The Oaks Climbing — Attraction in Berkeley

If you care about training or improving your bouldering, this new gym is a major disappointment. Almost all of the wall angles are slab, vertical, or less than 20deg overhanging. This is a critical design failure unless the gym is primarily for children or people who only climb for fun occasionally, which appears to be the case.

The second problem is that the weights area is tiny, about the size of a garage gym. At least it’s free weights and not a bunch of useless machines.

My final two complains are things they can actually changes: there are currently zero hangboards or training boards. I know they are planning on installing a large training board, and I really hope it is a Tension Board 2 rather than another Kilter. Nothing against Kilter, but we already have 3 in the east bay (great western, training center, pac pipe). If it is an adjustable angle TB2 and they add a good hangboard area, then at least those parts of the gym will be functional. Time will tell. For now, the best commercial gym walls are at Benchmark in Berkeley and the best training boards are at the touchstone...

What an amazing concept... but... How unfortunate to not have chalk and to have bad routes.

They advertise all these routes, amount of walls to climb, but don't even provide the bare necessities. This means you have to pay for their shop, which is a scummy business practice. Then you go to climb, and it's not this mecca of bouldering but just an average gym that looks cool.

Pacific Pipe has SO MUCH more to climb, has chalk, better equipment, and better everything... just avoid here and go there if you're visiting. This place will leave you wanting more.

What this gym has going for it is a good community of nearby climbers. The routes are not that great, for an all bouldering gym ~ my expectations on route setting are high. The V5s are questionably V4s, and things feel just easier here than other gyms... even without Chalk.

Route Setting: 2/5 Atmosphere: 4/5 (a little underused for the size) Staff: 2/5 (friendly, but unequipped) Gear/Rentals: 1/5 (some of the worst in the bay area)

Overall, major let down. Mission Cliffs and Oaks are the biggest losers in the...

This is overall a great climbing gym. I’m giving a one-star regarding how children are supervised here. I think the gym has a responsibility to train non-climber parents how to safely supervise their children. But what I see here (and other touchstone locations as well) is that a lot of parents don’t understand the climbing etiquette and safety. They’ll let their children start a route intersecting with a climber on the wall. They’ll stand in the fall zone of another climbing with their children. They’ll stroll with their kids along the wall. I don’t think this is the parents’ fault. I think the gym never properly educate the them how to supervise. Parents should pass an exam like a belayer’s exam in order to qualify to...