Penticton rock climbing and guide business continues to grow rapidly

Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park has become one of the world’s premier rock climbing destinations with more than 85,000 visitors from all over the world coming to Penticton to test their skills.

This is very good news for Russ Turner, the owner and lead guide with Skaha Rock Adventures Ltd., a company that has been teaching rock climbing and guiding skills to local residents and visitors for 25 years.

During a presentation to Penticton Council Tuesday as part of the Megaphone project which invites local business owners to talk about their successes, Turner informed Council about the massive growing interest in rock climbing in the Skaha Bluffs park over the past several years.

Skaha Rock Adventures is a mountain skills training school that Turner has been operating out of his home since 1993.

“We’re specializing in rock climbing, alpine rock climbing, ropes courses and backpack programs,” he said. “We offer half day, full day and multiple day programs for our guests.”

His company offers programs out of Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park as well as the Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park near Keremeos, he said.

His company has come a long way in the past 25 years as they have now served more than 50,000 clients since forming the company in 1993, said Turner.

“We’ve been quietly doing our thing behind the scenes,” he said. “As a home-based business, we’ve been quite busy.”

Rock climbers of all ages are coming to this region in incredible numbers, said Turner.

“The Skaha Bluffs has become a world renowned rock climbing region,” he said. “It’s now a destination area for climbers from across the world. There’s over 1,200 climbs that have been established over 70 different walls in the region and it continues to grow.”

The fact rock climbing will become a Summer Olympic event in 2020 has raised the profile of the sport as has the influx of big city rock climbing gyms, said Turner.

“We’re seeing a lot of the rock climbing gym people coming from different cities to Penticton to enjoy what we have to offer,” he said. “The climbing is growing. It’s huge. It’s actually alarming.”

Turner is a member of the Canadian Association of Mountain Guides (CAMG) and he’s been leading guided tours for more than 38 years.

He’s a certified mountain area guide, rock climbing guide and a ski guide.

Born and raised in Kelowna, his passion for the outdoors and rock climbing as a young man working for seven years as a guide near Keremeos.

He continued his training and became certified professional guide and has worked in the industry his entire adult life, he said.

The mountains that are part of the Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park have become something of a mountainside mecca for rock climbers from across Canada and around the world, he said.

“The Skaha Bluffs … have grown substantially as far as the number of user visits to the area,” he said. “We’re bringing 80% of the climbers who come to the Okanagan to climb the Skaha Bluffs from outside the Okanagan region and that would also be our client base as well. The majority of our clients come from outside the Okanagan region.”

He recently taught lessons to clients from Germany and Belgium.

“We do a lot of international clientele with our business,” he said. “Our clients can range anywhere from age 4 to 86 and everywhere in between.”

There has been a huge growth in family participation the past few years, especially in the summer, which is not prime season and most regular climbers prefer the shoulder spring and fall seasons once the weather cools off, he said.

“Mom and Dad want to bring the kids out for a half day and experience rock climbing or some other kind of adventure activity,” he said. “They don’t want to sit at the beach and want something more adventuresome while on holiday, so that’s what they come to us for.”

A big part of his business if offering his services through contracts in the spring and fall to young people attending university, private and public schools, army cadets, he said.

He helped set up the rock climbing program offered to students at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Penticton for the past 25 years.and Penticton Secondary for the past 21 years, he said.

He’s offered the same program to university students at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops for a decade as well as students at the Outma School on the Penticton Indian Band and four private schools from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island for several years.

“What makes our business unique is the fact that all of our instructors are experienced and certified” B.C. mountain guides, he said.

He’s volunteered more than 3,000 hours developing various training sites for rock climbing throughout Skaha Bluffs park.

“By doing so, we’ve created some of the best training sites in all of North America here,” he said.

When experienced climbers from the Rocky Mountains or coastal regions visit, they “marvel” at the different training sites available so close to one another, he said.

More than 80% of people who come to Skaha Bluffs and to his business are novice or intermediate rock climbers who love the terrain and fact there are so many different areas to test their skills, he said.

“You build it and they will come it seems,” he said.

The announcement that the Skaha Bluffs area would become a provincial park was a turning point and has resulted in increased traffic with each passing year, he said.

“The new B.C. park established in 2009 … that really set Skaha Bluffs on the map,” he said. “Users visits have increased substantially. In 1993, when I started my business, we estimated about 3,000 user visits in the bluffs. When the park was established in 2009, BC Parks came up with a 45,000 number and last year I would say we’re about 85,000 user visits in the park.”

Having so many tourists come to this region in the shoulder seasons in the spring and fall has a significant positive impact on Penticton’s economy, said Turner.

“It’s going to continue to grow,” he said. “It’s crazy how much rock climbing is coming around.”

Focusing on quality service with small client to staff ratios ensures a good time and memorable experience, he said.

Coun. Max Picton told Turner that one of the best memories from his high school days was taking the rock climbing training course with Turner.

“It still stands out as one of the most amazing things and I want to share that with people that that was an opportunity we got to experience in our local school system,” he said. “I was blown away and amazed that kind of opportunity exists for our students here so thank you for everything you’ve done.”

Coun. Judy Sentes called the Skaha Bluffs one of Penticton’s ‘best kept secrets” locally, but obviously one where rock climbers around the world are thrilled about.

“The world knows about the climbing bluffs that you’ve just spoken to,” she said. “We just to be need to be more aware of just how lucky we are and I too thank you for your endeavours and dedication.”

For those who want to hike and not climb mountains, there’s the Skaha Bluffs Loop Trail that takes over five hours to hike across.

“You can see both lakes up there, it’s gorgeous,” he said.

To book an appointment with Turner or for more on Skaha Rock Adventures Ltd., click here.

You can also contact Turner at 250-493-1765.