What Makes a Great Climbing Gym?

curious to hear your thoughts on what makes a great climbing gym. 

What do you love about your local gym? What do you not like about your local gym?

* **Specific features:** Are there particular features or amenities that you really enjoy? (e.g., auto-belays, campus boards, yoga studio, presentations or slideshows)

* **Atmosphere:** What kind of vibe do you prefer? (e.g., chill and laid-back, competitive and intense)

* **Community:** How important is the community of climbers at your gym? 

**What could be improved?**

* **Pricing:** Are the membership fees reasonable?

* **Staff:** How helpful and friendly is the staff?

* **Cleanliness:** How important is a clean and well-maintained facility?

* **Route-setting:** Do you prefer a variety of route styles and difficulties?

I'm really interested in hearing your feedback, so please share your thoughts and experiences!

Thanks,

Shaun Johnson

That it's just a climbing gym for climbers........nothing else....

Touchstone allows us to freeze membership for months we're away.  $10/month.  Easy to do.  We use it frequently.

Factors for me:  Friendly, engaging staff.  Clean.  Large bouldering area.  Autobelay a bonus.  Our gym sets long traverses at the base of the climbing walls - as many as three routes/problems.  Super fun and builds endurance.  When bouldering gets crowded, I go down and get on the traverses.  I don't use workout equipment at the gym, so that is not a factor for me.

Staff retention (reasonable pay) does wonders for all of the above

Autobelays.  Single biggest factor for me.  I have no time or interest in coordinating schedules, trying to make new friends or being belayed by someone who may or may not have any idea what they are doing.  

My ideal gym has these things:

Yoga for free, ideally yin and hot

Rowing machine for my warmup

Any system board, I prefer a TB2 at 40*

Autobelay routes

Hard and interesting boulder routes. 

Currently I'm going to SCC, it has all of these I just wish it was less crowded.

Shaun Johnsonwrote:

what makes a great climbing gym. 

Having comp-style problems segregated into their own area (which also doubles as a skate park).

Having an adjustable Kilter as a sacrificial lamb that draws traffic away from the other boards.

Having internal consistency re: grading.

Having awareness of the impact of birthday parties and teams on regular members.

______

With that said, my current gym in Northern Michigan is by far the best gym experience I've ever had, including multiple Colorado and Utah gyms.

One of those light up bouldering boards that is networked and changes angles are always nice. Occasional beer night with a guest speaker is cool as well. 

F r i t zwrote:

Having comp-style problems segregated into their own area (which also doubles as a skate park).

Hilarious!  Love the idea.

High route density, plenty route within all the grade ranges 5.7-5.13+. Comfortable temperature (cool). Fitness routes, and powerful boulders. 

Good route setters. Everything else ranks far below for me. 

- no initiation fee, It’s a gym not a frat

- a shower, major key

-cool with overnight parking 

A few other things too 

ZT Gwrote:A few other things too 

Let's get this man to the Oval Office!! This is the specificity of vision our glorious nation yearrrns fer

Setting safe routes without competition style jumps and thinking about setting better feet for tall and short people. Setting for fitness and not injuries, although it may be a bit boring for the setter, is what I  appreciate.  I want to get strong in a gym, not think about figuring out plastic cruxes or which routes are going to tweak some part of my body. I don't want to hit a giant hold or volume that is sticking out when I  fall no matter how cool it looks. One setter at every gym should be a professional trained setter.

Friendly staff , no too cool for school bro-brah staff.

Clean bathrooms that make you feel as if your hands really are clean after you wash them.

