Inner Peaks Matthews — Attraction in Matthews

I have been involved in the climbing community for 20 years and I have never been more disappointed than my experience at Inner Peaks in Mathews, as a Father. My son is 3 and expressed an interest in a sport that I love. I was stoked to take him to the gym for the first time and watch him play. My first shock was the day price of $20 for a 3 year old, the same price as an adult. Ok, I am here and I will pay it because that is easier than telling my son, I am sorry this price is not appropriate. My second disappoint came from the difficulty in the routes set. My son is timid and did not want to climb on the ropes, so he went towards the boulder wall. There weren't any jug ladders, or any age-appropriate climbs at all set on the boulder wall. My son's feet never left the ground because every route was set for adults. I tried to make the most of it and spent 10 mins counting start holds and pointing at colors before I realized we are not getting the product that we paid for. Third disappointment was Beth, the employee I spoke to about the difficulty of the walls. Beth was apathetic to the point of being rude. She told me that they had a climbing competition two weeks ago so the routes are harder than usual. Two weeks is more than enough time for setters to make the walls family friendly and inclusive. She said that my son could "just go to the ropes section." When I told her that my son was too timid for the ropes and wanted to boulder, she told me that I could drive to Inner Peaks South End, 30mins away, "because it may be a little more kid friendly." When I asked for a refund because my son was not able to climbing anything, she then told me that I "was more than welcome to have looked around the gym before I paid to see if it was kid friendly;" but they would not give refunds. The climbing community prides itself on inclusivity and Inner Peaks Mathews blatantly discriminated against my timid child by telling me "just go to the ropes section" and to "go to our other location;" how does that represent what the climbing...

This was my first time at an Inner Peaks location and to say I'm unimpressed is an understatement. First off, the staff was condescending and rude from the get go. I asked for a lead belay test and the one giving the test, Tyler, acted like it was a complete bother that he had to step away from the desk for 15 minutes to do his job. After getting grilled about why my harness is on correctly, we were finally able to get on with the test. As someone who has worked at a climbing gym before, I understand that certain protocols have to be followed. However, the men in our group were not subject to such questioning. Apparently only women are dumb enough to put on their harnesses backwards?? (seriously, one of the women in my group got questioned about that). We then found out that the gym was closing early that night at 7pm for a staff party, which had not been posted on instagram and was still advertised as closing at 8pm as of last night. The only saving grace was the actually climbing itself. The routes were good and there were some fun boulder problems. However, I suppose we apparently didn't leave the building fast enough for the staffs liking. I overheard some of them talk about "sending a message" and sent one of their staff members to come stand by our group with his arms crossed like some half-baked bouncer as we are packing our gear, putting on jackets, etc. I almost wanted to ask if it was okay to wash my hands or if that was going to take too long for the staffers to attend their party. It was 7:05pm when we left... I understand the stresses of working at a climbing gym as I was an employee for Cliff Hangers for 5 years, but this was absolutely ridiculous. I don't think I will be returning to Inner Peaks...

Definitely worth a visit. (Long detailed review below)

Two awesome bouldering caves, some good slabs, and even a comp wall. Not quite as much wall space as South End, but very unique problems. The bouldering walls are slightly higher than South End.

Top rope is decent but not on par with South End. The walls are shorter than the walls at South End, about as tall as they were at the Crownpointe location. Lead is almost non-existant. This will change once the expansion is completed (no word on when that will be, at least they haven't told me 😉 ).

Sweet loft area with campus and tension boards. The loft has a nice view of the bouldering area.

Yoga studio and workout room on par with South End. Dumbbells, barbells, squat rack, benches, medicine balls, pull-up bars, dip bars, treadmill, bicycle machine thing. No rings or finger boards that I have seen.

Extra:

The good - There are parking spots available! Much more parking than South End has!

Also good - The bouldering comp wall is very unique (as of this writing).

Also good - Seems to be less crowded than South End, even on opening week.

The bad - The bouldering mats are honestly... Pretty awful... Downclimb or risk bussing a knee. Hopefully they will sure over time (?) or add mats that are actually soft on top.

Also bad - If you're mainly a rope climber, it's still worth a visit, but you'll probably want to stick...