Huddersfield climbing and bouldering entrepreneur expands business to York

Chris Whitehead, managing director of Freeklime, a dedicated climbing and bouldering centre based on Lincoln Street in Huddersfield has today opened a second Freeklime on Kettlestring Lane in York to continue his mission to make climbing more accessible.

Chris was introduced to climbing by a family friend on local Yorkshire Gritstone edges such as Brimham Rocks & Almscliff Crag and quickly found climbing helped to develop his confidence.

Whilst at university, it became apparent to Chris that people were not just climbing to get physically fit, but were looking to improve their mental health. Interestingly, Chris also discovered that many people he was socialising with at climbing events, were also neurodivergent and found climbing had mood-boosting effects on their overall health and wellbeing.

Chris (27) says “Our Huddersfield site proudly hosts regular climbing socials for LGBTQIA+ groups, schools that work with neurodivergent children as well as local businesses. My intention is to replicate this model in York and to further extend the activities as inclusion and accessibility plays a huge part in the Freeklime model.”

Many studies, including those done by several NHS commissioning groups, indicate that climbing benefits the mind and body which can improve productivity in the workplace.

Chris continues “The beauty of climbing is that you can go at a pace that you are most comfortable with. Climbing improves concentration levels, builds resilience and anyone can get involved regardless of ability. Feedback shared with us from businesses show that climbing has a positive impact on employees, so we know our work is having an invaluable impact on employees in the workplace.

“My aim over the coming years is to create more Freeklime sites across Yorkshire to enable more people and employees to easily access climbing provisions to further improve their health and wellbeing.”

Freeklime York is a one-level indoor climbing gym which boasts over 200+ climbing routes within 9,657 square feet of space. The climbing routes are changed weekly to offer visitors new and exciting challenges.

The new facility also has an accessible route path throughout for people who wish to spectate instead of participating themselves, a light refreshment area for drinks and small snacks as well as private space and amenities for businesses wishing to utilise the space for corporate networking, training events, team building activities, climbing socials to name but just a few are available.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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