There’s a rock climbing gym under Kansas City.
In the ground below a quiet area of downtown KC called Coleman Highlands, a business park called Downtown Underground splays out like the cosmos in the limestone. To find the climbing gym within—RoKC Underground—drive to the surface-level parking lot at 3150 Mercier Street and enter the lone tower that looks like an elevator shaft. It is one, and its only direction from lot level is down, for 31 seconds.
Take a breath if you need to. It isn’t spooky down there; just a little strange. You’ll walk down carpeted hallways with rocky limestone walls and past offices, storage spaces, and little alcoves before you find RoKC Underground, with all of its colorful bouldering walls—finally, a place that fits the space.
RoKC’s other two locations are above ground—the original in North Kansas City and the newest in Olathe—and both offer bouldering and top rope climbing. RoKC Underground is all bouldering. With this style of climbing, you’re free of a harness but never higher than 15 feet or so. If top rope climbing is a game of endurance, like soccer, bouldering is a game of planning and fortitude, like football—drawing up plays and then gathering the courage and strength to run them. A missed maneuver leads to a short fall onto a thick, gray mat, and a walk back to the drawing board.
As much as you find yourself hanging from the walls at RoKC Underground, you’ll find yourself sitting back, planning, and sometimes outright racking your brain for a way to the route’s top handhold. These strategy sessions are fun, especially with friends, and might massage unused parts of your brain, but they can be paralyzing. Thinking will not get you up the wall. As much as you plan, oftentimes you just have to get up there and try, failure nearly guaranteed, to find your next move.
Certain regulars walk right in and know exactly the route they’re going to try climbing, or “problem” they’re going to try solving. Maybe they’re looking for that elusive next move, like a piece in a puzzle, or maybe they’ve pieced it all together but haven’t been able to muster the physical ability. They find success by pushing through these barriers.
RoKC is open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day but Sunday, when it’s open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There’s a simple free-weight gym, beverages to keep you going, and shoe and chalk rental. (You’ll need to rent climbing shoes if you don’t have any.) A day pass is $18, a recurring membership is $21 billed weekly, and for $180, you can get 10 visits.
Note: If you’re colorblind, you should go with a friend. What’s unclear to you—like where the green route ends and the orange route begins—will be obvious to them. After a few visits, you might get a contextual feel, but if you’re ever stumped, an employee or fellow climber will be glad to help.