The Boulders Climbing Gym — Attraction in Central Saanich

We booked my son's 9th birthday party at this climbing gym and were very dissapointed. The morning of the party, they called to advise us that the power was out but said we could still proceed and offered us a 40% discount due to this issue. It was too late to cancel so we went forwards with the party and bought a commercial battery powered construction light and some flashlights and head lamps for the kids (about $500 worth of lights). The staff at the party weren't very helpful as they offered nothing in terms of helping with the party aspect nor did they even check on us. We were assigned a few young kids to help the party kids with climbing but the staff were super impatient, seemed visibly stressed and raised their voices to the excited kids several times. It seemed like they had never been trained in how to speak appropriately to young kids as raising your voice and making threats should not be your first resort. When we went to pay, we were only given a 10% discount which was a far cry from the 40% we were told by the manager on that day. When we followed up about the additional refund, we had to sent multiple emails with no responses. Finally a manager did respond saying that there's no way a 40% discount would have been offered but did offer a refund only if i came in in person. I wouldn't recommend having a birthday party here even with the power on as they don't seem set up for it and staff just dont seem to have the patience to deal...

I recently visited this climbing gym and was extremely disappointed with the experience. As an avid climber who has been to gyms around the world, this was the worst I've been to.

The bouldering area is dingy and poorly maintained. The routes are not well set, making it difficult to enjoy the climbs. The floor carpet is a safety hazard—some areas are caved in while others are rock-hard, which puts unnatural pressure on your joints if you fall or even jump down from a low height. The rental shoes smell, which is a clear sign of poor hygiene and maintenance.

Also If you plan to come alone, doesn't make sense to come here - no auto belays, and you’re unlikely to find someone willing to partner up for belaying. The top rope section is sparse and not worth the visit unless you're lead climbing. For top roping or leading, you'd be much better off going to CragX. For bouldering, there are plenty of better options elsewhere.

Overall, this gym needs significant improvements before I'd consider returning. Save your time and money and...

There aren’t any lockers. You can leave your belongings at the front desk but it can be pretty annoying when you need access to your things. Water bottle isn’t allowed in the climbing area, so you will have to ask every time if you leave your stuff at the front desk. The bouldering area was confusing. Some routes didn’t use holds with the exact same colour. The top of their routes were difficult to find as well. Front desk were friendly. However, while I was climbing, there was another little girl climbing on the route right next to me (My route and her route cross at the end). The girl climb on the wall after I did, but their coach didn’t say a thing. Luckily we both finished our route nicely and safely. We could have fell/landed on each other and get injured seriously if things went wrong. It was my first visit and the place wasn’t necessarily hard to find but it’d be helpful to have sign/signage to show where the gym is. Overall the gym was disappointing if compared to the other two climbing gyms in Victoria. Plus I found a few...