Sportrock Climbing Centers — Local services in Alexandria

If you’re a new member here be careful. They don’t have the best staff up front who will make sure you understand all the rules and then will kick you out for not “knowing them”. We showed up and told them it was our first time here. The girl at the front desk was really nice and asked us to sign the waivers in the QR code. We signed the waiver and when the waiver prompted us to watch a video and we asked about it, we were ignored and went on to tell us how much we owed. We explained one of us is a newbie and my partner said he would feel more comfortable if he got a belay refresher before climbing since it’s been a while. She said that she could watch him belay and if he needed correction she’d give it, so a test rather than a refresher. In fact, she didn’t even ask if I’d be belaying him, and we were planning on having him show me how to. It seemed pretty casual. No rules explained about the test or anything . We were told to set up and get ready for her, which we did. I got into my harness to climb, and my partner was fixing up his own rig to belay me and we were looking around for the girl when the manager, Max, came up to us and told us we weren’t allowed to “practice” before a test. We said ok, we’re not practicing, he was explaining to me how belaying works, and I had done my own knot for my harness which I know to do, and we figured if he was going to be tested on belaying, he’d need a climber (me). The manager rudely said we were now disqualified from taking the belay test or even climbing. We asked where that was posted at and if that was the rule, what constituted practicing and why weren’t we told that before being told to go to the walk and “set up”. He vaguely pointed at another wall that was behind us when we came in and said it “was posted somewhere”. We asked again where because this was our first time and we wanted to follow the rules. He said by the waiver station (which we were not pointed out to, instead we were asked to use the QR codes at the front desk). We said if we had been told the rules for the test wouldn’t have set up, but the front desk girl told us to “get ready and set up”. So how are we supposed to know exactly what that means and that it doesn’t allow us to hook up our harness or for my partner to give me a tip and explain what he was doing? The manager was very adamant that we were disqualified despite us saying that if you’re going to enforce a rule, you should make sure the person is aware of the rule (I.e point them out to the rules or make sure they read them).

We asked if we could retest and after “how long” after practicing could we retest and how do they monitor that someone isn’t practicing 5 min prior in the parking lot or at another gym or basically what is the rational timeframe between a “practice” and a test? And what constitutes practicing (in our case doing a knot and hooking up to the ropes). He said he didn’t know but we were disqualified. The older woman and the desk seemed equally rude and dismissive.

They didn’t let us climb, and offered us a refund, nice- but this was a gift and so they had no way to give us back the value of our gift except to come back at some arbitrary time and perhaps have better luck. Maybe next time we don’t touch a harness or even sit on a bench, lest that be equivalent to practicing how to sit before climbing a wall.

It’s obvious they have no customer service training for employees, they don’t understand how to run a business, or have set expectations for customers to follow processes without training their staff in how to properly onboard a new client. If your own manager doesn’t understand what is practice, what’s a timeframe, or how to work with a customer who was given different instructions by other staff and try to retain their business, then I’m going to question everything else about how you operate.

It seemed like a lot of people were happy, and our first interaction was wonderful with the you er staff member (didn’t catch her name), so perhaps this was a management issue.

We will be taking our...

Climbed here between 2016 and 2018. Liked it then.

Returned to the area in 2024. The vibe has changed a bit. It’s still my preferred gym in the area, but I’m not understanding why they have an entirely separate gym for their team kids, yet when the general population gym is slammed, the climbing institute is empty and the team kids are also in the regular gym. Maybe I missed something, but it seems to me that if regular members can’t go into the institute, it should be the same the other way round. Unless I am missing something. Could be, people at the front desk of the gym haven’t really given me a clear answer.

Regardless, I’ve been climbing since 2001. I’ve been in and around climbing teams all my life. The coaches need to be more attentive to the team kids. Teach them etiquette. Teach them about waiting their turn. Teach them about ensuring routes don’t overlap and the fact that the person who was on the wall first, has a right away. This extends to fall zones as well. Recognizing that while routes don’t overlap, the dynamics of the route may overlap the fall zones. Especially now that route setting has progressed to more gimmicky dynamic movements.

Right now, with few years separating the coaches and the kids on the team, it seems to just be social hour. On top of the team kids you have an entire high-school climbing team show up with like 30 kids during peak hours to make it even worse. Also, if you fall on the second move, you don’t get right back on without checking if others are waiting for a turn.

