Movement LIC — Attraction in New York

I've bouldered here 3-4x weekly for about a year and a half. Here's a bouldering-centric review:

Good things: the setting is solid. There are usually 100 boulders in a variety of styles and angles. I'd guess maybe 5-10 of them are "comp style", and only a few of those are parkour/jumpy, which is enough for me. I'm 160cm tall and only a small minority of boulders genuinely feel morpho to me. That fraction is reasonable enough -- not everything can be accessible to everybody. The grading is about as consistent as grading ever is, and having climbed at over a dozen gyms, reasonable (if anything, I'd say the problems are easier than those at GP81 below V5 and harder above it, especially at V8-9). There's a 2016 Moon Board (EDIT: three days after I posted this, they reset it with the 2019 holds) upstairs. The exercise area is somewhat small but has all of the typical climbing exercise area stuff. There's a youth team, but they and their coaches are pretty good about minimizing impact on other climbers. The occasional birthday parties hardly ever leak into the bouldering areas. There's yoga and acro yoga a couple of times per week. People are as friendly as they are at most climbing gyms. The gear shop's prices are okay. In short, it has enough for most people to enjoy and get better at climbing.

Less good things: There are the generic problems that almost every gym has (crowded in evenings, new people who haven't paged in bouldering safety). As mentioned above, the setting is generally good, but I think there is a bias toward burly and crimpy problems, especially above V5. Part of this comes down to wall angles, but I think there are only ever maybe two or three hard delicate and technical problems (and at time of writing, I would say there are ... none). If you come from one of the Bouldering Project gyms and can't wait to show off your ankle flexibility and how much you trust your feet, you're in for an adjustment. It's pretty rare to see compression boulders anywhere other than the arete/fin feature, and very rare to see hard ones. The Moon Board is 2 degrees too steep, has barely any clearance between the bottom feet and the mat, and a wall immediately to its right that makes certain backflaggy moves impossible. Finally -- and they can't really be blamed for this -- there are relatively few people here climbing beyond ~V8, at least in the evenings. This is not a big deal, but if you're trying the 5-10 boulders at V9 and up, you're probably going to be trying them alone. If you want visual examples of hard climbing, you probably won't find them. If you're actually climbing V10+, you will probably get bored quickly. GP81 is a lot better for this. GP81 is also, I think, better at setting problems that are both hard and flowy. I'd go there, but I don't live there, so I don't.

Overall, it's a fine gym, and probably a 5-star experience if you're in your first few years of climbing. But beyond that the limitations of the space and setting are a bit ... noticeably imperfect (and unfortunately there's no chaos wall to compensate). Nonetheless, good enough to mostly not...

TLDR; Intro to Climbing class only included about 5 minutes to practice climbing/controlling the ropes; day pass to climb ropes not guaranteed; not enough individual feedback.

I recently took an Intro to Climbing class (as a complete beginner), and it was really informative. We spent a lot of time learning how to tie key knots and control the rope for a climber, but you don’t really get time to practice what you learn alongside the instructor. I spent about 5 minutes actually climbing, and another 5 minutes controlling the ropes for my partner, and then the class was over. I was really disappointed by the lack of transparency because while the website mentions that you’ll be able to climb after class… that’s not entirely true. You’re welcome to climb the boulders, but in order to receive a day pass to climb the ropes for the day (before you come back another day to get your belay certification), the instructor must feel comfortable giving you a day pass based on your performance. Unfortunately, this isn’t specified on the website or at any point during the class. Well, I wasn’t cleared to climb for the day, but it was disappointing that the instructor didn’t provide additional feedback for areas of improvement or a chance to continue practicing. This is especially problematic because in order to get your belay certification, you need to be able to successfully perform what you learn in the beginner class- so, how exactly can you successfully pass the certification test without the opportunity to thoroughly practice what you learn? This made the experience feel really discouraging and like a complete waste of money. My friends and I actually left the class feeling worse! So, if you’re a beginner and interested in getting started and having an opportunity to practice, I recommend doing your research to find a location that actually guarantees this experience and creates an enjoyable and welcoming experience...

I took my son and his 2 friends to celebrate his birthday, the place is smaller than it looks. Prior to going I called to get the necessary information so my experience could be pleasant but of course that did not happen. The guy I spoke to said all i needed was to show up with the kids, was not told that I would need the parents to fill out waivers before the kids could climb. ( I took kids to skyZone previously and this info was given and taken care of prior). I was greeted by an Asian girl who was very insensitive and super snobby. Instead of explaining what had to be done to 'the customer' she wrote on a piece of paper the name of the website to fill out the waiver. I then asked If a computer was available, which she then pointed out. Thank you snobby lady. I went to another girl after I completed my son's waiver and she was helpful and friendly, her name was Ashley. I explained the situation and she apologized, waived the fees for the climbing gears, which I really didn't care for but was thankful. I asked Ashley to speak to the director, she said yes, but of course the person never showed up, well of course who am I. My issues were - I was not given the correct information about the facility, as a result of that, I wasted 20 mins trying to get in contact with parents who were at work to fill out waivers. The Asian girl was not friendly and could be a racist from the way I was treated. And the person in charge was too busy to find out what the issue was so future customers dont experience the same thing. This is not a place to take kids, its definitely a spot for adults only. Giving a customer money back does not mean anything , sometimes a great outing/experience is better in the end. Train your staff to treat each customer...