Bouldering Project - Poplar — Attraction in Seattle

HORRIBLE EVENT MANAGEMENT

If Boulderfest 2024 is Poplar Bouldering’s idea of handling a major event I can only imagine how poorly they manage the gym on a daily basis. Staff and volunteers, on the other hand, were great.

TLDR; Great routes, but atrocious and cheap event coordination. Management was unresponsive, giving their own team no guidance on how the event should run. This felt like a cash grab, with no regard for competitors.

Review below based on management of, and quality of the recent event.

Food, beverage, and vendor village:

For one of the most heavily sponsored climbing events I've seen—RAFFLES with Scarpa, La Sportiva, Yeti, FrictionLabs, OrganicClimbing, plus Arc'teryx giving out hats if you spun a wheel and followed them—why was ZERO effort put into the vendor village?

Here’s a list of their so-called “vendors” for Friday and Saturday:

TLDR; They may have paid to keep the café open, but that’s it. It looks the same on any other day. Arc'teryx, Chicken guy, and snack company was only there for Saturday (No mention of this online)

Arc'teryx: A tiny, two-person table with a mini spin wheel where you might win extra raffle tickets, a high-five (which I "won"), an extra spin, or a hat (my fiancée actually won this). Their Café (of course). Grip Test Booth: A pull-up bar and grip tester where the longest hang/highest grip wins a prize. Snack Company: Giving out free samples to promote themselves. Youth Team Booth: Selling old/lost shoes and chalk bags as a fundraiser. Chicken Quinoa Vendor: $15-$20 USD for one menu item outside. Beer Booth. Imagine paying $110 CAD and traveling 8 hours round-trip across the border, only to find out the “vendors” only showed up on Saturday (again, no mention of this online). And the so-called "all-day party"? It was somehow even more disappointing than a limp salad at a buffet you paid full price for, while last year’s FREE event at my local gym was far superior.

Management:

Here’s my experience of getting one coherent response from them:

Bought a ticket but got no confirmation email. Followed up by email and called 4-5 TIMES OVER THREE WEEKS, only to hear the same tired excuses:

September 28, 2024: “You’re next in our system, they should reply today.” October 2, 2024: “You were caught in spam; we’ll bump you to the manager, hopefully today.” October 5, 2024: “We’re having email issues; hopefully they’ll reply today.” By coincidence, I called when the assistant manager was around, and she confirmed I was on the list—just three days before the event, after weeks of silence. Planning a trip from Canada without confirmation is absurd.

Event day:

The two-day event was pure chaos. Staff and volunteers were left clueless. We heard different things about prizes, but essentially, we were told they’d be awarded at the end of the 2 pm Saturday session. We stayed an extra day, wasted 8 hours waiting around Seattle, only to be told, “There are no prizes; results will be posted online in 4 days.”

Many of us traveled from Canada to compete, and whether people win or not, competitive or casual, they deserve to know their standing, especially after paying $110 CAD and dealing with brutal long-weekend traffic.

Take your money elsewhere. This gym doesn’t value its customers and seems entirely focused on maximizing profits...

SBP is a super busy place. The parking lot is regularly full, but you can land a spot with few a rounds since there are folks coming and going. The staff and friendly, helpful, and informative. Upstairs are electronic lockers, showers, a sauna, towels, cubbies, loaner chalk, bandages, nail clippers... all included with the cost of admission. Downstairs are classic lockers, gym with yoga classes, kids walls, restaurant with board games..

Despite its popularity and often dense crowds, the community at SBP is highly collaborative. Members and staff are welcoming. When you attend a typical athletic club, you don't see people interacting the same way. At a standard gym, guests put on their music and contend for workout equipment. Striking up discussion is uncommon or creepy. It ends up that way by design. Preparing a bench press requires minimal intellectual effort and requires several sets to complete the exercise. Thus you end up with people awaiting the machine or taking turns while sweating all over it.

The scene is different at SBP. People gather at the base of the route, discuss strategy, and cheer on one another. A group of total strangers can end up huddled around a route and finish out the day giving each other high fives. The routes themselves challenge your body with varying degrees of technical grips. After spending some time here, it's no surprise knowing that climbers are often the winners of endurance/ninja warrior type challenges.

I don't have a strong climbing history (some, but not much). That said, I can't speak on behalf of veteran climbers' concerns (level of challenge in the hardest routes, quality of pinch handles, etc.). I don't do much rope or outdoor climbing because I don't have many friends who do it and my personal schedule is chaotic. Also, I am not interested in belaying people. I just want to climb whenever I have the time. SBP serves as a close-to-home place to climb on demand, and it is full of helpful, friendly staff, members, and new guests. It is a great means of drawing attention to bouldering as a sport.

They should expand if they can. This is what a local gym...

Pros: Varied options for climbing, coworking space, clean facilities, nutritious food available, opportunity to socialize with friends while climbing.

The showers are hot and clean and towels are provided. There’s a sauna to relax after a climb and it’s not been crowded in my experience.

There are a good amount of affinity groups/ events to connect with folks which make this gym worthwhile.

Parking while taking some time during peak hours is quite large and typically pain free.

Cons: Inconsistent staff experiences. It feels like management has dropped the ball on training staff to deal with questions and overall interactions with members in a kind and considerate way. I typically leave interactions with the bouldering bro workers considering why I’m a member at this gym instead of another bouldering gym.

Classes: Instructors have seldomly offered modifications, introductions are sparse and I had one class where the instructor completely ditched me and another beginner to enjoy climbing at his level. When me and my partner said we didn’t know the essentials his response was to “just climb” 🙃

Safety: No one taught me how to fall safely. Parents consistently let their kids run around in a way that is dangerous to the children and climbers. Enforcement of parent supervision has not once been heard while I dodge folks with babies and toddlers roaming.

Overcrowding: At peak times you might as well go home because you will wait among a swarm of people to get your turn. Combine this with the children, and folks who walk under climbers and you’ve got a serious accident waiting to happen. Please do better on this for everyone’s sake.

Overall- I’m climbing here for now because my friends are members but my impression of SBP is undoubtedly being lowered with each negative experience with...