Spire Climbing + Fitness - Main Facility — Local services in Bozeman

Background: I’ve been to several gyms around the country, have set at the facilities, and think climbing is pretty rad…. (Saying this to give it somewhat credibility when I give these suggestions :) )

Pros: -The space is really nice. Open and lots of natural light -Lots of wall space! -Solid amount of routes and boulders -Prices pretty standard but the student discount is nice (can’t really do much about the price. Pretty standard for all climbing gyms) -The staff was very nice and helpful :) -Good Vibes (subjective), but people were having fun and the vibes were good -A fair amount of routes were very good!

Negatives (Improvements) mainly for the top rope and gym management: The space for non-lead climbers is limited at best with 2-3 zones with half the gym off limits to many…. Which I don’t have the hugest problem with… BUT this creates a serious space issue (I was there on a Saturday noon which would be a peak time but wasn’t too busy, yet even with the space everyone was extremely cramped in 2-3 areas with lines at many auto belays and top ropes). This was polar opposite to when we went over to the lead area where 2 climbers were alone in the 30-40 “lead only” routes in two separate areas with no lead allowed in the top area (draws were nonexistent) and no top allowed in the lead area. Now this could be seen as a safety aspect for swinging out of climbs or interfering with a lead climber on a top rope nearby and risking a collision, but I have never been to another facility that separates the areas like this.

Solution: Mix the areas, put QuickDraws on all sections and top ropes on the lead areas. People can pull the rope if they want to lead and people can leave it on top if they want to top. This would spread out the gym especially during peak kids hours when currently kids take up the majority of the auto belays and take a long time on them… I mean kids be kids whatcha gonna do? Lol

#2 The Gri Gris built into top ropes and the wrap bar at top for anchors. Now I get this is for friction and understand what the facility is going for with built in safety and “auto locking” gri gris even though technically gri gris aren’t auto locking. The anchors are up there. Trust the climber to use them. The bar almost makes things more dangerous for inexperienced belayers as the friction causes them to not keep the rope tighter and bigger slack lines for weaker belayers or ones not paying attention. Same with the gri gris.

Solution: Use the anchors, trust your user base and educate the twist rather than implement it on every route with the bar. You could honestly still keep the gri gris if you wanted for personal sake but again trust the base with bringing their own devices and or having them checked out at the front desk. If anything the gri gris being on the routes encourage users who can’t really belay already have it there for them to attempt it with lack of skills or knowledge if staff is not paying attention.

#3: Spotty grading and progression on routes. Now I know every route can not be a masterpiece and setters are learning and I did come across fun routes in every grade. But the 12 selection in the top rope area is few and far between which is fine if you want to push them to the leads which is fine but if someone an experienced climber is alone they further pollute the already crowded auto belay area. Route grading was spotty with some 12s that I climbed being more at a 11- with one big shutdown move. I can say progression (comp style) of difficulty on the routes I did were fairly good, but several times I came across in a 11 or 12 route primarily where instead of it matching the style the set would just do a large move or super awkward transition to get “harder” and didn’t match or flow.

Solution: More feedback with setting team and communication

Many issues come from what I think is a lack of trust in its climbing base. Solid gym but lots of room for improvement! Don’t take this as snarky just trying to be constructive! Keep up...

It’s a good facility. Has all the equipment you need for climbing and lifting. My biggest gripe is that they clean the bathrooms multiple times a day, even during peak hours, which is quite an inconvenience if your equipment is stored in the lockers. I walked in there explaining I was just going to get my stuff and immediately got snapped at by a snotty sounding brunette woman, so I stopped doing that. A lot of the employees are nice, it’s just that particular woman has an aura of passive aggressiveness about her. Occasionally you get a mean one for no reason.

It’s irritating walking into the gym but having to wait 10 minutes while they clean the bathroom before I can get the equipment I need to starting using the gym. Kind of defeats the purpose of a locker to begin with. It’s kind of nonsensical too, like what if you’re leaving or in a rush but you can’t access your stuff because they’re cleaning? I don’t understand why they can’t just clean the bathrooms after closing like most other businesses do. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that given I pay $90/month, over $1000/year to use the facility…

One other thing thats annoying, the weight room is on the second floor, so you can’t really drop the weights too hard if you’re doing cleans, snatches, rows, or deadlifts. I almost got kicked out for doing deadlifts once even though I was using pads, meanwhile some dude was doing heavy rack pulls, slamming the bar against the power rack, damaging the equipment, and no one cared.

Other than that, overall it’s a great place to train. I just wish they’d fix...

Meh. Clean facility n such. This place has great potential, but It could cater to it’s audience a bit better. We were there for about 4 hours and only saw one group lead climbing- while the toprope and bouldering areas were packed. About 70% of the ropes climbing area is only for leading and it was all desolate. Maybe open the gym up a bit more for everyone by adding more top ropes??? I know theres tons of new climbers in the area, as this is a college town- make it more accessible!! Don’t get me wrong, lead climbing is wonderful and deserves a good chunk of a gym- but as folks that are just passing through for the day, we didn’t want to jump through the hoops to get the lead test because they force you to take the toprope and auto belay test first?? As if someone who is ready for a lead test cant clip themselves into an auto belay? I get it doesn’t take very long, but for people just getting a day pass, it feels like a huge inconvenience. Lastly, the bouldering overall has good setting, but maybe consider not putting the crux at the top of so many problems? Some of the boulder problems could be considered highballs and can just straight up be too dangerous for a gym. anyways- great gym at its core but could definitely benefit from some more accessible expansion into...