Central Rock Gym — Attraction in New York

Very good, clean bouldering gym.

DAY PASS COST: $33

FACILITIES

The main climbing area is below the lobby. There is one long top roping wall following the staircase and a much larger bouldering area. This bouldering area basically forms a circle with benches in the middle a and a small weightlifting area. There's no cardio equipment. Overall, the area is very clean. There are dedicated changing rooms but no showers. What's cool about this gym is that they have these chalk stations around the bouldering area. Everything is very clean and well maintained.

SETTING

In general the setting is moderately difficult. There is a V0/VB circuit that always has black holds. Otherwise, the routes are color coded but there is no association between color and difficulty. Each route is assigned a V grade which can be determined by looking at placards spaced around the gym. Each placard contains information about the three or four routes near to it. However, the closest placard to a route is not necessarily the one that has the routes information, so you sometimes need to hunt for it. In general I think this is a creative way to show route information and it's much cleaner than writing on some duct tape.

The holds are in great condition. There are few holds with excessive chalk or shoe rubber and it's always easy to tell what color each hold is. Moreover the staff is careful to make sure that routes of similar colors are not adjacent to each other.

The setting is pretty straightforward from V1 to V3 and I think that around V4 is where the more creative stuff like dynos are really thrown at you. There are about 80 routes in the gym by my estimate and the difficulties are skewed for V4 and below.

CONCLUSION

This is a great gym. It's expensive (maybe not for NYC) but very well maintained so you know the money is used well. I love it when a gym does more than the bare minimum to make the climbing gym a good experience. I'll definitely return here when I come...

Central Rock Gym is a world class indoor rock climbing and fitness facility. Easily accessible via train and/or bus, this location offers bouldering, auto belays, and fitness!

One key difference that I notice is the difficulty of bouldering. Unlike other indoor climbing gyms, these locations have bouldering difficulties ranging from V0 to V11, much higher than V9 of most other gyms. However, since there are more levels, the difficulties of each level are also slightly easier than those of other gyms too. Meaning, a V2 at Central Rock Gym is slightly easier than a V2 at another indoor climbing gym. To me, this is an ideal starting point for anyone starting to bouldering. The V0 and V1 helps build confidence for beginners and the slow incline in difficulty boosts confidence for more advanced bouldering climbers!

While you still need to rent bouldering shoes, you do not need to rent chalk. If you have, you can bring your own, but this facility provides you with chalk! They also have lockers for you to store your bags and changing rooms for you to change your clothes. Another great thing is the care this facility provides. Not only are the areas clearly marked and separated, but everyone is pretty much safely away from the fall zone. Not only that, but they also provide band-aids for the minor cuts, scrapes, and injuries you may incur during your visit.

I definitely look forward to coming back here. Hopefully, I can get to a higher...

Good bouldering. Fair weight equipment. Not much in the way of belay or top-rope, but that's not really what it's there for. Honestly, if you'd asked me last year, I would have given it five stars. However...

I'm knocking one star, because I cancelled my monthly membership in February 2023, and it took them 3-4 months to do so, even with monthly reminders. When I asked them to refund me, they said the contract stipulated that they didn't need to cancel unless I asked through a specific channel. I confirmed using waybackmachine that the contract at the time when I signed it did not have any such clause (ignoring the fact that cancellation requests are not just something you should decline if you aren't particularly fond of them).

And I'm knocking three stars, because after I called them out on that and asked for a copy of the signed contract to confirm, instead of correctly refunding me, they claimed that they would send one over. They have not, and I've followed up with reminders.

To be honest, I'm not even mad about the money. $500 is not worth my time. I'm angry that the employees here wasted my time, and lied to my face repeatedly, and that there's very clear evidence that it was intentional instead of just an honest mistake. I used to love central rock; I got my first V8 here. Now I'm just kind of disappointed and sad when I think...