The Gravity Vault Hoboken, NJ — Attraction in Hoboken

I’d like to say a few words about my fabulous visit to gravity vault Hoboken. Let’s start from the beginning. I had joined a climbing group because I’ve never been climbing and I wanted to prove to my professional Go-Ped Scooter racing friend that I too can be an action sports star. They offer a free belay class to members twice a month. The RSVP was full, but the problem is that people RSVP and then don’t show. I called and they said to come in anyway because it seldom fills up to capacity. They were right. We were greeted by a Greek-God like man named “Dan”. I assume his full name is Daniel, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it were Dandelion- because of how sweet this man was. He had a glorious beard that made you feel like you just drank a cup full of estrogen while gazing at it. He was our personal belay instructor and mentioned that he was recovering from a few accidents. I was told that they weren’t climbing related and I believed him. He just looked trustworthy. In addition, I found out after hours just how trustworthy he was. We’ll get into that later, but first let’s talk about the curriculum of the class. He made us tie knots until we could tie them blind folded.Dan made us so efficient at tying these knots that I now took up crocheting part time. He made us shout safety terms like “ON BELAY” and “BELAY ON” at a very close distance to our partners face. Shouting safety terms so close to my partners nose made us all feel safe. He also set the mood via the music. There were a few songs from Green Day and three doors down that got me in the mood to climb. I also remember playing these on a mix tape when my last girlfriend broke up with me to date Chad from REI. That is NOT why I decided to try climbing FYI. Anyway, after a long and professional session, Dan gave me the confidence I needed to take on the fireman wall. I came, I saw, and I conquered. I hit that wall and a few other walls, then I waited for Dan to get off work. Why? Because along with Dan being a master climber he also has several Exotic side hustles. I can’t go into them all, but I will go into my favorite, The Small School Buses. Yes, Dan will Belay you right into the back seat of a Small School Bus. Who needs a full size bus, when Dan will sell you TWO small ones. Dan painted me this awesome picture of all the uses of a small bus, then we drove out to a bus yard in the Bronx around 11:30PM.where he turned me loose to pick out my dream bus. I found not one, but 2. They were Both yellow, although one had some spray paint blacking out what appeared to say “Property of NYC BOE”. I don’t really know, but it seemed legit. Long story short, I am a proud owner of not one, but two small school buses. we drove those bad boys back to my house in Jersey City and I cannot wait to go back to gravity vault in them. If you goto Gravity Vault, it MUST be Hoboken. If you climb with anyone, it must be Dan the gently used school bus...

I've been rock climbing for almost 7 years and this was the least safe I have ever felt in a gym. We went Sunday afternoon to lead climb, but did not end up doing so due to the large number of inexperienced people walking under climbers, and the loud volume of music and screaming people that made communication while leading difficult and unsafe. We saw people lead climbing incorrectly, and witnessed an accident where the climber fell from over halfway up the wall onto the ground due to improper belaying. The staff reacted slowly and poorly, with one staff member shouting to the 10+ staff behind the desk who initially did not hear him over the noise. This accident would have been prevented if the many, many staff members had been paying attention to the people climbing and ensuring that members possessed the proper technical skills to safely lead climb, belay, etc.

In addition, the boulder climbs were awkward and inconsistently graded, and many of the problems were unclear due to poor labeling. Safety-wise, there was an upside-down bat hang move at the top of a V3 boulder. At that grade, many climbers are still learning how to fall safely, and encouraging an upside-down move at the top of the wall lends itself to accidents. The lack of down climb ladders, particularly from boulders that ended in top outs, was also an issue that made down climbing and bailing from hard moves riskier and more difficult.

Generally, it did not seem like the facility was well-maintained. The vast majority of the bouldering holds were coated with a dense layer of chalk and shoe rubber grime. There were also many "spinners" (stuck holds) on the wall, which got in the way of some moves.

A nice feature of this gym is their speed climbing wall. However, we did not get the opportunity to climb it since staff were encouraging inexperienced people to try it, which makes no sense considering it is graded around a 5.10 and unrealistic for new climbers to be able to make progress on.

Overall, despite the beautiful facility itself, we did not enjoy our time there. This is primarily due to the lack of staff direction to new climbers in teaching them how to safely navigate around a climbing gym and their gross negligence in preventing a serious...

Tl;dr: male staff walked into ladies room without asking. GV please bring attention to this. ladies be careful in the mean time

GV has always been my top choice for climbing. However, as I go more often, I noticed that their staff would go into the lady's locker room for cleaning without knocking or asking.

I was changing in the locker room after they announced the gym will be closing in one hour. There is a guy in staff shirt just walked in with earbuds. He saw me looked at him but didn't stop or turn around to leave. I was offended and yelled "excuse me". He didn't say anything but went into one of the stalls. I then finished changing in the shower since it has a curtain and I didn't want to use the stall next to hime. (There are three stalls and he went into the middle one) After I left the shower room and turned on the faucet, he came out from the stall and left the locker without saying anything.

I felt confused and offended. It is also violating my privacy. I felt unsafe changing in the gym or going to the ladies locker if people can just walk in without feeling guilty or ashamed. I would expect that GV trained the staff properly and enforced rules being a big gym in the area.

This was not the first time. I have seen this same staff walk in as I walked out of the ladies room without knocking or saying anything before, all towards closing time. I asked in the community, some other female climbers said they encountered the same. After sharing the features of the person, it was probably the same guy. Looks young in age (early 20s? If not younger), curly hair. Probably 5'5 -5'7, thin. Medium...