Pacific Pipe — Local services in Oakland

I love this expansive gym. The size means you will never get bored as the amount of routes is truly amazing. The second floor bouldering area passes the vibe check. I really love the hidden area for beginners to practice without fear of judgement from more advanced climbers. It's little things like that that make this gym a great place to be around. The route ratings are definitely padded. My gf and I take off a full number here since a 5.10 is really a 5.9 etc. Though numbers are really irrelevant in terms of having fun. And the routes themselves are simply fantastic. The types of holds.and variations make this gym my favorite if just considering the routes.

I took off a star for two reasons, one is unlike other gyms in the Bay they don't have grigri's on the top ropes, so you have to bring your own belay device or rent. But the biggest problem is the lack of on site parking. There is a small lot at the entrance that if full (which it probably will be especially on weekends) you have to park in the surrounding neighborhood which is littered with glass on the ground from all the break ins. It's almost inevitable you will get your window broken if you park in the area enough times. Not much the gym could do since finding the size space they needed in other parts of the Bay area wouldn't be feasible. Practice safety and keep valuables...

Be careful, they are unethical people. I found an event on Meetup, so I reserved going. At the Meetup event, the host didn’t mention any fees to get in and try this thing since I have never tried anything like this in my life. I asked the front desk that I’m here form the Meetup (he&she) were aware of the event. He then told me to sign a waiver form, I did and they took all my personal information. Then I went back (and talk to her this time), she told me I have to pay $20 fee to get in. This fee has never been mentioned on the Meetup at all and the staff didn’t tell me there’s a fee before signing the waiver, but I said no thank you. I’m not interested. If you mentioned, there’s a fee instead of unethically playing games with people, I would could have said no due to my budget limitations. Clearly, Meetup host and this location staff must have been partnered together to fool people since they have played the same game on both sides. In short, I will not trust this business. Also make sure not to give them your banking information. I am reporting this event to Meetup for this miss leading information. What a disgusting start to...

They're a great part of the communities they join! Touchstone tends to put a fair bit of effort into maintaining the character and unique aspects of the buildings they move into. They also contribute a fair bit of energy and vibrancy to the neighborhoods they join; lots of climbers bike or walk or take public transit, so they tend to be more a part of the communities than some shopping destinations where people just drive away. Climbers also tend to be hungry and look for food or places to hang out after climbing.

The renovation plans for this space are quite impressive.

Mostly I hope that they find ways of working with the neighboring artist communities to display some of the massive sculptures made right here. I'm also hoping that they create some spaces inside the massive warehouse that are available for different community groups to use. There's a lot of local energy in this particular neighborhood, and it would be great to see Touchstone be a part of that by inviting people in to use some parts of this huge space.

Overall, very excited for this...