Central Rock Gym — Attraction in Watertown

First off, I love CRG and have been a loyal member for years. Second, under the new management, they have made a lot of essential improvements such as cleanliness, working machines, route setting updates, and more.

As an adult climber who doesn’t always have a partner available for top rope or lead and an injury that somewhat limits my ability to safely boulder because of the inherent impact sometimes associated, I often enjoy auto belay. However, when there are large groups of children enjoying the auto belay area, there seems to be a lack of climbing etiquette enforced by the parents and gym.

Today for example I waited a solid 15-20 minutes for one child to climb the wall for as long as they wanted to without any awareness from the parents that myself and other children were waiting to climb. This seemed to be the case with multiple pairings of children and parents. It’s my belief that the etiquette should be that you climb once, unlatch, and free the wall for another climber, especially if it’s busy. Otherwise someone like myself or another child could be waiting a very long time to climb.

Are the parents and children required to take any sort of orientation that requires etiquette training and if so or if not how is this enforced by the staff of the gym?

I’m all for kids enjoying the gym, I think the programs that CRG offers for children are amazing and CRG accommodates and encourages children climbing. It is a shared space that adults and kids enjoy together, so there needs to be more of a mutual respect that kids don’t necessarily get the priority and need to abide by the same standard as adults. We all pay good money for access to the gym and the lack of awareness and etiquette enforced by parents on children climbing and running has always been an issue. Tough to teach and enforce I know, but it’s a good thing for kids to learn and parents to be aware of. I don’t see staff members monitoring and enforcing this...

Been a member for over 10 years and sadly things have gone downhill to the point of contemplating cancelling my membership and going to a different gym. In terms of climbing, the top-rope (not including auto-belays) and lead climbs are pretty much the only redeeming aspect now. The gym will probably be good if you are (1) on one of their kids teams, (2) coming with your kids/family, or (3) are relatively new to climbing. If not in one of those categories, they really don't care about you. Instead of addressing the issues, they've actively pushed a lot of their former regulars to other CRG locations (like CRG Cambridge, which has subsequently experienced problems due to their attendance numbers often going beyond usable capacity).

A lot of the issues really started getting to problematic levels once private equity took over significant ownership stakes a few years ago, and their decision making reflects that change in that regular members (i.e. not paying extra fees for kids teams, equipment rentals, etc.) are not valued anymore. Really feels like the vibe/character of the place and a customer's experience in the gym changed dramatically when their business model...

Friendly atmosphere, and a good range of features and grades. Somewhat in-between the just-back-from-the-crag grunge of Metrorock (don't get me wrong - I love that feel) and the only-climb-on-plastic hipster vibe of Brooklyn Boulders, Central Rock feels like a place that casual climbers can feel totally at home in, but has plenty to offer the hard-core rock jocks.

All of the tracked routes are based on the color of the holds rather than tape, and the grades feel about standard for New England, though they stick with +/- grades even past 5.9 (no letter grades). I haven't gone often enough to have a sense for how often they change the routes, but the routes are fun and a good mix of thought-provoking and strength-challenging. I also haven't done any bouldering or leading, but they've got plenty of dedicated space for both.

I have a yearly membership at Metrorock, but I'll still pay for Central Rock every now and again for the variety and change of pace, and it's well worth it. If you live nearby or don't have a strong allegiance to MR, you could...