The Spot Climbing Gym — Local services in Louisville

UPDATE After Change in Ownership from Evo to The Spot:

The culture at this rock gym has changed ever since the switch from Evo to The Spot, and not in a good way. The staff is great and I was happy to see them keep their jobs. The changes seem to be coming from the new owners.

RATING SYSTEM: They are trying to be too hipster or chique with their new rating system for their top rope routes, which makes it very difficult to explain to new climbers and/or translate to outdoor routes, or the rest of the US for that matter. Why change a nationally-recognized rating system? If it ain't broke, don't fix it just to be cool. They are also trying to be clever with their bouldering rating system and use colored circles (spots) instead of the nationally-recognized V-scale the rest of the country uses.

ROUTES: The Spot now caters to their climbing team members, who over-populate the gym and act like they own the place. The once awesome routes have been replaced with routes set for juvenile competitions, with handholds and footholds so close together, it makes it awkward for everyone else. And they leave these routes up for weeks, without touching any of the rest of the routes in the gym. Clearly, they are only focused on their Spot Climbing Team members (a small percentage of their patrons) and not the rest of their paying customers. The routes were so much better and changed over so much more frequently when it was under Evo management. So essentially the number of available routes for us regular folk have decreased significantly and we are climbing the same old routes because they stopped setting new ones for some reason. They only change out the Jr competition routes with any regular frequency, which are horrible to climb.

COST/BENEFIT: They increased their pricing for no added benefit. Great, I now have a membership to three other gyms that have no top-roping that are further away from my house. And now since this is the only location that has top-roping, the top-rope routes are crazy busy. Plus, they have the Spot Climbing Team members belaying each other and lead climbing on the autobelay routes, making it almost impossible for single climbers to use the autobelays.

I miss Evo. If you are shopping around for a new climbing gym, look...

I’m a member at Movement, but considered moving over to this gym chain since this particular location is closer. I called in, spoke with a woman named “Sasha”. Explained that I can’t get a buddy pass from a friend because I don’t know anyone here, but my wife and I would like to check them out and see if this could be the gym for us. I don’t want to pay $50 to check them out when I already have a membership and can climb free elsewhere. She understands, and says just come in and I can get free passes to check them out. Great! I get there and the parking lot is packed. For whatever reason 30+ bikers are having a meet up and hogging up the gym’s parking, which doesn’t seem right… Anyway I go in, get a tour from the actual Sasha (a male, not who I spoke to on the phone - seems like the staff is pretty immature and doesn’t even give their real names over the phone?) and then they say ok you can climb, but you have to pay $10… what? I tell him that not what the woman I spoke to on the phone said and I drove all the way over here. “Sorry but she shouldn’t have said that” is his only response. I just left, drove onto Movement Boulder, which was way less busy, and even offered members a free beer after climbing as a way to celebrate being open 14 years. I’m not even mad at Sasha, but The Spot should really just empower their employees to help people check them out and grow membership. I don’t care about $10, but I do care about spending my money at a place that cares at least a little about customer service. I honestly wonder why I even considered leaving Movement after the bizarre experience I had here tonight and the 5 star experience I had at Movement Boulder. The difference between the two could not be more apparent. The only positive thing I observed was a free EV charger in the parking lot, which is a really nice touch. This was just a very disappointing experience and a complete waste of time. I hoped this would be less busy and a relaxed atmosphere, but it’s just as crowded as any other climbing gym in the area. I’ll happily keep on spending my thousands of dollars at Movement instead - it’s...

A really lovely climbing gym. It used to be part of the EVO chain of climbing gyms, but was acquired by The Spot when EVO went under during the pandemic.

It has kept nearly all of the smaller town feeling from when it was EVO- there's signatures on the wall from professional climbers, a little museum, and the gym has lots of things that seem to be left on purpose for someone to come back to. There's a real feeling of community here, evidenced by seeing people often and waving hello. The buddy board is always full, which is a nice thing compared to movement, where it seems like it's always empty.

I really like the setting- most of the time. Sometimes, it feels geared entirely towards very dynamic climbers or tall people, which I think would dissuade some climbers. I do wish things were set more often- some of the lead wall stuff was up for three months before being rotated. Some of my favorite climbs ever have been here - particularly on the slab sport wall next to the big circular volumes, and in the arch. Right now there's a very cool volume problem in the arch that is quite hard, and I remember a couple months ago a similar one set that had you straddle the chimney and work your way up.

The gym is decent, but does leave a little to be desired. There simply isn't enough space for more stuff, so I understand the restrictions, and it is also directly above the office and front desk so you can't drop any weights (they don't have bumper plates anyway). If I could add stuff, I'd probably add another cable machine and maybe an extra weight holder. The boxes, though, are by far the nicest and strongest boxes I've ever used in a gym. They are amazing, and you can easily do one leg pistol squats on them without them tipping over.

Integration with Kaya is nice, though it seems there's a maximum number of people that can be on the wifi? If they could increase that, it would be lovely, as you won't get signal in the building or...