Climb Bentonville — Attraction in Bentonville

Wow it’s sad to see how this place is poorly run by absent management that seems to make all the wrong decisions. I have had a membership at this gym since before it opened its doors to the public. Pre covid the gym was amazing! The culture was good for both climbers and families, there was a kids area that brought in party’s and business, but the big walls and bouldering area were set well for real climbers. The hours for members started at 6am which was great because we could get a work out in before work. However the Nashville based management and ownership seems to want to drive this place into the ground. They gutted the kids area, in exchange for a kilter board, when there is plenty of open space above the bouldering area that is completely unused (subsequently killing the kids parties which brought in money). They have gotten rid of the auto belays on the 50ft walls, making solo rope climbing less enjoyable. They have turned over staff at the gym more times than I can count because they aren’t willing to pay people and ask to much of them, and then blame the local management. They have changed the member hours to start at 9am rather than 6. Meaning if you want to climb or lift before work this isn’t the place to do it. The member hours are from 9-12. Which is pretty useless for 90% of working adults and school aged kids (aka YOUR MEMBERS), so why would I pay for a membership. This gym is almost a perfect example of how to take a business that should be killing it in its given market, and ruin it! Looks like it’s time to go become a boulder and brews member, they open at 7am (what a concept)! Also for those of you who are curious I left a 5 start review on this business back in either 2019 or 2020 because it genuinely was one of the best gyms I had ever climbed at, I can’t even begin to explain how different it is. I think the only thing that keeps this gym going right now is the awesome group of setters, and...

Beautiful climbing gym, but an absolutely shameful lead test that acts as a bad gatekeeper to the hobby.

Learning and practicing lead climbing is essential to climbing outside, so my partner and I were hoping to practice here. In order to test out you must climb a 5.9 on the first try, for absolutely no reason. My climbing partner and I are new to the hobby, and when she struggled a bit on the 5.9 the tester immediately called her down. She had passed her belay portion easily, and was clipping just fine, but because she couldn't fly up the wall on a moderately difficult route she failed the test. This is incredibly toxic to new climbers for no reason whatsoever. The route should not be what they're testing you on, it should be your ability to safely lead climb and belay.

When we argued with them about if that's a legitimate point they said that Climb Bentonville needs to be sure that you can climb at that level before certifying you. Despite them allowing you to lead climb any of their routes, including their numerous sub-5.9 routes. I could instantly spot 3 easier routes (attached photos) that were set specifically for lead climbing. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to climb these routes because one of us couldn't get through a specific couple of moves on one specific route, harder than any of these routes should be.

This is a pointless policy, and it ruined the only reason we came here in the first place. They're not putting together a competitive team, this only serves to cut out people who they deem aren't good enough, regardless of their...

The route setting here is pretty good. Nice spread of beginner to expert stuff with lots of different styles. The problems come with the price and the route rating system.

Climb Bentonville is pretty expensive, either for a day pass or for a membership. Other climbing gyms in the area charge around 65% of their prices and do just fine.

Also, the route ratings are pretty inconsistent and ambiguous. For top-rope, some 5.11s felt great for me while others felt impossible.

The bouldering area is where the ratings get really bad though - they use one symbol to denote anything from a V1 to a V3, which is a huge gap. Being on the V4 plateau and not being able to tell where something lies on a V3-V5 spectrum is pretty draining. This has gotten both slightly better and slightly worse over time. The first time I went, every route had one of these symbols. The symbols themselves were confusing, but they were all there. The last time I went, about half the routes were explicitly marked with a V-scale rating, which was nice, but the other half had empty colored cards just marking the starts, which was even worse.

That being said, the materials are high quality, the staff are generally kind, patient, and safety-oriented, and the community around the place seems pretty solid. The ratings take some getting used to, but if you're willing to burn a bit of a hole in your pocket, it's...