Parking continues to be a nightmare. Good luck finding parking during peak hours. Not to mention if it’s around the time team kids are there, parents often sit in their cars in the parking lot, consuming a spot while they wait for their kid to be done. There should be a cell phone lot like in the airport and a pickup / drop off zone. Parents also like to come in and watch, which I understand, but kind of screws other paying customers.

Their route setting map at the entrance is hardly ever updated, despite being relatively consistent with route setting. Their setting is decent, but I’ve only been back for 6 months and already I am already tired of the setting. Seems a bit uninspired and comp style. May be tired to hold diversity.

Their hold supply seems good, but it seems like the color coordination of holds with the routes has limited their route diversity. I.e. if it’s a blue colored route, expect a route with all the same style of hold. Green? You bet it’ll be blocky pinches. Seems like mixing of hold sets, of the same color of course, is against the rules.

Conditions of the holds seems good! Volumes, not so much. Pay close attention to where you put your feet on volumes as the texture on some has been worn off terribly.

I appreciate the constant updates and renovations. That being said, I don’t appreciate the random closures, partial or full, for private event, competitions, etc. With the monthly price we pay, I expect to climb whenever I want.

The speed climbing walls are a waste of space and hardly used.

They need more auto-belays, hopefully one day in the tall bay.

The training facilities are great. However it seems like every time I come in (2-3 times a week) the number of exercise bands for stretching and resistance training, keeps getting smaller. I recognize that bands wear out and break, I believe them to be stolen or taken into the climbing institute.

The mats are in good condition, except those on the very first wall in the regular gym. Seems funny to me that they’d let the very first mats you see upon entering the gym get so ratty looking. First impressions are everything.

I’d give 3.5...

I’ve been a member of Sportrock Alexandria for 3 months now and I’ve only ever had incredibly positive experiences at this gym. I’ve finally had the opportunity to use every amenity this facility has to offer 3 months in: auto-belay walls/top rope walls, climbing/belaying classes, standard gym equipment, and fitness classes… every experience has been outstanding (equipment, staff, cleanliness, organization, etc.). I absolutely love this facility and the awesome staff who keep it running.

My wife and I (mid 30s) are new to climbing - we visited several climbing gyms in the Midwest earlier this year (shoutout to First Ascent Chicago) and joined Sportrock to more seriously try out climbing as a hobby/workout outlet closer to home. 3 months in I 1) can’t imagine life without it, and 2) finally appreciate/realize how lucky we are to have a top tier climbing gym like Sportrock in our backyard.

Ill be the first to admit that I was nervous as a new climber joining a gym (especially starting this sport in our 30s, haha… I’m old) but Sportrock makes the intro/trial period really easy with free gear rentals and climbing classes (intro and belaying) for the first month of your membership. That gave us a long opportunity to learn the basics and try out climbing to make sure we enjoyed it before we invested in our own gear. Throughout our intro period I really appreciated the staff spending a lot of extra time helping us get geared up and oriented to the facility/walls every time we visited - even if things were busy that day, the staff never rushed us. World class customer service.

3 months in we’re absolutely addicted to the community/culture here (it’s so easy to make new friends and find climbing partners), and the incredible variety of routes/activities: from bouldering, auto-belay, shorter top rope walls… to 60ft top rope walls. Routes are reset every few months to keep the challenges new and fresh. You get one free guest pass a month to bring friends to this awesome place and let them experience it as well.

The gym is SUPER attentive to fixing issues and keeping an open line of communication with members. For example the AC was having issues for a few days once, and I think I got an email update every day on their progress fixing it… I don’t get that level of proactive and transparent communication anywhere else. Same story with the new bouldering wall they recently built… we got a weekly update on progress and opening timeline.

Membership fees are monthly with no penalty to stop/restart if you’re leaving town for a while… a huge difference from other gyms that try to trap you and make it impossible to cancel or pause your membership.

I can only assume that 99% of the negative reviews on here are from nasty locals who don’t value a community-oriented culture and/or don’t appreciate Sportrock’s safety-first approach to new users. Lots of the negative reviews appear to take issue with the safety protocols (which I really appreciate) or are impatient with the time and attention the staff give to every user need (can’t handle waiting a few extra minutes).

As a newer climber I really value this gym’s focus on safety (e.g., users must certify on an ATC to master belay technique before graduating to a mindless Grigri), and the staff’s willingness to spend extra time helping new users get oriented/setup… even if it means the next person waiting needs to hang tight another 3-5 minutes for assistance.

I love this place and the awesome staff that keep it running until 11pm every night - don’t...