BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HIGH PLACE THOUSAND OAKS CLIMBING GYM A REALITY AFTER 12 YEARS OF PREPARATION.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

Thirty feet above the ground a climber reaches for a hold then slips and falls. She laughs as she swings in the air.

Her partner snubs the climbing rope and gently lowers her for another.

This is a typical evening of fun at the new Boulderdash Indoor Rock Climbing Studio in Thousand Oaks, where climbers can scale an artificial rock wall 45 feet high.

Failure is only ego - not bone - damaging. Climbers don a harness tied to a rope attached to a ``belayer'' who stops falls. And the floor is a cushy foam pad.

Dan Young of Simi Valley likes indoor climbing at Boulderdash, which has been open for only a month.

``It's a great place to workout and get strong,'' he said.

But the gym, the newest and one of the largest in Southern California, was only a dream for many years for owners Christiaan Luneberg and his business partner Paul Farkas.

Luneberg and Farkas worked for 12 years to bring Boulderdash into existence. Luneberg took EMT training, lived in his car while he climbed at Yosemite, got a business degree and worked as a substitute teacher, all in preparation for opening a first-class indoor climbing gym.

While working as a climbing guide, Luneberg kept looking for the right location for the gym. He and his partner wanted a building with at least a 30-foot ceiling. They looked at more than 50 locations before finding the right site. Boulderdash occupies what was originally built as a dinner theater in the Watercourt Business Center. The theater never opened, but its stage and tall ceiling space for scenery was perfect for the gym.

Luneberg likes the sense of community and sharing he's found in rock climbing and hopes Boulderdash will be a place climbers can hang out and get to know each other. Kind of like ``Cheers'' without the beer.

For those who haven't visited a climbing gym, it's a Disneyland where you can actually climb the Matterhorn.

Construction of the climbing walls at Boulderdash took 60,000 pounds of steel, 300 sheets of plywood and more than 100,000 pounds of cement. The result resembles real rock, Swiss-cheesed with 22,000 hand-drilled holes and dotted with colorful artificial holds that look like giant Fruit Loops.

The holds come in big and small, easy and hard-to-grasp variations. The difference in holds, together with the slope of the wall and spacing of the holds varies the climbing difficulty from easy to expert.

Routes are christened with names such as ``Don't Look Back,'' and are given a difficulty rating. To keep climbers from getting bored, the color-coded routes will be changed every three months.

There are four main climbing areas in the gym, ``The Canyon,'' a 25-foot- high wall with easier routes for beginners. ``The Prow'' soars 45 feet in the air and provides more challenging climbs, including ``lead'' climbs where climbers clip the safety rope into carabiners anchored to the wall as they ascend.

``The Cave'' is 40 feet high with a 20-foot overhang, which makes for the most difficult routes as climbers have to make ballet-like moves on the steeper-than-vertical wall.

A bouldering area offers short, unroped climbs and ``problems'' that require learning powerful movement sequences.

Getting started is easy. The two-hour ``Up Rope'' class teaches beginners how to belay and tie onto a climbing rope. After some time in the classroom students get to try climbing.

For climbers with some experience ``The Sharp End'' class teaches more advanced sport climbing techniques. Rock climbing parties can be arranged for birthdays, corporate meetings or mixers.

Special programs, including the Off The Deck classes for children starting at age 5 to introduce them to climbing. Family classes, a rock climbing summer camp and a climbing team are all geared for young climbers.

Michael MacDonald, a marketing consultant from Thousand Oaks and his son Ian, 14, were climbing at Boulderdash five hours after they heard about it.

``It's a great family activity,'' MacDonald said.

IF YOU CLIMB

Boulderdash Indoor Rock Climbing Studio is located at Hampshire and Wild Rose St. in Thousand Oaks and is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays (10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m Sundays). Daily climbing fees are $15, $13 for students or military and $12 weekdays before 3 p.m. Experienced climbers must pass a belay test. Monthly memberships start at $55 for an individual with a $125 initiation fee. Gear rental and classes are available. For more information call [phone] or visit www.boulderdashclimbing.com.

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(1 -- 3) Different paths and differing levels of difficulty are part of the lure of rock climbers to the newly opened Boulderdash Indoor Rock Climbing Studio in Thousand Oaks. Patrons can tackle 45-foot high facades - or, for the advanced climber, enjoy ``The Cave,'' a 40-foot high wall with a 20-foot overhang - as studio ``belayers'' provide safety from below.

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News

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IF YOU CLIMB (see text)