Vertex Climbing Center — Attraction in Santa Rosa

As a family we all started to get into climbing a few years years ago. Just a random trip to Vertex every few months. Covid hit, I had all our gear in a climbing bag that was stolen, etc and we just stopped.

About 8 months ago we got back into it... More regularly. My daughter (10) signed up for the Mini-monkeys program and we never looked back. She now climbs on Team 1. I've been totally bitten by the bug and have had the time of my life exploring this new challenge.

Having been an athlete that has been able to pretty easily excel in whatever I've put my mind to physically, it has been an extremely humbling experience starting rock climbing at 45.

I love this gym. I feel like I've really earned it when I clear a problem at vertex. I'm very much a beginner/novice climbing in the v3 range. Staff is extremely friendly and helpful and welcoming. Having hung around now for a few months. You see a lot of the familiar faces and a strong sense of community. I will be heading there with my two kiddos this afternoon and already can't wait.

Vertex has made me and my family feel welcomed as a beginner/newcomer and thankful for the facility, experience and camaraderie that vertex offers.

A truly top notch place in Sonoma county. Big shout out to Kai, Sarah, Celia, Jasper and Dave who have supported not only my daughter's growth on the team, but have enriched our whole family s experience at Vertex and instrumental in making rock climbing feel approachable to a middle-aged dude like...

This is a very well equipped gym for climbing as well as training for it. There are two bouldering areas, one a deep recess to spider out of, the other a two-room cave with routes of varying difficulty sprawling over the walls. There are no topouts. The main climbing area is an arc of fortyish-foot-high wall ranging from slabby to overhung, of varying difficulty. There is a modular adjustable crack and an off-width crack built into the wall. The routes end at the top of the wall; there's no roof problems outside the bouldering cave. There are topropes to protect most of the routes, but a couple sections are accessible only by sport lead. There are also three auto-belays. It would be nice if they had a few more for higher solo sessions than the bouldering allows. Upstairs opposite the climbing wall is a gym area with some barbell free weights, kettle bells, hanging rings, cardio equipment, rowing machines, and assorted other workout equipment geared toward the pursuit of climbing. A final feature is the outdoor obstacle course, with some ropes and cable slack lines as part of a balance-focused apparatus. The only drawback there is the fact that there's the odd pile of dog doo no one bothered to pick up. All in all, the biggest problem is it's not closer...

I’m so happy there is a place to climb in Sonoma County in the Santa Rosa area. I want to stress that I’m thankful for Vertex, but by today’s standards this gym has many... many shortcomings.

I have been to dozens of indoor gyms all over North America and Europe. I climbed at the gyms in SF for many years and always heard of Vertex and had never visited. I moved to Petaluma back in July and have been climbing at Vertex the past 7 months.

Pros: All the basics for training are present: lead climbing, top ropes, bouldering, campus board, a great assortment of hangboards, Olympic Rings, autobelays, even a systems board now. Also, the price is very reasonable.

Cons: I’m convinced a secret sponsor of Vertex is Vaseline. If you’re main focus is to send hard at Castle Rock while it’s raining on mossy lines, Vertex is an excellent simulator for that. Little friction and few climbs that spark brain power. Furthermore, there are plenty of routes that have been there since July. The overall maintenance is terrible. There’s little effort to cool the gym down in the summer, in the winter it’s a reasonable temperature. Have I mentioned the route setting is awful?

I really don’t understand this gym’s following... but at least...