Newsletter #1:
T-Shirts, Referral Awards, & Meet The Owners
For being one of our first 250 members…
THANK YOU!!
Hey there!
With the crazy challenge of opening ÜGCR over the last few years, I can’t thank you enough for your support in being one of our very first members. Despite us crashing the web server right at 9am on June 15th, after a quick reboot we were thrilled to see so many of you persist and join us as members. So I’m sure we’ll continue to have minor setbacks in the coming months, but our persistence has gotten us this far and we’ll continue to do everything we can to give you all a fantastic experience as we open our doors this Fall.
So far, our contractor feels good that we are still on schedule to open around mid-September – which we’ll be providing all our early pre-opening sale members FREE access to our facility shortly before our Grand Opening to the public which we are still aiming for on Friday, Oct 1st.
I’ll continue to share updates as the date approaches.
Thanks,
-Matt
Matthew Leach
Managing Crag Owner
Wanna know more about me and my co-owner Christine, please keep reading!
Pick up your ÜG T-Shirt
As a new ÜG member, we would like to give you the opportunity to swing by the crag and pick your own size and color ÜG t-shirt. As you can see, we have numerous different color combinations to choose from.
WHEN & WHERE
Date: Saturday July 17th from 10am to Noon
Location: Übergrippen: 3690 Bilberry St, Castle Rock, CO 80109
Each Membership gets a shirt, Duo Memberships get 2 shirts, and for those of you that purchased the Family Membership, you earned 2 shirts with your membership. If any of you wish to purchase additional shirts for your family, we’ll be selling them discounted at $20 each or 2 for $30.
If you can’t make it this day, we’ll have additional days available if you want to pick up your shirt before we open. Of course, you can always wait till September, but we’d love to share these comfy shirts with you sooner!
Upcoming Dates:
Boots & Brews
11am – 4pm
Festival Park
300 2nd St, Castle Rock, Colorado
Help us get the word out!
ÜG Member Referral
Most referrals earn prizes!!
It’s been amazing talking to so many of you that already seem quite outspoken and already connected to the CR community sharing positive words about us. We want to reward those of you that have already made referrals, and hopefully encourage more of you to help us spread the word even more. If you can help us get the word out regarding our pre-opening sales to get others that sign up, we’ll reward the top referrers with these amazing gifts!
(3) $300 Value Top Prizes
(over $1000 total in prizes)
The first, second, and third most referrals can choose either:
1) Pair of climbing shoes from Evolv – You’ll receive a $180 voucher so you can choice the proper shoe and size.
or
2) 40m Edelrid Gym Lead Rope – A $140 value and a Edelrid Jul 2 ($40 value – break-assist belay device).
Top 3 more referrals also get an $70 Edelrid harness (you can choose the size and between the Jay and Jayne), Edelrid $20 chalk bag, another $25 ÜG t-shirt, and some additional fun climbing swag.
Fourth and Fifth place referrals will get their choice of a UG t-shirt, chalk bag, and some additional fun climbing swag.
When your friends, family (or even people you don’t really know sign up for a membership), they just need to add your name as a referral when they sign up for their membership for you to get credit. We’ll tally up the names and let ya’ll know who the most connected members at ÜGCR are on Aug 15th!
All new members receive these special benefits:
- VIP Access during our Soft Opening (~2 free weeks of climbing)
- Invitation to our Hard Hat Tours starting in August.
- Guaranteed admission to our Grand Opening Party
- Priority Enrollment for both youth & adult classes/camps
All memberships
will also receive:
- ÜG Swag – Free ÜG T-shirt
- Special 30% off Edelrid Climbing Gear Discount
- Only during first month of opening
- 2 locations for price of 1 (CR & Denver)
- 2 Free hours of lessons
- Learn to Belay (learn to top rope)
- Movement Classes (learn to climb better)
- Learn to Lead Climb & Belay
- Free Guest Pass for new guests every day!
- 10% Dividend on Retail (like REI)
- Discounts on Youth Programs
Keep in mind, we aren’t a chain or a franchise. We are just your friendly neighborhood indoor climbing crag that is owned and managed by Christine and myself. If you want to learn more about us, please read more below.
Who’s behind Übergrippen?
And we are proud to respond: ‘No! We are not!’
So, Jake & Kim Crine did an incredible job building ÜG Denver in 2017 all on their own. Even today, its amazingly shocking to me how they were able to pull it off – the idea of opening a climbing facility is the only easy step in this entire process. Granted Jake was a rocket engineer and Kim was pharmacist and are both incredibly smart and work as an amazing team with their three boys.
During ÜG Denver’s soft opening, I realized there was a number of issues with their website and since I’ve been working in the tech industry the last 20+ years [taught graphic design & programming at the collegiate-level for 12 years and worked remotely for Denver, SF, & NY tech companies the last 10 years), I often am happy helping small businesses with small things like this for no charge – mainly because I know how challenging it is to get a business up and running like this, as well as how tight money is to start with. So, after spending a morning over coffee with Jake fixing various issues, we starting building a pretty amazing friendship. After a few weeks climbing as a ÜG member and realizing how much I loved his facility, I asked Jake if he was ready to open another one because ÜG just seemed prime to be build in more communities – he clearly responded that he was completely exhausted and couldn’t even consider it. Somehow we left the talk with me saying that maybe if I helped out, then he could open another. It seriously was just an idea and bit of a dream to be the owner of one myself.
With almost a year of research, I focused in on Castle Rock believing it was perfect for a new crag. But even then, it took almost 9 months of negotiations with CRDC for us to avoid being stuck along the train tracks or behind the self storage to get the final agreement to build right in the Meadow’s Town Center.
During this time, Christine Ritenour – a Navy vet who’s married with an amazing husband & little one, as well as a Castle Rock resident – was actively pursuing her own dream of opening a bouldering gym in CR. She was enrolled in advanced entrepreneurial and business courses and on her own had found a key location she was excited for. In hoping to build some personal relationships with other climbing gym owners, she emailed numerous climbing gym owners with a simple request for an hour of their time to talk about their business. Out of all those emails, she quickly found herself on the phone with Jake who was more than happy to answer her questions. At the end of the call, Christine explained how her questions are tied to opening a bouldering gym in CR. Jake may not have been the most supportive when he crushed her dreams by telling her about my new endeavor that we were just about go public with. When Jake told me about his call with Christine, surprisingly I didn’t hesitate – I said I wanted to meet her and maybe we could bring her onto the team somehow. Meeting Jake and Kim and then working side-by-side with Christine is without any question the most important reasons ÜGCR is where it is today. Trying to do this project alone without them… is impossible to consider, even after successfully conquering so many hurtles.
So, you’ll see from meeting the team that we have built with number of amazingly cool staff members, I’m pushing hard to create a culture where there is balance to be made where everyone can get what they want in life. And I hope to create a community space where you all feel connected to and find yourselves building positive relationships with others while having great fun climbing.
Please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions or ideas to help us make ÜG a great success in Castle Rock.
Thanks,
-Matt
Matthew Leach
Managing Crag Owner
matt@ugclimbing.com
