On a humid evening in Mumbai, office-goers stream into a soaring industrial-style building tucked inside the city’s commercial maze. Some arrive in shirts and sneakers, others in gym wear. Within minutes, they are staring upward at brightly coloured climbing holds spread across steep artificial walls, chalking their hands nervously before attempting their first climb.
Inside India’s rapidly growing indoor climbing gyms, fitness has started looking less like discipline and more like play. They are attracting a generation increasingly bored of conventional workouts and searching for experiences that combine fitness, social connection and identity.
“People are always looking for something new,” says Kunal Bedarkar, general manager and co-founder of High Rock, a commercial indoor climbing gym in Mumbai. “First there were traditional gyms, then yoga, Pilates, CrossFit. Now climbing feels fresh.”
Bengaluru led the indoor climbing movement early on, supported by strong outdoor climbing communities around Ramanagara and Savandurga. Government climbing walls existed there for decades, but the new wave of commercial gyms is recent. Today, Bengaluru has multiple climbing facilities, including Equilibrium and rock climbing gym brand Climb Central. Delhi-NCR followed with gyms like Climb Central and Climb City. Mumbai entered the scene more recently.
“We started High Rock in December 2024,” Bedarkar says. Soon after came The Indian Bouldering Company, or TIBC, which brought a distinctly global, design-driven approach to climbing. Founder Shaiv Gandhi first discovered climbing while living in Berlin in 2021.
“I fell in love with it pretty much immediately,” he says. “Soon I was bouldering three to four days a week.”
Whenever he returned to Mumbai, however, he felt the city lacked quality climbing infrastructure. “We had great community training walls and a booming community, but nothing at the scale and size that you see overseas,” he says. Over the next three years, Gandhi travelled through more than ten countries studying climbing gyms before returning to Mumbai. “The first thing I did when I came back was build a climbing wall at home,” he says. “The rest is history.”
For Gandhi, climbing was never just about sport. It was also about creating what urban sociologists call “third spaces”, places outside home and work where people gather socially.
“The climbing community worldwide welcomes everyone regardless of creed, colour and conviction,” he says.
That philosophy shaped TIBC’s identity. The gym was designed to European safety standards, uses crash mats imported from the UK and caters heavily to beginners. “As long as you can climb a ladder, you can climb here,” Gandhi says.
At TIBC, the walls are divided into sections such as Outcrop, Cave, Gauntlet and Slab, each simulating different styles of climbing movement. The gym currently sets routes ranging from beginner-friendly V0 climbs to more advanced V6 problems. Every newcomer receives a detailed safety briefing before climbing, while staff are trained in CPR and first aid. That emphasis on accessibility is becoming central to India’s climbing boom.
Shift from Olympic Spotlight
The sport’s Olympic debut accelerated that transition. Sport climbing entered the Olympics at Tokyo 2021, introducing millions to speed climbing, bouldering and lead climbing. “The Olympics made climbing really cool,” Bedarkar says. “There’s more dynamic movement now, more spectacle.”
He compares the Olympics’ impact on climbing to the IPL’s effect on cricket, transforming a technical sport into mainstream entertainment. India’s own competitive climbing scene predates the Olympic boom. Navi Mumbai hosted international climbing World Cups in 2016 and 2017. “The climbing World Cup in Navi Mumbai had athletes from over 70 countries,” Bedarkar says. “I was part of the organising team.”
But India’s indoor climbing gyms are succeeding not because they are producing elite athletes, at least not yet, but because they are creating entirely new social environments around fitness.
“This community literally saved my life,” Bedarkar says. “So building community is extremely important for us.” High Rock now has a WhatsApp group with nearly 800 members. The gym hosts competitions, climbing nights and social gatherings regularly.
Climbing’s appeal lies partly in how different it feels from repetitive gym workouts. Every route becomes a physical puzzle involving balance, coordination and strategy. “You cannot scroll your phone while climbing, your brain is completely present,” says Sahil Jain (name changed on request), a media professional who started training at BoulderBox in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, two years ago.
“I have been passionate about climbing for over 15 years, with experience spanning World Cups, national competitions, and outdoor climbing destinations across the globe,” adds Suraj Singh, who also trains at BoulderBox.
“My coaching approach focuses on developing well-rounded athletes by combining movement efficiency, strength training, and mental resilience. Beginners or advanced climbers, I aim to create a supportive environment that fosters growth, confidence, and a lifelong love for climbing,” Singh adds.
The majority of climbers are between 25 and 35 years old, what Bedarkar calls “young money”: professionals with disposable income searching for new experiences. However, children are becoming another important growth segment. High Rock Academy now runs structured programmes ranging from vacation camps to competitive youth training. “We want some of these kids to eventually represent India,” Bedarkar says.
Premium Fitness Economy
At the same time, gyms are increasingly experimenting with premium experiences beyond the walls themselves. High Rock recently organised luxury climbing retreats to Badami, blending outdoor climbing with wellness tourism. “We didn’t want it to feel like rough camping,” Kunal says. “We wanted it to feel like a retreat.” Participants stayed at resorts, practised yoga, used ice baths and climbed under guidance. “We charged upwards of `60,000 for five days,” he says. “People are willing to pay for experiences.”
That premiumisation reflects broader shifts within India’s fitness economy. Still, operating climbing gyms remains expensive. “Almost everything has to be imported,” Bedarkar says. Ropes, harnesses, climbing shoes and safety systems largely come from overseas manufacturers because of strict international standards. “Climbing equipment cannot have shortcuts,” he says. “Safety is everything.”
Real estate poses another major challenge, especially in Mumbai where commercial rents rival European cities. Yet operators believe the industry is only beginning. “There’s enough money in India for quality spaces,” Bedarkar says. “This is just the start.”
But even as indoor climbing becomes more commercial, the sport remains deeply connected to India’s outdoor climbing culture with destinations such as Badami & Hampi in Karnataka, Sethan in Himachal Pradesh and Malshej Ghat in Maharashtra. That connection is evident in Badami, where 26-year-old Ravi grew up surrounded by sandstone cliffs.
“Every morning when the sun rises from those cliffs, I still find myself eyeing them and marvelling at the different routes possible on them,” he says. Ravi’s breakthrough came when he met Indian climber Madhu CR, who encouraged him to attempt a famous Badami route called Finger Loop. “When I reached the top, everyone watching me cheered,” Ravi says. “That was the first time I felt I had found my people.” Today Ravi dreams of climbing Yosemite’s El Capitan and developing Badami into a world-class bouldering destination.
That spirit continues inside the country’s new indoor climbing gyms too. And every evening, as chalk-covered strangers cheer each other beneath artificial walls in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR, India’s climbing culture climbs a little higher.