Hub Climbing | Mississauga Rock Climbing Gym — Attraction in Mississauga

I’ve been at Hub for a while (since 2019) and recently fully switched to Boulderz Etobicoke. I’d say its a decent beginner/ intermediate gym, but for anyone trying to grow/ get more bang for their buck, I’d recommend going elsewhere.

This location has an okay training area (ie. campus board, weights, a squat rack, elliptical, et cetera). In my opinion, they could make small improvements by adding rungs underneath the campus board (like Boulderz has), add various training equipment (ie. warm up bands, pinch training blocks (if I’m not mistaken they recently started to provide some), a belt to add weights to for weighted exercises, treadmill (they have one but it doesn’t work and just sits in the backroom), row machine, etc.). Unfortunately, this gym doesn’t have a kilter board (seems that most gyms have one nowadays (Steel Peak, Up The Bloc, Boulderz, Climbers Rock just to name a few)) they do have a moon board though.

Seems like instead of making this location a place for climbing, they opted for building a kids playground (Adventure Hub) in the old beginners section and where the old birthday party rooms used to be. Not really sure if this was a good investment, as it doesn’t constantly run (but I could be totally wrong and which is why they are catering to kids/ families) (note they did increase their monthly price). If they want to appeal to climbers they should’ve put that money and space towards more climbing related things that will contribute to the CLIMBING gym and its members (ie. a kilter board, spray wall (they recently added this), traverse wall, et cetera).

Regarding the setting, when the original head setter (Shawn) was there it was amazing. All the routes flowed and were extremely entertaining; the routes forced you to do intentional beta, forced specific movement, et cetera. Since I was last there, there were some routes that flowed well. Specifically, the setters with the initials JM, AT and HS. Regarding the bouldering, its okay, but I would rather go to Boulderz or UpTheBloc for bouldering. As I find the features of their walls kind of bland.

This location seems really disorganized at times. They’ve been open since 2019? and they’re still going through growing pains from what I can tell. They only recently put up their pricing for items they sell in their makeshift store. Their social media presence was almost nonexistent (was poorly done) until recently. If you want to get your lead tag there it’ll be best to call in ahead of time as only certain people can lead certify people and they don’t always have someone on staff to test people.

Regarding their pricing, I know hub recently increased their pricing… its $100 per month for a gym that’s still growing vs a gym like Boulderz $90/95 (for their gold membership). With Boulderz Gold membership, you can bring in a friend per month (irrespective if they have been to the gym/ location before, which is equal to like ~$25 ). Retrospectively to justify their price increase Hub has recently mentioned that they give you dual membership to their Markham location, but that doesn’t really justify the price point for a gym that’s under utilized/ still growing. Also, not to mention its on the other side of the gta. I would be more inclined to go to this location if they started making improvements (like getting a Kilter board to start).

This is just my two cents, take it for...

Time to start looking for a new rock climbing place because my recent experience was not what I was expecting. We had gotten my daughter and her friends together to go rock climbing as they have all had a busy summer.

Anyways, we get there, my friend who is trying to get himself checked in already started to get a hard time, we pay and we get our kids saddled up and doing rock climbing. Now one should note that there was a big chunk of the gym that was not available to us as customers even though we paid to be able to use the entire gym. Our kids and us all walked through some pylons, not clearly understanding what they were doing there. Yes, we saw people were working there but to a normal person who doesn't go rock climbing every day, the pylons (WITHOUT ANY SIGN) can mean a lot of things. It can mean:

a. Some custom rock climbing program is going on b. It could mean area is probably used by a private group for some special training c. it could mean some maintenance work is going on

The possibilities are endless, as we were just walking past the pylons and almost out on the other end we start hearing the guys telling us please don't go through here or go from other side and to which myself and others with me voiced concerns on why they don't have the area closed completely and also PUT A SIGN up saying area closed or go from the other side. They have other pylons which have signs for other messages then why couldn't you have a sign stuck on a pylon.

My personal discussion continues with David who seems to be the manager there and he continues to explain to me that pylons are everywhere even when you go out on a road construction and to which i replied "every road construction still has a sign or message telling the drivers what to do or be aware of", and the same applies here. I also pointed to the little queue barrier that they have in the front entrance and mentioned that they could use these as they block the path completely and are very obvious, to which David mentioned that he would have to order them and what not. They sell for $136 on Amazon and can get to him in 1 day so really.

I mean in just 1 visit with 6 kids and each kid they charged $31.92 they made $200 from just this 1 group and you are telling me you can't get proper signange and crowd/queue control barriers. Another thing David also mentioned was that this was common in all rock climbing places where they close half of the area to make changes to the walls etc. What I as a consumer don't understand is that why are you making these changes during business hours when you have people and kids there for rock climbing, and what this also means is that although you are paying to use the entire facility you can only use a portion of it. I mean you were just chaning the rocks on the walls to a new pattern, it's not actually any construction you were doing.

Regardless, it's clear this place is not the ideal place for myself and my group of friends. I think David and team should consider the following:

Get proper queue control stanchions Have proper signage Change the rock wall design formations after hours when no public is present Have the right individuals work the front counters who know how to interact with the public/people who are from different backgrounds...

Great place. Would want more variety in the training area.

The staff have all been great and friendly, I never really had a terrible experience with them except for the time they gave me a harness that was incorrectly assembled, I tried to do the belay test with that harness and they failed me because a harness that THEY GAVE was assembled wrong. "You should have noticed that the harness was put on wrong". What if I was a beginner and coming there to climb for the first time and used the harness, I could have been injured or at worst died. I feel that the person giving me the harness should have checked to make sure it was assembled correctly. I did not even get an apology for the entire situation.

Despite that situation, I come here regularly and it is a great place for rock climbing. As advertised it is a big place, but at the same time it is not dense. A lot of variety for boldering, top rope, lead, comp wall, and auto belay is available. They also have 2 speed run courses available. The main problem is their training area.

The training area has a moon board, pullup bars, peg board, hangboards, 1 multipurpose machine, bench press and bar, skipping ropes, weights, and some benches for dips and ab workouts. I wish they had some resistant bands available for pullups, a pulley system for hand boards, gymnastic rings, a slack line, and steps for 1 legged squats or jumping squats. For a place that is huge, I would expect them to have better workout equipment than other local rock climbing gyms.

Moving on, The place always looks very clean and they have showers available that come with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I never had an issue with cold water either.

The Hub also provides many options for kids for parties, and summer camp which is great.

EDIT: The owner emailed me and replied to this review.

He never once mentioned the fact that they gave out an improperly assembled harness nor did he acknowledge that there is a risk if that harness was given to an amature/first time rock climber that went to autobelay. THEY COULD HAVE DIED. He tries to gaslight the reader just talking about my experience. Not mentioning that their facility made a mistake.

People who can't admit they are wrong are a complete joke. Worst owner and terrible experience to talk to.

He says that they installed rings and equipment "on my request" but he just asked for suggestions, to make their gym better and they got the equipment saying I requested it. MORE GASLIGHTING MAKING ME FEEL LIKE I OWE THEM SOMETHING. I never came back or intended on coming back here so do not put words in my...