Movement Crystal City — Attraction in Washington

This review is a hard for me to write because I like this gym, but I hate the way they nickel and dime customers.

The gym is solid. It's in the top 5 I have ever climbed in. There's an extensive bouldering section, decent 35ft walls, weights, treadmills, and locker rooms. Solid! It's still new so all the climbs are still fun and they appear to have switched some of them out already which means they're keeping up with it already.

My issue with Earth Treks and the reason for two stars is their pricing/fees. I don't mind paying $85/ month as a member living near DC, but it's the multi-gym pass, the "start-up" fee, and Family membership are disappointing. Why must I pay $6 extra/month to visit one of their other gyms? I'd like to know how many members visit a different gym often enough that Earth Treks thought it would be a problem and they should charge more for it? What if I don't know if I will visit other gyms but I'd like the option? Guess I better pay the premium. Crystal City (CC) is in their top pricing bracket too. I would understand if I was a member of one of the cheaper locations and they wanted me to pay the CC price to be able to visit other gyms, but instead, this is the opposite of that.

What about this "start-up" fee? $59 for what? I come from climbing on the west coast, and I have never once seen a startup fee to become a member of a rock gym. Verizon charges me that much to send a technician to my house. What is Earth Treks doing for this? Silly.

Finally, the family pass; Why must a person be married or civil unioned? Like I said before, I come from climbing West Coast, and Family/Buddy memberships are the same. I should be able to come in here with my friend/significant other/spouse or mother and pay the discounted rate that assumes we are paying more and also ensuring the business that they now have $150 coming to them monthly rather than $85. That's the incentive to bring a friend and convince them to climb with you daily. Every time I signed up for a gym, I brought a friend because of the incentive. I boulder mostly so now I have no extra incentive to bring someone in for more than a random day pass or to use one of the membership included buddy passes.

Oh and last thing.... $10/month to put my account on hold? I can cancel my membership, but I have to pay the start-up fee again if I return. As a military member, I have never seen something this absurd. Even Verizon will put my phone on hold indefinitely without any fees at all, and they are truly in the business of ripping people off.

I know this review seems whiney, but I know this company can do better for its members. Maybe my review will inspire even one change, that will be a...

If you live in DC, your only options for climbing gyms with a reasonable commute are either here or DCBP (which barely passes as a climbing gym): both of which are corporate gyms with insane prices for sub-par climbing. Movement is a little cheaper and larger, and they have some training boards, so I guess this is where most people settle.

My biggest gripe is with the bouldering setting here. Some of the climbs, particularly V4+, are pretty good. Easy climbs and the density, however, are actually atrocious. There will be V0s or V1s with like 17 different large footholds but will only be about 4 actual moves. You can leave out half of the footholds and make the climb 7+ moves and it will still be V0/1 fr. The lack of density at the gym is insane. When I walk in the gym its hard not to notice how much blank space is on the walls. Many climbs start in the middle of the wall, leaving the bottoms of the wall unused, and they usually end before the top too. Easy climbs that start and end in the middle of the wall, combined with a lack of density, means there arent a lot of other holds around to make up climbs or extend a climb to warm-up more. When there is a new set, they reset such a small section of wall, and at the end, there is AT MOST one of each grade. The large 45 at the back of the gym is criminally underutilized, there should be at least one of each grade at 45 degrees, (not on the vert/ less aggressive adjacent walls which often happens when they reset the 45). Added some pics that show: an arete completely unused, more underutilized space (with climbs beginning and ending in the middle of the wall), and slab, but its a mess of holds that clearly were set for some strange aesthetic purpose.

Huge lack of community at this gym as well. At least they have a lot of hangboards and...

Large, clean, and modern climbing gym with a bit of a yuppie vibe. Walltopia designed walls with pretty interesting routes, although the geometry of the walls in the roped area is slightly less exciting than other gyms in the area. More slabby walls than Sportrock and more total routes. The wall height is only 35-40', quite a bit shorter than the 60-70' at Sportrocks larger bay.

Bouldering section is super modern, absolutely massive, and fits right in with how most new gyms are designing their boulder areas. Lots of hard problems in this section.

Their fitness area, IMO, is a big selling point. They have all of the traditional machines you'd want in a weight lifting gym (squat rack, deadlift platform, cable machines, olympic style bars/weights) plus the moon boards and campus boards for climbing-specific training. It's quite busy, even later at night, but is probably the nicest fitness area of any of the local climbing gyms.

The vibe here is really what will make or break the gym for you. If you're like me and generally try to avoid crystal city/clarendon area then you will probably feel more at home at Sportrock where the atmosphere is more chill and the demographic is a little different. If hanging out in Arlington is your scene then you will absolutely love this gym.

Lastly, this is a good bit more expensive than Sportrock. $6 more for day pass and almost $30 more for a membership. It has more amenities (nicer showers, the dope fitness area, etc) but if you're on a budget this probably isn't the spot. Overall a really impressive gym that can offer full feature climbing/fitness/weight training for somebody who likes the...