A crowd of people stands inside a renovated cold-storage warehouse on Barber Street, contemplating small plastic grips on a climbing structure that juts out from the wall and curves up to the ceiling. Music plays and people chat in the next room, but in here, all sit distant in silence, together in thought.

Since April 16, this building has officially been called Active Climbing, Athens’ only climbing gym. The outer walls have been lined with intricately designed surfaces covered in plastic grips, or holds. The walls range from flat to angled to curved upside-down. Where the walls meet the 30-or-so-foot-high ceiling, the holds continue onto the ceiling.

“I’ve seen exactly what people wanted to have, what they really look for when they come into a gym and what they should find,” said Adrian Prelipceanu, owner, manager and designer of Active Climbing.

Prelipceanu’s story begins in his homeland of Romania, where he tagged along on his first climbing trip with a friend.

“From the first day, I knew that was it,” he said. Before long he was competing on a team, climbing in competitions and training new climbers.

In 2000, Prelipceanu transplanted to Atlanta, and by 2003 he was opening his own climbing gym in Suwannee called Adrenaline Climbing. Four years later he moved to Athens, and started from scratch on his new gym.

With loans from banks as well as friends, Prelipceanu bought the property in Athens and started working. “It was a lot of work to be done; the roof was leaking, the moisture in here, the smell and stuff. It took me, like, three months to clean it up,” he said.

The path was arduous. Money was always in question. Prelipceanu designed and remodeled the building with nothing but volunteers, friends and local climbers who wanted to see this gym happen.

Now there are two expansive rooms, climbing walls cluttered with holds, an advanced room in the front of the building, and a room geared toward younger climbers in back. Prelipceanu is working on a yoga and fitness room upstairs between the two rooms.

Prelipceanu plans to adorn the only remaining space in front with another climbing wall, and a stage on top – and somewhere down the road, he even hopes to put a bistro on what was the old loading dock.

“It’s every climber’s dream to have their own gym,” Prelipceanu said. He’s living that dream and inviting Athens to share it with him. A day pass and renting all the necessary gear starts at $15 – what Prelipceanu hopes is low enough to get veterans and new climbers alike in the door.

“The Athens climbing community, this is where it’s starting,” said T.J. Maurer, a senior economics major at the University and an avid climber. Like a lot of others at Active Climbing, he got his start on the wall in the Ramsey Center and even works there now, but his second haven is Active Climbing.

While this gym is clearly designed by climbers for climbers, Prelipceanu offers something to everyone regardless of experience. He offers party space for younger kids and has even started a team for 8 to 18-year-olds, the Georgia Spiders.

“I’m trying to spread the virus to everyone,” he said.

“Everybody has been really nice. I didn’t feel like I couldn’t try it, no high-and-mighty people. No one has laughed at me,” said Marie Hayden, a 2007 University graduate and newcomer to the gym.

Prelipceanu is in the process of planning events and competitions for upcoming months, staying connected with the rest of the climbing world and offering new challenges to his patrons at every opportunity. He may have started this project by himself, but he is building a family inside his gym.

“It’s just to cultivate that, it’s going take a while, I’m sure,” he said. In the meantime, he and his climbers will be sitting together, contemplating the walls.