Progression Climbing — Local services in Chapel Hill

Had my daughter's birthday party here. While it may be a fine place to climb, don't bother bringing kids. They may tolerate you, but more than likely they will avoid your kids like an Ebola affliction. It started with a cold greeting upon arrival and we were told to wait in the party room. In the climbing area, the party guests got lots of rules, but no help climbing. The only time they did engage with the children was to yell at them if they were doing something wrong. There seemed to be no plan or itinerary. After 45 torturous minutes on the climbing floor, I decided to pull the kids and do cake and pizza. Party room was nice and well decorated...but again the staff avoided it like the plague. After that, there was murmurs from the staff of games; red light, green light and something else. But after awkwardly hanging out in the hall with no one saying anything to us, one of the dads stopped one of the numerous staff members to ask about the games. she looked caught off guard and said "games? yeah i guess we can do that". She led the kids back out on the climbing floor where the kids had races climbing the wall. But little engagement other than mark, set, go. The rest of the staff steered clear and it felt like being at someone's house that hates kids. So even thought he party time slot is 2 hrs, we left at the 1.5 hr mark since there wasn't anything to do which surely meant the kids were going to annoy more staff and get yelled at some more. The owner never even left the front desk to say something to the party. Bad form. Keep in mind this was one of the more expensive party options in the area.

If you are young, 20ish, well built and wear a lot of marmot...this place is for you. if you live in Chapel Hill and have a young family...keep driving to Morrisville. Triangle Rock seems to recognize the revenue stream birthday parties provide. They actually act like they like...

I have been a recreational climber for a nunber of years now and was very excited to learn of a training gym right here in Chapel Hill. I have been here a couple of times now and have so far not been impressed. This past time I went for an overpriced day pass was escpecially memorable; about 6pm on a weekday evening and was "greeted" by a woman who seemed upset that I had disturbed her and made her move to the cash register. The gym is already far smaller than any other I have seen, with only a few walls and certainly not enough room for more than 8 climbers to be actively climbing at any given time. The reason for my review however is because on top of this fact, they had the after-school kids practicing in such fashion that they were encouraged to spread out and choose a route to independently work on (there are more than 6 kids so naturally they took up every wall), AND there was an employee attempting to set new routes at the same time. (They already barely give you a safety intro with zero instruction for new climbers on how to climb and fall safely so this concern may not be their top priority but I don't like having a guy with a power drill standing under me while I climb... IF I manage to get to the wall before a kid jumps in front.) Also, while the routes can be fun and challenging, they are not graded accurately at all-- I am a fairly weak climber and flashed a few V3s but struggled on a V1.

While I really really want to like this place and have a safe, fun, friendly climbing gym in the area, for now I still prefer my 30-40min commute to Triangle Rock Club in Morrisville, where they have expansive, respectful, and safety-oriented climbing...

Progression has a nice sized bouldering wall with a very friendly atmosphere.

However, THE BIGGEST PROBLEM, is the children's club that runs Monday through Thursday from 4:30-6:30 (many times the kids arrive earlier and stay longer, so it is more like 4:00 to & 7:00). The supervisors do not control the children at all. All the time, children are jumping in ahead when there are already climbers are the wall. They also stay under climbers as the climb on the wall. After I finished a route, I dropped down and all of a sudden a little boy ran up and my head landed on his food. This is a massive safety issue for the children and adult climbers. The worst part is how the children are actively encouraged to do this. I have never seen any of the supervisors ever discipline the children.

They have this awful drill at the end where they have all the children do as many climbs as they possibly can. So, the children get even more crazy and frantic.

My partner and I have complained, but the supervisors have responded that it is hard to control them and that they are trying their best. This is not good enough. I have climbed at many different walls where they have children's clubs and have never seen such poor supervision and discipline of the kids. I don't blame the children, I blame the supervisors.

For this reason, my partner and I will be ending our membership at progression and moving to TRC when it opens. We are very sad to say goodbye, but due to our work timetables and the ill managed kid's club we feel like we have no other choice for the sake of our...