A girl climbs at Rocksport Climbing Gym in Louisville.(Emily Chen-Newton / LPM)Andrew Gearing has been climbing since 1993, and he said he spent most of that time scaling humungous walls full of color-coded stones at Rocksport in Jeffersontown.In January, the climbing gym’s owners announced Rock sport would close at the end of February. Gearing said he didn’t want the Louisville climbing community to go without its home base.“We put our heads together, got our group together, and we're like, ‘Maybe it makes sense for us to jump in here and see what we can do to save this gym and keep our climbing community strong,’” he said.This weekend, Gearing and five other dedicated climbers will reopen the facility.Rocksport was Louisville’s first climbing gym, and for 30 years it was the only place in the city where people with physical disabilities could rope climb. Its new owners say they want to explore new ways to climb.The climbing gym now has six owners who share responsibilities. One of them, veteran climber Will Sowders said a bigger team will help fund the space for now.“Andrew and I are the on-site operators,” he said. “The others are just like-minded individuals that want to see climbing flourish in Louisville, want to grow the community.”The new owners will host a grand reopening at Rocksport on Saturday, March 14 from 3 to 6 p.m. Climbing will be free that day, Sowders said, and climbing shoes, harnesses and chalk rentals will be available for participants that need equipment.Sowders said he hopes Saturday will be “a Rocksport revival.”“Just seeing the community step into the space and hopefully kind of feel the same jazz that we felt about it, and just like a new era, a new opening for change and something really exciting to the community,” he said.The new owners plan to add a kid-friendly climbing area upstairs and a space for training boards. These boards can tilt and are meant to help outdoor climbers train.Over the years, Rocksport developed a reputation as a space serious climbers can train for Red River Gorge’s outdoor climbing. Sowders said new technology will modernize the gym.Gearing said these training boards are also for climbers of varying skill levels. With smartphone apps like Kilter, climbers can maneuver through sequences created by other climbers from all over the world.“It's a great tool to build community and climbing and develop climbers,” Sowders said.For the last four years, climbers with physical disabilities could scale the walls at Rocksport with a side-climber during a Saturday program with Catalyst Sports.This program only exists in Louisville and Lexington, and when Rocksports previous owners announced the gym would close, Catalyst planned to move all operations to Lexington at LEF Climbing.Sowders said Catalyst Sports will return to Rocksport going forward, and adaptive climbs will be held on the last Sunday of every month.The next adaptive climb will be April 26. ...read more read less