The storefront still reads “Cascade Crags” but the longtime Everett outdoor gear and rental business no longer exists.

Vertical World, a local chain of climbing gyms, purchased Cascade Crags, a retail store and climbing gym, in September.

Vertical World will focus on climbing, said company president Rich Johnston.

Customers won’t find the kayaks, camping equipment and outdoor apparel Cascade Crags sold. The business won’t offer rental equipment, either.

Cascade Crags’ owner, Mike Palmer, decided to sell the business after Vertical World approached him last year.

“We looked at what was the best thing for the gym, how can we keep it in Everett long term,” he said.

The gym needed improvements the business couldn’t afford to make. During the decade Palmer owned Cascade Crags, he watched retail sales dwindle as customers shopped more online.

“We had a committed core group of customers, but we needed more,” Palmer said.

Vertical World workers have given the gym a facelift, adding fresh paint and new climbing panels textured like a rock slab.

The business will sell rock climbing gear and supplies. It also will offer monthly memberships, youth and school programs, classes and even birthday parties.

It’s a proven business model for Vertical World, which has climbing gyms in Seattle, Redmond and Bremerton.

Johnston and rock climber Dan Cauthorn opened the first rock climbing gym in America in 1987 on Elliott Avenue in Seattle, launching the beginning of a new sport: indoor climbing. Then, rock climbers considered Johnston a heretic.

“They thought I was bastardizing the sport,” he said. “It was a new thing.”

The gym was no more than rocks glued to painted plywood panels, a place for enthusiasts to train in the wetter months. Rock climbing was still a fringe sport, with even outdoor specialty store REI carrying only “one pair of shoes and one rope,” Johnston said.

Vertical World thrived and so did the sport. An estimated 6.7 million Americans participate in indoor climbing, according to a 2005 study by the Outdoor Industry Association. Many of those participants live in the West, particularly Washington, Colorado and California, Johnston said.

At the Seattle gym, now in the Magnolia neighborhood, Vertical World has more than 1,000 members, with hundreds using the gym each day.

About 150 people have signed up for memberships at the Everett gym. The company hopes to double that number in a year.

Vertical World’s earns most of its money from members who pay $39 a month. Access to all of Vertical World gyms cost $49 a month.

The business is tapping into the growing youth market by offering climbing sessions to school groups, a youth climbing class and a competitive climbing team for ages 9 to 19.

People are attracted to the gyms as much for swapping stories as the climbing, Johnston said. Like surfing, rock climbing has its own culture. Enthusiasts may come for a few hours but climb only a portion of the time.

“A big part of it is social, telling stories around the campfire,” he said. “Vertical World is kind of the campfire in a way.”

Gyms are far more sophisticated today. Vertical World produces its own line of sculpted climbing panels sold for use in other gyms and schools.

Vertical World plans to replace more plywood climbing walls at the Everett gym with new textured ones in the coming months, said John Leddy, the operations manager. They plan to add a kiosk and computer with links to climbing related information.

The “Cascade Crags” sign will eventually go, Leddy said. The store’s brown silhouettes of outdoorsy folks hiking and climbing, however, will stay.

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.