Diablo Rock Gym — Local services in Concord

So Disappointing.

This review is based on the overall experience. Our 11 year old son, after a previous visit to this gym, requested his birthday party be kept at this place. We called the Gym in advance to reserve, and were told that the reservation can only be done online and assured us it is easy, safe and secured (questionable). Setup the reservation online paying the deposit, and when we called the day before the event to ask questions regarding bringing in the pizza and cake, we were told "There is NO reservation!", and that there is nothing that can be done at this time. We had invited 16 kids to come from Lafayette and had no place to go. After calling back, the reservation was found, however made at Fresno Gym. We never inquired about any other locations and made the reservation on their site without getting any options to choose a different location. Now that the reservation was found, we are told that we still cannot come because they do not have staff. We offered to do ropes and we were told to come late that day for training. Once the staff part was resolved, we were told that they do not have a room to do the party in. After insisting for awhile, they offered their yoga classroom. Once we saw it we understood their hesitation... The room was smelling terrible and felt dirty and the chairs they provided looked like they were retrieved from a garbage bin as well as not enough of them. Dirty, ugly looking, or even smaller size. We had to ask for someone to do something about that smell so that we can bring the kids and have them fed. The check in process was slow, unpleasant and disorganized. We were embarrassed in front of the parents dropping of their children but for the staff it seemed normal. Most kids in our party within the hour and a half provided, they did the claim once or twice due to the overcrowding and long wait times. We were not at ease with the instructors that told 8-10 year old kids to claim the big boulders without the ropes. Three instructors were supposed to be assigned to our group, however we only saw one active and assumed that two other ones were talking to each other by the smaller boulders intended for the younger kids. Most staff was unpleasant to talk to or was talking to the kids in a "somewhat rude" and inpatient manner without explaining what was that they did wrong.

The amount of stress that this particular part of our son's birthday celebration put on us was not worth the little fun the Gym provides. We believe it may be a great place to work out or claim but by no means they are ready or willing to host and welcome a group of kids coming...

I have a 5 year old that has a lot of energy but it's totally patient eager to try anything new so when we saw this was local, we went online to see what and how can we get started. There is on the weekends an opportunity for one-on-one or 3:1 ratio but the two times we've been there it's been solo, or a toddler can get the harness on and get the assistant needed to start climbing.

It's a great deal at $30 for an hour and then as we were looking at the website more and more we realize if one of the adults in the family gets a membership or toddlers can come in for free and then from there we take a class to learn how to handle the ropes and assist them and they're able to climb.

Sorry for not knowing the terminology or any of this because I am not familiar at all with rock climbing it looks like a very inviting environment and while there I've seen children climbing and really strong adults climbing and even The average Joe's out there getting a chance which is intriguing to me.

Personally I don't think I'll be climbing anytime soon but with the membership it'll give my kids an opportunity to join this gym and to burn off some energy.

On our second visit I realized this was a really good place because when they went to put the harness on my kids the majority of the staff came over and watched because they themselves weren't too familiar with it and they all wanted to see how it was done and I like that because it shows stuff really wanting to learn and wanting to help. You see this a lot in the hospital you know you're at a good place when it's not just the AIDES doing the work but the nurses stop...

The bouldering area is absolutely tiny and the walls are super short, maybe 12ft tall. No traverses to make longer, more interesting routes. The mats in the bouldering area were super old and blown out. Basically, bouldering is a footnote here.

The ropes area looked decent. They did tell me that they will make belay partner announcements if asked, but frankly I can't see the benefit to a membership here unless you have a consistent belay partner; otherwise, you're relying on strangers to belay you and assuming the risks associated with that.

Overall, the gym just isn't worth the price tag. I understand that you get access to all Touchstone gyms with the $95/mo membership, but the day pass cost for this particular location ($30) is overpriced, and the membership isn't worth it if you're only using it here. Seems like this gym needs some investment and renovation to meet the standard set by other Touchstone locations - most people climb at their closest gym most of the time. If you live in Concord and are climbing here 95% of the time, you're overpaying on this facility just to be part of the Touchstone ecosystem. This gym isn't on par with Pac Pipe, Ironworks, etc. It's the same price as Movement in SF, which has much nicer facilities, far...