Our Unqualified Leaders

CliFF

Owner

I like climbing quite a bit. I’ve been at it for about 20 years and have been working in the industry since 2007, when I started route setting and coaching at the MPHC Climbing Gym. In 2010 I left NYC to pursue my dirtbag dreams and spent a year climbing around the US and another in Yosemite learning how to climb cracks and big walls. Eventually, I made my way back to NYC and worked at a few gyms before starting GP81. I’m super grateful for the incredible staff that makes this place function and the vibrant community that gives it its heart and soul.

Julian

Owner

I was born in Colombia and moved here in 2001. Learned a new language, survived high school, and somehow managed to get into college. Started working in the climbing industry around 2013, and that’s when I knew I wanted to do this every day. Fast forward to 2017 and boom... GP81 happened. I love all aspects and modalities of climbing, but most of all the family that comes with it all. I am working on being less grumpy. I love the people I work with.

The
Sandbagging Team

Sam

Head Routesetter

Sam is a legendary pirate of the Seven Seas, and the irreverent trickster of the Caribbean. A captain of equally dubious morality and sobriety, a master of self-promotion and self-interest, Sam fought a constant and losing battle with his own best tendencies. Sam’s first love was the sea, his second, his beloved ship the Black Pearl.

Marc

Routesetter

I started climbing in 2009 when my cousin took me to my first climbing gym in NYC. I was born and raised in Queens, the place I call home in my heart. I’ve been route setting for 8 years now and it’s cool to see how route setting has evolved throughout the years. I started to route set at GP-81 because Cliff wanted more reachy choss boulders. My job at the gym is to create soft crimp lines with the occasional high heel hook above your head. I do enjoy setting to allow our community to experience all kinds of movement though, picking their brains and pushing their limits. I would one day love to actually make use of my passport and climb at destinations such as Squamish, Magic Wood, and the Rocklands. When I’m not climbing, I like to spend my free time eating yummy foods, rapping J. Cole lyrics in the shower, browsing shoes and clothes I can’t afford, playing video games, and taking naps with my dog Koda.

Sebastian

Routsetter

I started climbing as a kid at NJRG and started competing on the youth team, making my way to Nationals a couple of times. After high school, I took to the culinary world and worked in restaurants throughout New York and California. 

I continued climbing as a hobby after graduating from culinary school, and competed occasionally. 

I became fed up with working in restaurants and began to search for something different and inherently better than the world I was in. 

I became a setter at GP81.

I enjoy big blocks, some hiking, camping, climbing and donuts.

I like cars, tacos, rocks, Playstations, and cheeseburgers.

I usually spend most of my time exploring with Eliza.

She likes those things too.