Elite Climbing, LLC — Attraction in Maple Shade Township

This is a review for the bouldering competition in particular. I don't know what the experience is like on a normal day at this gym, since I have not gone before. I thought it would be a good outing to drive about an hour to check out a new gym and attend my second rec comp.

However, I did not have much fun at this competition. I think they should have capped the number of participants to about 2/3 of how many were present last Saturday or perhaps split the group into heats, as the place felt very overcrowded. The format of the competition required a lot of time spent trying to pick climbs, but this process was hindered by the time required to wait and then jump in front of people so you could actually approach the wall. I like that the format encouraged you to try things a little above your perceived level, but since time was so limited given the crowd, I was barely able to successfully accomplish the 5 necessary climbs in 3 hours (and I only took one ~10 min break overall). The crowd in addition to the overly loud, aggressive music made for an overwhelming and unwelcoming environment for someone on their own in a new place. Someone had a panic attack at the competition, and I completely understand why. (This person did find someone they knew who helped them out, and they got back on the wall later. 🙌)

The setting was interesting, and I would try this gym on a normal day if it were closer. But I am a bit too far to go for a normal session, and I will not be attending any special events here again. Overall, either the format or the number of participants allowed needs to change at the Crux Life competition, because this experience was not worth $50 when I could have done far more climbing and felt much less stress on a normal day there for $19. There is also a question of safety here, as people were climbing under each other/crowding the mats a bit. For context, I have been to bouldering gyms with crowds like this before. But the time pressure to complete a given number of climbs made this competition experience more unpleasant than those prior regular sessions.

P.S. Elite Climbing, please invest in a new microphone system. It was nearly impossible to hear instructions and timing notices from the desk, if you were not close enough to hear the person's voice...

This review is if you are strictly into bouldering, and if you are I will tell you this place is not for you. One good thing about the place hence the 2 stars is that it is fairly cheap. If you are a college student and you get a 10 punch pass you can get your cost down to essentially 10 dollars per visit which sounds like a steal, BUT you get what you pay for. When I have visited there have been a good portion of the time where routes have not been assigned any proper Vgrade. If you are a beginner boulderer this would probably deter you from climbing any of those routes especially if you don't know if you are making progress in your goals. The cave NEVER has any sort of Vgrade attached to any of their problems it has always been like this, but no other bouldering gym I have gone to is like this.

Second other gyms I have gone to keep up most routes up for about 90 days and then switch out problems in a rotation. This gym barely changes their walls at all. There is one specific wall that has a pumpkin hold while I had visisted and I could assume that problem had been there since halloween, when I had visited last was around March. It is September and that SAME problem is still there and I assume that wall has not been changed one bit.

Third as a personal preference a lot of these routes aren't very fun. On multiple ocassions I've had to deal with routes that have had to deal with a ridiculous amount of stretching that clearly been made for taller people in mind.

Last, if you aren't into kids then this place will definitely not be for you. On weekdays this place gets packed with them and while most of them are rather orderly and well behaved that doesn't speak for all of them and the place can get rather loud because of it.

If you are in the South Jersey area and are into bouldering. I highly suggest you put the extra miles and spend the extra money to go to either Deleware Rock Gym, or Philadelphia rock gym. Your money and your time are better spent...

I used to compete in rock climbing in Arizona, they don't mess around there with their rock climbing but it's been hard to find a quality place that's still local to me and affordable here in NJ. .. until I found this gem.... cough cough I mean gym. This place is the spot, it's awesome! The staff are all incredibly knowledgeable, down to earth, and always genuinely happy to step in when help is desired. I brought three 7 year old girls to their kids club on Friday nights and they loved it!! There's comfy seating for parents to sit down to read or write, vending machines for last minute cravings, and plenty of cubbies to store your things. With so many climbing walls and challenging angles, I don't see myself getting bored at all and I can't...