Goat Climbing Gym — Attraction in Hackensack

Update to my original review below: After posting the review last week, Chris, the GM of GOAT Climbing Gym reached out to me directly. He also had Lee, the coach from last week's class send me an email with a detailed report on how my son did in class. He invited us to come back this week and personally met us at the desk. He took time to explain everything about the gym (as it should have been done last week) and made us feel very comfortable. My son is now a proud member of GOAT Climbing Gym and could not be happier. Thank you Chris for your accountability and making it right!

Original review: The facility itself is great with new equipment. It was very easy to set up a trial class for my son via email with Coach T. He was responsive via email and even sent the waiver ahead of time. Upon arriving to the gym, however, no one knew my son was signed up for a trial class. It was almost as if we were inconveniencing them. They "had" to find someone to do an orientation. At this point the class had already started and we realized my son would be late. No problem. Safety first. However, the staff member Jeremy sped through the orientation without any awareness to the fact that my son was not focused on the speed reading speech of his and instead focused on his surroundings. I stepped in a few times to redirect my son's attention and make sure he understood the safety information and was rudely told by Jeremy "No Ma'am. Its you. Stop talking so we can get to class." Well Jeremy, A few things here. Number one, if you are so obtuse as to not recognize that a 13 year old boy is not able to repeat back any of what you said, then you have no business being a staff member for youth climbing classes. Number two, if you are trying to encourage people to join your gym being rude is not the way to do it. Perhaps as an adult instructor Jeremy would be fine, but he certainly is lacking in the people skills department. After the class, no one checked in to see how he liked it or to provide any feedback. I found the whole experience surreal (and not in a good way) and would recommend this place only for free climbing and/or for adults. Their approach with teenagers is sorely lacking both in terms of understanding and attention to the needs of teens being different than those of adults. I am sure it is the right cup of tea for some, just not for us. I hope they take this feedback to impart better...

I love this place so much that I had both of my kids’ birthday parties here. The staff is what makes this place fantastic, but also it is an excellent, clean facility with high ceilings and a private party FLOOR.

My son turned 7 at the time we had his birthday there. Friends were around the same age, and they had a blast. One girl got scared and started crying once she got up to the top of their climbing tree, because she was scared to go back down. The staff was sensitive to have the other kids take a water break at this time, and one of the female staff members was incredibly patient and gentle in helping the girl feel comfortable enough to let her help her down.

Amazingly, the girl wanted to try the party rock climbing wall after that - I think she had built her confidence + bond/trust with staff. For my older daughter’s birthday as well, there were some kids who were a little nervous to climb. But the staff is absolutely excellent with them, and everyone in the end truly enjoyed their time there.

I personally love coming here with the kids and highly recommend Goat Climbing for birthday parties. The private floor/space is a wonderful setting for your partygoers to bond, and even a really nice place for the parents who stay to just hang out and enjoy.

Rock climbing is a great confidence booster for kids, in addition to a good workout and exercise in physical problem solving. I’m so glad Goat Climbing opened up...

Video, orientation, harness inspection, wavier was over 30 mins long. The attitude of the girl doing orientation was pathetic, questioning our knowledge of climbing, asked me how old my harness was I told her a year, she took it from me inspected every inch and looked at tag said yes. 2022. Then said she needs to watch me put it on. Other gyms are not as extreme. We explained to her my BF has 25 plus years of experience. During the belay test she said he doesn’t belay correctly and if he doesn’t do it “their” way we have to leave. I trust him with my life when we are climbing 200ft high areas now he has to think about belaying “their” way and being carefully watched over and talked to about it while I’m climbing. That’s not safe to be distracted while he should be closely watching me climb. The gym was much smaller than it showed on website and the top rope area to the right side of gym had many routes that crossed areas other climbers were on. So someone had to wait for the other to get higher before continuing. I feel that is not safe. Other gyms we visit are more spacious and have friendly staff that don’t question our experience, in fact they interact with us and even joined in on climbing at times. Most likely won’t return. I’ll stick with driving similar distances to other gyms that make us fee welcome instead of being watched like kids on...