What annoys you about your local gym?

"There's at least 15-30 people that literally live in the Movement parking lot in Denver in their fucking sprinter vans"

I would get a laugh out of that more than it annoying me. I mean, if you want to live on the road and in a van, what other business is going to support that with showers and bathrooms? As long as they don't play some lame ass folk guitar music in the parking lot, or bluetooth speakers for that matter, we're good. And no, I don't want to support you via Patreon. 

Creed Archibald wrote:

This thread was made for me!

I’m annoyed when the damn kid’s team practices at the busiest part of the day at a gym that is way over capacity. You can’t even park within 1000 yards of the gym, but at 5 pm they have 20 children ARCing on the ropes! 

And in case the owner happens to see this thread, I’m talking about THE FRONT. Get it together! 

And in case the owner happens to see this thread, I’m talking about CENTRAL ROCK WATERTOWN. Get it together! 

Bill Shubert wrote:

1. On cold mornings, the heat all collects at the top of the building, so you start your climb freezing cold then 30' up it suddenly becomes a sauna. It takes a couple hours for this to clear up.

So your problem with the gym is that it follows the second law of thermodynamics?

T.J. Esposito wrote:

* The non-climber barbarians doing clean and jerks for an hour and filling the gym with the crash of weights over and over and over and over and over.  Really helps you keep your focus on the wall.  Go join a crossfit gym if you just want a place to throw weights around (Mesa Rim is overrun with them)

* Staff with no clue who feel the need to to lecture experienced climbers about their lead belaying/climbing when their "experience" in their short climbing careers is bouldering outside a few times.  If you're going to make sure your yoga instructors, for example, are actually experiences yogis, then why doesn't the same standard apply to the rest of the staff?

Can confirm. Have gotten called out by their staff multiple times for belay technique. It's always the less experienced staff members. Also, would definitely support a different room for the cross-fitters, it really makes the gym a lot more congested. 

That being said Mesa Rim is fantastic at putting new routes up on a regular basis. 

There are maybe half-a-dozen climbing gyms in my area, two of them I refuse to use because the beer is shit!

Fredrik Ehne wrote:

Rocks on the floor!?

It is (was) pea gravel. It makes for a somewhat forgiving landing - you "splash" into it, but once I did that with my mouth open and a GD pebble came flying up and chipped my front tooth.  Also, the dust from the gravel is abrasive, so holds wear down really fast.

Peter Foster wrote:

Rockquest in Cincinnati, Ohio has gravel on the ground with boardwalks for walkways. Pretty dirty and dusty but it has a good OG vibe

Ah, I imagined something like the below picture, which didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Gunkiemike wrote:

It is (was) pea gravel. It makes for a somewhat forgiving landing - you "splash" into it, but once I did that with my mouth open and a GD pebble came flying up and chipped my front tooth.  Also, the dust from the gravel is abrasive, so holds wear down really fast.

At this gym people would use remaindered pieces of carpet to wipe the dust off their shoes. So there would be pieces of carpet around the bottom of the routes. My partner landed on one when he was traversing and tore his ACL and collateral ligaments.

z.schmidt wrote:

They've got padding throughout the place now.

That's good to hear. I went there once while in town for a few days. Found the rocks weird but whateves. Stranger was that they spent all that money and effort to put those around the whole perimeter and had absolutely terrible and tiny bouldering.

Poor use of natural features. Why not post a grade next to cracks using the Indian Creek approach of 10- or 10 or 10+ and entice people to try and get on them more. On the harder cracks why not create "circuits" for feet. Perhaps set yellow foot chips and red foots chips, then grade the crack at 10- if you use only yellow feet and 10+ if you use only red feet and 5.11 if you use no foot chips. 

Wilson On The Drums wrote:

Poor use of natural features. Why not post a grade next to cracks using the Indian Creek approach of 10- or 10 or 10+ and entice people to try and get on them more. On the harder cracks why not create "circuits" for feet. Perhaps set yellow foot chips and red foots chips, then grade the crack at 10- if you use only yellow feet and 10+ if you use only red feet and 5.11 if you use no foot chips. 

+1

Wilson On The Drums wrote:

Poor use of natural features. Why not post a grade next to cracks using the Indian Creek approach of 10- or 10 or 10+ and entice people to try and get on them more. On the harder cracks why not create "circuits" for feet. Perhaps set yellow foot chips and red foots chips, then grade the crack at 10- if you use only yellow feet and 10+ if you use only red feet and 5.11 if you use no foot chips. 

Nice idea

everybody in the gym

Ted Pinson wrote:

So your problem with the gym is that it follows the second law of thermodynamics?

Well, that would actually be Archimedes' principle (the principle of buoyancy), not the Second Law... That said, ceiling fans can work wonders. My gym has them, but for whatever reason, they don't always have them running when they should be. Outlier weather days tend to be the worst. (Either an unseasonably warm day in the winter, or unseasonably cold day in the summer.)

None of our local gyms have cracks except Main Event and the cracks there are literally covered in pizza grease.  I just want a good finger crack, hand crack and leavitation sized OW crack.  Or even better have one of those fancy adjustable cracks.

Christopher Smith wrote:

None of our local gyms have cracks except Main Event and the cracks there are literally covered in pizza grease.  I just want a good finger crack, hand crack and leavitation sized OW crack.  Or even better have one of those fancy adjustable cracks.

Cracks suck in gyms... one day if someone finds a way to create a good crack in a gym maybe you will see more of them..

ViperScale . wrote:

Cracks suck in gyms... one day if someone finds a way to create a good crack in a gym maybe you will see more of them..

Nicros has done a pretty decent job at VE. They have hand-tooled cracks that, while textured, don't completely shred your skin upon contact. (They're even modelled after famous crack climbs from Yosemite and Devil's Tower in terms of crack size, orientation, and natural features.) It's obviously not as good as the real thing, but compared to the horror stories I've heard from other gyms, they're surprisingly decent.

ViperScale . wrote:

Cracks suck in gyms... one day if someone finds a way to create a good crack in a gym maybe you will see more of them..

Mehhh it doesnt have to be perfect.  I'd be happy with just some textured plywood splitters since the nearest trad crag to me (Enchanted Rock) is an hour and 45 away.

My local gym has some cracks built into the wall when they created them so they never change and they just suck, they are pretty and all for noobs to get on. Noone who is a real climber ever really touches them because they don't climb like a real crack outdoors. I want some cracks in a gym that feel like I am climbing a real crack outdoors and have not seen one in all the gyms I have been to.

Christopher Smith wrote:

Mehhh it doesnt have to be perfect.  I'd be happy with just some textured plywood splitters since the nearest trad crag to me (Enchanted Rock) is an hour and 45 away.

Are you in Austin? The Main Event has a climbing gym in the back with three great cracks. One is at least thirty feet of perfect hands with an autobelay. The one across is a finger crack about 5.10 and the offwidth is OK, too. Go check it out if you haven't already. I learned more crack technique there running laps on those than years of flailing at E-Rock.

https://www.mainevent.com/play/rock-climbing