After windstorms damage Colorado gym, Longmont community comes together to help

The Longmont Climbing Collective is back open with new roofing this week after hurricane-force winds damaged the building earlier this month.

Mack Maier, co-owner of the collective, said climbers were present when the roof peeled off.

"We just awoke to call, frantic calls from our front desk staff," he said, "[Climbers] were literally right up next to the roof, and they just heard the metal flapping up and down, and then they went outside to see the roof peeled over on itself."

When Maier arrived, not only was the roof bent, but he says insulation had blown everywhere. So Maier called his insurance.

"Very quickly, I learned that our very manageable $2,500 deductible just doesn't work in Colorado for wind and hail events," he said.

Maier says their deductible for the windstorm was more than $300,000, which was more than double what he says it cost to pay for professionals to make repairs.

"We should have really understood that policy better, but even if we had, and after speaking with our insurance folks, there's nothing that can be done about it," he said.

Insurance experts like Carole Walker, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association, say they're seeing situations like this more often.

"Unfortunately, in Colorado, we're in that perfect storm of having a high catastrophe state for wind, hail, wildfire, and also market conditions, inflation, the cost to repair and rebuild everything that insurance pays for us is more expensive," Walker said.

So, the climbing collective turned to their community for help. "All we feel is just a sense of gratitude from our community. We had over 100 volunteers out here helping to clean up," Maier said, "I think, to date, we've almost had like $40,000 in donations."

And because of that, help Maier said they were able to get the roof repaired in just a few days. This allowed them to open the gym back up in time for the new year and just a few weeks before they're set to host the Ice Climbing World Cup in 202

"We definitely find that here, a lot of people, when they're not home or at work, they're here," Maier said. "So it's a community."