Many Goshen College students, faculty and staff drive 50 minutes to Mishawaka to climb a wall. They are among the clients of the Apex Climbing Gym in Mishawaka, which is owned by Jeanne Liechty, the chair of the social work department at Goshen College, and her husband, Michael Dickens.

The climbing gym, featuring multiple vertical climbing walls and over 7,000 feet of bouldering space, is available to anyone at any age. There’s also a strength training equipment area where people can endure a full workout or a small warmup for their next climb, along with merchandise and other accommodations.

College students and staff can rent shoes for $5 or bring their own to climb the walls of Apex, which are required for scaling any wall in the gym. The shoes are designed to help improve friction, making their experience more endurable.

Liechty said that her husband was inspired to create a new climbing gym based on his backstory. “My spouse was living in the Northeast, where there are lots of mountains, and when he was in his mid-20s, he got introduced to outdoor rock climbing,” Liechty said. More specifically, Dickens has climbed the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Maine, and the Shawangunk Mountains of New York.

After 20 years of living in Indiana, Dickens missed his climbing adventures, and decided to make a change. For 12 years, he created a blueprint for a new kind of gym where everyone could experience what he did in the mountains. He closed the old property in December 2022 and completed his rock wall climbing gym in May 2023, achieving his dream. Liechty said that one of Dickens’ friends had “opened a gym in Massachusetts, so he was also kind of near somebody else falling into this dream.”

Liechty said that Dickens had another friend who had a sad backstory, saying he “lost his job, he needed to move home with his parents because he didn’t have money,” and that he was “not feeling great about himself.” This man then met Dickens at a gym and got along with him very quickly, and started learning how to scale the climbing grades. The grades range from beginner stages V0 and V1, to elite levels like V13 and higher. People like Dickens’ friend would have to gain several months, or even years, of experience to scale massive boulders and rock walls. Before landing a new job, he told Dickens, “If I can climb a V5, like a level of difficulty, I got this interview.”

Liechty also said that the reason why it didn’t take as long was because they “bought an old box store, so it was completely empty on the inside, and so it could just be built up,” and that they “didn’t have to deconstruct anything, and we also didn’t build a building from scratch.”

Although Liechty wasn’t as involved in the creation of Apex Climbing Gym, she still supported her spouse through the whole process as he set out to make his dream a reality. Liechty said that he had “the right people to share the passion,” along with “the right time in life, and then the right location.” Most GC students originally used to work out at the Warehouse Climbing Co. instead of the Climbing and Bouldering Wall in Mishawaka, which is almost an hour away. However, Liechty and Dickens were “pleasantly surprised” to see Goshen students arrive at their gym and start training, even if they came in small numbers.

Even some of the Goshen faculty and staff started joining the gym, which includes Jonathon Schramm, professor of the sustainability and environmental education department chair; Marlene Penner, the associate vice president for Human Resources and Deputy Title IX Coordinator; Kevin Schultz, the assistant director of Residence Life; and Breanna Nickel, the associate professor of Bible and Religion.

Even though she has only visited it for a little over a year, Nickel says the Apex Climbing Gym has “been a great experience,” and her favorite part is how the walls are set up inside. She says they have “a lot of good sections of wall that are excellent for training, which is really, really nice.” Nickel also said that the gym is always a “welcoming place,” and that she also has had “a good experience of the camaraderie in the gym.”

Most students and staff would have little experience in climbing rock walls and would ask Dickens for some tips. He would be more than happy to show them how to scale the rock wall or climb up with a rope, and “loves seeing people, whether it’s Goshen College people, or anybody who’s never climbed before, come in.”

Liechty said that her spouse “loves puzzles,” and that he’s “a very analytical problem-solving kind of guy.” She then said that Dickens’ personality made her realize something special about scaling a 12-foot wall. When she tried climbing the wall for the first time, she realized that “Climbing a bouldering wall is like solving a 3D puzzle with your entire body.” Liechty said that bouldering overall is “a very social sport.” She feels very optimistic and confident about how the business will soar in the future as more GC students and more people come to support Dickens’ dream, and climb heights they never thought possible.