A good gym has a Moonboard and preferably other boards

-An atmosphere of hard training where setters challenge members at all levels. Problems go into double digit V grades. It's true that not many will climb these but they'll attract climbers who do and that's excellent for the gym to have crushers frequenting it

-A nice mix of outdoors style and comp style problems 

-Good weights and hangboard area with a beastmaker (preferably more than one) somewhere 

-Specific features: a vertical wall somewhere with a variety of crack sizes. Easy to build, takes only a meter or so of space left to right and is surprisingly popular 

-Enough room to stretch without being in the way

-Spray wall with a variety of hold types

-A friendly and close-knit community with frequent outdoor trips. A gym can help facilitate this with a board by the entrance and meetup days

-Gym hosts competitions or events from time to time 

-Staff hang out with members or climb when it's not super-busy 

-Has decent ventilation. I don't care if a gym is sparkly clean but it's nice if the air doesn't become too dusty/chalky

Things to avoid: My gym has a treadwall and to be honest, that thing mostly takes up space. It doesn't see a lot of use and the space would honestly be better with anything else there

-Don't bother with routes if your facility doesn't have the height for them. Under 10m high routes feel sad

-foam pit highball bouldering area. Unless your space is absolutely massive, ends up taking up too much space and becomes the bane of your setting team's existence

-cafe with premade food delivered. If it's not fresh and cooked on-site, stick to drinks. No one wants 3 day old refrigerated sandwiches 

The Front in SLC just opened a ceramic studio as part of their gym.

So, don't do that.

Create a space that focuses on climbing and staying fit for the mountains. 

Must not have tape to designate routes/problems 

Must not have any slab 

Must not have a youth team

Must have a vending machine with snickers

Must have downclimb jugs on any bouldering sections 

J W wrote:

Please elaborate.

So you know slab climbing, right? Get rid of all of it at the gym. Overhung and vert only. 

J W wrote:

I guess what I thought was implicit, wasn’t.

Why?

Cause slab climbing sucks…? Try to keep up J W 

Best practices for creating the ideal gym:

• When hiring new employees, play them a song in 4/4 and ask them to clap along with the beat. If they clap on 1 and 3, don't allow them to control the music.
• Don't host gym-to-crag days. Birthday parties are far more lucrative, and the best thing about a climbing gym is that people are climbing there rather than outdoors.
• If you must have a youth team, don't give speed- bouldering challenges to the kids. They absolutely will run underneath larger boulderers, and you absolutely won't be able to control them. Also, don't train them to be screaming fanboys/girls. They can learn to be douchebags when they get to college.
• If space is limited, resist the urge to be everything to everyone. If you have multiple locations in a city, consider specializing--e.g. one more geared to beginners and one for experienced climbers.

Shaun Johnsonwrote:

curious to hear your thoughts on what makes a great climbing gym. 

What do you love about your local gym? What do you not like about your local gym?

* **Specific features:** Are there particular features or amenities that you really enjoy? (e.g., auto-belays, campus boards, yoga studio, presentations or slideshows)

* **Atmosphere:** What kind of vibe do you prefer? (e.g., chill and laid-back, competitive and intense)

* **Community:** How important is the community of climbers at your gym? 

**What could be improved?**

* **Pricing:** Are the membership fees reasonable?

* **Staff:** How helpful and friendly is the staff?

* **Cleanliness:** How important is a clean and well-maintained facility?

* **Route-setting:** Do you prefer a variety of route styles and difficulties?

I'm really interested in hearing your feedback, so please share your thoughts and experiences!

 

Thanks,

Shaun Johnson

I find the community particularly important. 

One of my favorite gyms, ontheedgerockclimbing.com/ On the Edge, in Melbourne FL I thought did something clever (probably on accident) They have all their auto-belays up front and center in the gym, infront of their common area. Then they put couches right infront of them. Everyone without a belay partner would congregate and it would be very easy to make friends in-between autobelay sessions when your both trying the same route and have the same spot to rest.At the Front in Salt Lake City, it's more like do your auto-belays then run away and hide in their huge rest area far away from the auto's. The Front's Sauna majorly makes up for it though.

Vertical dreams in Nashua NH https://verticaldreams.com/ has all their routes named, how fun! I still remember my first 5.8 route there "Hang Tough". It was cool to be able to talk about routes by their name rather than saying "oh that yellow 5.9 in the back corner". Made the gym much more socical.