Hanna Pierce didn’t unravel the final secret when she went to her first escape room, but she felt she had found a missing piece to Durango’s entertainment scene.
“After the hour in that room, I walked out and I was so excited. It was almost like having an adrenaline rush. ... About two hours later, I looked at my husband and said Durango really needs an escape room,” Pierce recalled.
Escape rooms started in the late 2000s, and they are modeled after “escape-the-room” video games. They can take on an array of themes and puzzles.
“Durango’s so focused on the outdoor activities that we kind of wanted to balance that” with an indoor entertainment opportunity, she said.
After about six months of preparation, Pierce and her husband, Chris Pierce, opened Conundrum Escape Rooms Friday morning behind Durango Coffee Co., 730 Main Ave. Tickets are $25 per person.
While it is the first escape room business to open in town, Animas High School students pre-empted the Pierces when they opened a room in May for a short time as part of a school project.
This helped build excitement for Conundrum, and the business hired two students who helped with the Animas High project, Hanna Pierce said.
At Conundrum, teams of three to six people have up to 60 minutes to solve the clues left by Sherlock Holmes to escape.
If teams get stuck, a game master can provide additional clues on a computer monitor, but the employees are not meant to interfere, Pierce said.
“A big part of the experience is feeling fully immersed,” she said.
Sitting in the arm chairs in Holmes’ masculine room, which features antlers and a chessboard, you can hear other people walking in the “apartment” above.
However, someone with the company is always observing the teams, partially for safety reasons. Seeing teams test the room helped the company refine it as well because participants have tried to solve the room in ways that are not intended, and those incidents inspired new ideas, she said.
“It’s a good social experiment,” she said.
The business opened in three basements totaling 34,000 square feet, and while they were in rough shape, the brick wall in what is now the lobby and the low ceilings helped Pierce create the right ambience.
There is also space for rooms with different themes to open, and in late July, the business plans to open up a Jesse James room.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
