activity that is booming. But what do we really mean by gentrification? And how does this phenomenon manifest itself, or not, in gyms and on cliffs?
Thanks to its entry into the Olympic fold, climbing is experiencing a meteoric rise, attracting an increasingly diverse public. However, the image of a privileged sport, practiced by a socio-professional elite, is taking hold. Certainly, urban gyms, symbols of a certain form of gentrification of climbing, are becoming increasingly selective places where the entry price can be a deterrent.
But beyond the easy clichés to spread, several questions arise in the face of a supposed gentrification. Do all climbers live in Big cities? Do they all practice indoors? And only indoors? And above all, drawing general laws based solely on the observation of the urban public, isn't that reducing the understanding of social issues in their entirety to the narrow prism of the recent development of bouldering gyms in the large metropolitan areas?
Gentrification and climbing: Myth and reality
Talking about the 'gentrification' of climbing makes sense in relation to an economic issue. Because such a process would make it a potentially more attractive market for fundraising by investors, by gentrification, we should understand a public that is more economically and culturally endowed than the historical one of climbing or climbing in general.
As early as 1979, Pierre Bourdieu noted in Distinction that mountaineering corresponds to "the ascetic aristocratism of the dominated fractions of the dominant class." That is, in his model of social space, the cultured petty bourgeoisie, i.e., an overall volume of capital slightly above average but a capital unbalanced in favor of cultural capital. Basically, social agents who are more cultured than they are wealthy. Has this changed in the direction of both a homogenization and an increase in the capital held by those who engage in the various forms of climbing, and more particularly in the indoor forms that primarily interest investors?
What about gentrification?
That is, the process that would change the climbing public towards embourgeoisement. That is, the fact that they have become more economically and culturally well-off. And above all, that the structure of this capital has become more balanced. These two factors increase its attractiveness for investors.
In fact, the changes are slow; the climbing public is still the one Pierre Bourdieu described in 1979 if we refer to the study conducted by the CWA. This emblematic survey is carried out periodically by American academics. Climbing as a whole is still primarily done by the middle class or employees (55%). But the most highly educated segments are still visible within it.
We are still dealing with the cultured segments of the middle class. Of course, nuance is needed because there isn't one type of climbing, but several. Thus, the typology developed after these "flat" analyses shows that indoor bouldering enthusiasts are among the most economically and culturally well-off. This is a public of dynamic young professionals (male). Enthusiasts of the McDonaldization of climbing, meaning an efficient practice that maximizes the ratio between time and quantity of climbing on the one hand, and the pursuit of performance on the other.
The dynamic young professionals
If "gentrification" exists, it is among the enthusiasts of this particular mode of practice that it can be found. That is, indoor bouldering. They do not differ from the overall climbing population in terms of education level, but significantly in terms of income, which for 30% of them exceeds an average of 5,500 dollars per month.
Knowing that they represent 14% of all climbers, it would be relevant to talk about gentrification within this dataset for 30% of these 14%. So, in volume, it's quite relative. Now, some owners of climbing gyms will tell you that it's different at their place. Yes, but statistics are not made to describe individual cases. They reason globally. Like bankers sometimes do, for that matter.
The gentrification of climbing, a persistent myth
So, all this to say that this gentrification is, in my opinion, a pleasant myth for entrepreneurs seeking a miraculous fundraising round. Climbing activities are still primarily the domain of the dominated fractions of the dominant class, public sector professionals who are more cultured than economically well-off. And this is ultimately quite logical. Because for those who remember Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction, what largely determines the choice of a sport is its "motor structure." That is, the bodily properties and abilities it requires.
Even better, one might argue that indoor climbing, because it is relatively sanitized and reduced in complexity compared to outdoor climbing (especially in relation to risk and equipment handling), could appeal to people less endowed with what Bourdieu called "embodied cultural capital." Thus, rather than a gentrification, can we expect a broadening of the recruitment base for indoor climbing?
This is certainly what the survey found for the category of beginner indoor rope climbers and recreational climbers. This undoubtedly doesn't exclude the possibility that in certain geographically specific niches, some yuppies raising chickens and tomatoes on their balconies have massively invested in the climbing gym in their neighborhood, offering auto-belays and co-working in a hushed atmosphere.
Read more from Laurence Guyon
Laurence Guyon, Journalist, Author, Coach and Founder
Laurence Guyon is a former top-level athlete in sport climbing. She is known for having won the Arco Rock Masters in 1995, and she was Vice World Champion the same year. An accomplished sportswoman, she has stood on numerous podiums and won several World Cup stages between 1992 and 1997. Today, she is still an active climber and provides resources and support to climbers searching for progression. Up to 2014, Laurence has been working as a chief editor of a French climbing magazine. Now, she has taken up a central position at Fabrique Verticale with the mission of sharing training techniques and sources of inspiration
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