Loveland Climbing Collective — Local services in Loveland

This is very explicitly a love letter to Wooden Mountain/Loveland Climbing Collective/VCC.

I was visiting town and accidentally stayed for way longer than intended. Every visit to Wooden Mountain/VCC was nothing short of amazing.

Besides Wooden Mountain/VCC, I have climbed at Movement (Fountain Valley), Sender One (Santa Ana), Ascent (Fort Collins), Longmont Climbing Collective (original), Denver Bouldering Club (Central), Movement (Denver - RiNo), and New Orleans Bouldering Lounge.

Wooden Mountain/VCC is a small, boutique, bouldering-only gym with creative, intentional, and challenging route setting. Every route is such a unique experience that will teach you something new, force you to learn new techniques, and engage your brain and your whole body. The route setting is inclusive of all heights and arm spans, which is not always the case for every gym. I'm a shorter climber (5'02") and I've only felt once that a route out of dozens was too reachy. Otherwise, I could generally send by modifying my body position.

If you're coming from a commercial gym, know that the grading here is tough. By the end of my stay in Loveland, I was climbing at a solid V2 level here. Upon returning to my home gym in SoCal, I could climb V4s. So don't get discouraged and keep that in mind that you'll grow a lot here even if you aren't sending at the grades you thought you could.

Wooden Mountain/VCC is the most friendly gym I've been to, and its intimate size really helps with striking up a conversation. Yes, there are groups. People will usually come to climb in groups, but I've yet to meet anyone who is standoffish here. Although a smaller gym, WM/VCC makes the best use of its space. It's pretty easy to see almost every route in the gym from wherever you're positioned and that naturally lends itself to people cheering everyone they see on.

As a queer person of color, I'm pleased to report that this gym is ran by allies who are accepting and inclusive of gay, trans, and POC climbers. I will note that, if you are a climber of color, this is still Loveland and you will stick out. It's not the gym's fault that Loveland was a sundown town. If anything this gym is very much seeking to change Loveland's longstanding culture of exclusion.

If you for whatever reason want to climb on your own, be it because you climb better with fewer people around (anxiety/ADHD/gender dysphoria/etc) or because you work the graveyard shift, I highly recommend getting the off-hours pass for an extra $20 on top of your monthly membership. It used to be a 24/7 pass prior to Wooden Mountain being acquired by Longmont Climbing Collective. Now, it just extends your climbing time to midnight every night and allows you to start climbing as early as 5am. But no climbing between midnight and 5am for liability reasons. In my opinion, it's still quite a steal. I would recommend that you become a confident climber first before getting it.

Something I learned while using the off-hours pass back when it was still the 24/7 pass in 2022 is that WM/VCC hired cleaners through a local program that helps (young?) adults with developmental disabilities who face barriers to employment get jobs. During more than one late-night climbing session, I saw individuals with disabilities get fulfillment from work responsibilities, but also that they were able to receive fitness coaching onsite. It was a lovely thing to witness and warms my heart to know that (then) WM contributes to the community. Not sure if they're still partnering with this program after LCC acquired them, so a confirmation would be nice.

All in all, this is hands-down the best climbing gym I've been to. Y'know, in the culinary world, a 3 Michelin-starred restaurant is considered so good that eating there as the sole activity in that country would be worthwhile for foodies. This is a 3 Michelin-starred bouldering gym in that experiencing the magic of the route setting and superb community here would be worth the airfare. Highly recommended and I hope nothing changes! (Except maybe for Evan to...

07.21.20 UPDATE: These folks continue to be the best. They sell some gear there, including their rental shoes when they're close to being blown out. As a beginner, it's a perfect way to get into the sport and only costs maybe $20-30. Because I'm a size 13.5, they didn't any shoes nearing blow out to sell. However, one of the managers Mack let me purchase a newerish pair for more, which is great cause I already love the shoe fit. Seriously best customer service of any business I've been to in recent memory.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Had a GREAT experience here on my first visit. I am not an experienced climber, and everyone (staff, climbers, and owners) were incredibly welcoming. Josh at the front desk answered a ton of questions and gave me a thorough walkthrough. He gave me some chalk to use for my first time for free as well. Two of the owners were there that night, Adam and Evan, and they both came over to introduce themselves and said hello. Great vibe.

Mondays are teacher/student night, so it's only $5 to drop in. Renting shoes is a straight $6. Regular membership is $55 a month plus a $40 initiation fee.

Also, props to these guys for doing COVID right and reasonably. They had a literal sink outside the entrance door for you to wash your hands, and then masks were required whenever you were on the ground. Pretty reasonable.

One other cool thing is their league. They rotate routes/handholds, and normally they're labeled on a V0 - V9 scale, with higher numbers being harder. For the league, they have some routes that are numbered, but it doesn't tell you the difficulty. Then, there are records for how many times it takes you to figure out the route, etc. Sounds fun, but I'm probably too newbie for that for now...

I'm definitely...

The Wooden Mountain bouldering gym is the finest gym in the realm of Loveland Colorado, It is full of a ton of swell lads and Lassies. But you may just be bewildered as though you may run into an ambuscade of lovely employees. I entered this establishment expecting to receive a full course meal but unfortunately they only have hot coco and coffee I do find it strange as I was sitting there after a fine climbing sesh fatigued during the winter wonderland comp as I spotted a strange ripple on my fresh batch of hot coco I gaze up at a strange man by the name of Heel Hook Harry I was perturbed as I was not expecting to set eyes on such a beautiful man though I pick a wooden tooth out of my coco and hand it back to the fine man as he speaks "Hello there what beautiful weather we are having" (In flute language) and me only having two years of education in flute said what is a lovely young man doing on such a high rock is this environment not dangerous to be hanging by just a heel Hook? He responded with "This my friend is no ordinary rock this no this my friend is a boulder and you never are fully living without a hint/spice of danger in your life" Me mind bogged by this man's inspectional words look back to see he had vanished into thin air. As I ponderd on my way home if they had putt something in that batch of coco but Everytime I venture back to this magnificent gym I see him up on those rocks hanging by a heel Hook routine me on as I peacefuly prance up those rocks like a mountain cooger on coco pouder with...