Movement Gowanus — Attraction in New York

overall good experience and feel lucky to have this gym in the area but there are issues.

i love the variety of classes for the membership, lovely instructors and nice facilities. booking classes is easy. and a full membership means access to other gyms. also, finally, a locker room that can accommodate a crowd!

there’s wonderful lead walls that aren’t too packed and great variety of routes to work on. really appreciate the routesetting team here for their hard work and creativity. i’m personally not a fan of the bouldering sets. ratio of awkward cruxes to sustained movements is off for me. i think this is the inly gym in the city you can try speed climbing which is humbling and a cool, emergent discipline.

the auto belay situation just isn’t good. seems either too few auto belay stations or too many kids just permanently strapped in without supervision on them? i’ll usually offer to trade belays there when it is busy but can’t when it is the latter…

last thing to highlight is availability of some of gym features for members. hangboard area is cramped — at times unusable. it’d be better to not have it then to go with the intention of using it and it not being available. same goes for the yoga room/yoga equipment. sauna is usually not crowded but it’s a bit of a tragedy of the commons where i feel like this ‘community’ doesn’t take good care of it.

this gym does a lot and everyone can find something they like to do here. because of that i’d say it is more of a transient environment than a close knit climbing community which isn’t necessarily bad if you like a bit of anonymity!

edit: forgot to mention staff — a mess in the beginning but noticeable...

3 floors of climbing paradise! Routes are set in compliance with other Cliffs locations. Lots of fun routes at all levels!

Beginners, first time climbers won't feel intimidated here for sure and are guaranteed to have a good time and maybe even fall in love with the sport! :)

Pros: -two entire floors of bouldering: which means barely any waiting around even when it's crowded -45' rope climbing walls with plenty of routes -great gym and yoga studios -separate moonboard, hangboard section -amazing staff (like all other Cliffs locations) -super clean bathrooms and shower area (with free towel service for members!)

Cons: -Route setting(for boulders and auto-belays) is a little on the softer side mostly atleast until V5s(5.9s). Might become a peeve for those who've become too accustomed to climbing only select grades. (You'll do fine if you try the ones you wanna try without looking at the grades) -bouldering crash pads aren't the best and sometimes attract dirt and sweat. Doesn't affect me personally tbh, the crash pads are more than enough to ensure safety, and the clean shower rooms exist for a reason! -[minor quibble; easily fixable] auto-belay rope should have another carabiner so the rope stays attached to it's base flap while the climber fiddles with the self-locking carabiner (shouldn't be an issue for experienced climbers, but it's just extra work if someone per chance happens to let go of the rope and it goes all the up)

Overall amazing facility for beginners, intermediate, advanced climbers alike. Maybe the experts can go elsewhere or stick to...

I’ve been climbing here for over a year and I believe it’s my favorite gym in the city right now. (note: I only boulder) There is a really good vibe here. The gym has a range of climbers: both experienced regulars and a steady amount of beginners. For the most part the beginners do a decent job of not walking under other people’s climbs (compared to other gyms where this happens very frequently). As for the regulars, there is a friendly, strong community here that doesn’t feel pretentious or uptight.

It can get very crowded but there are enough walls where you can find a less occupied area (and these nights can feel very fun and social). Or you can go when it’s off peak hours like Sunday evenings or during the work day to find the gym pretty empty.

The setting is sooo fun and balanced. I’ve had a membership at another big gym in the city where I ended up getting worse at climbing! But here due to the broad range in styles I feel I’m improving and getting stronger. There are problems / walls for every type of climber - super strong, dynamic, big move problems as well as tight core, balance-focused ones, and finger-strength-focused crimpy ones. A lot of the problems are so fun to figure out so there’s always a few projects I’m eager to get back to each session. The overhang walls are my favorite. They have a good reset schedule too (though if there’s a comp or something it might take awhile for some walls to fill up again and I’ll go to a diff location for a bit).

The facilities are great. Huge locker rooms, large bathrooms, and a really cold...