It’s Thursday morning at CityRock.

Heart’s “Barracuda” echoes throughout the climbing gym, queued alongside other hits from the 1960s and ‘70s.

Climbers quickly ascend the towering walls, with belay partners keeping a close watch. While their hair may have some grays, their strength and speed are vibrant.

Meet the Boomers.

Coached by Arlo Niederer, 69, Boomers is a group at CityRock for climbers over the age of 50. The group meets Thursday mornings and evenings, and is made up primarily of retirees, from retired schoolteachers to former engineers. Currently, the group has 22 members.

The bunch operate on three rules: 1. Have fun; 2. Make friends and 3. Climb better.

“Have fun, don’t turn climbing into a job. Most of us are retired, so we don’t need another job. The second is to make friends — climbing has become a very social thing, and that’s the most important thing, we have a group of friends,” Niederer said. “Then the third one is to climb better. I coach Boomers as much or as little as they want, and on occasion I’ll make little training videos for them. And so many of them have progressed so well.”

The program started seven years ago, after Niederer returned to climbing following an injury. Brushing up his skills again with courses at CityRock, he was approached by the head of adult programming, who asked Niederer if he’d be interested in leading the group, since the Wyoming native had more than 50 years of climbing experience under his belt.

After about three months and positive feedback from the group, Niederer was hired on as a coach. Boomers has been meeting weekly ever since — and sometimes more.

“They literally go climbing outside every weekend to a different place,” Niederer said of some members of the group.

Niederer encourages individuals of all experience levels to join, from novices to experts. For those experienced climbers, there’s always more to learn.

“There’s always a climb harder than you can do,” he said. “They’re changing the climbs continually, and so we’ll project around — like you can’t do it on your first try, and so you go up and work on it and try to learn how to do it. And that teaches you new movement techniques.”

There are three elements to climbing, Niederer said: technique, physical fitness and mentality. Conquering the fear of falling, for example, is something that people struggle with across all age groups. That’s why Niederer works hard to include it in his lessons.

“One of my big complaints about climbing is we taught people how to climb, but we didn’t teach them how to fall,” Niederer said. “You have to learn how to control that mental aspect, especially if you do what’s called lead climbing, where the rope isn’t already up there, and you climb and you clip those things in.”

What attracts Boomers to climbing?

The social aspect is a big draw. While some find that it’s difficult to make friends with age, the relationships formed in this program are strong.

“You make lifelong friendships, which is probably the best benefit of climbing,” Niederer said.

Not to mention the necessary trust among group members to belay and work together to climb safely.

“You need to know how to belay, and catching falls is probably the most important skill in climbing,” Niederer said.

Retired teacher Sherry Converse, 61, joined the group with no prior climbing experience. During a visit to the climbing gym several years ago with a friend, she successfully scaled a rope attached to the ceiling, which caught the attention of some Boomers members.

“Some of the ladies who were in Boomers stepped in, came up and said, ‘How long have you been climbing?’ And I said, ‘An hour,’” Converse remembered. She was invited to join the group that day and has been climbing every Thursday night since.

Converse enjoys the social aspect of climbing, but also the way the activity supports mental and physical fitness.

The group’s welcoming nature is reminiscent of the climbing gym itself, said Steve Morrison, 63, who’s been climbing with the group for four years now.

“There doesn’t seem to be any ageism in here. It’s probably the friendliest climbing gym I’ve ever been to,” said Morrison, a retired security manager. “One of the things about Boomers, and this whole area here and all the people at CityRock, is it’s a great community. It is so much fun, lots of new friends. And there’s no judgment, no matter what level you are.”

Morrison, who has climbed on and off throughout his life, enjoys the calm the practice brings him.

“The biggest reason is that I’m closer to myself, I’m more in touch with myself and my higher spirit. When I get on a climb, it’s me and nobody else,” he said.

As for Niederer, who is a retired geophysicist, he climbs for several reasons in addition to an interest in the science of it.

“The things that really attracted me about climbing is one: the movement is fun. There’s actually specific techniques you use on the wall, one of my longtime climbing partners would call it fingertip dancing,” Niederer said. “It takes you to all different kinds of places that you would never ever go to. So that part’s really, really fun. I love the outdoors.”

And what better way to share the love of the sport than with others.

“They’re all really nice, friendly people, competent belayers, and we don’t care whether you climb hard or easy. It’s just ‘do you know how to belay? And are you a good friend?’” Niederer said.