Vertical Ventures — Local services in Saint Petersburg

This review is hard to write and I wasn't sure if I was going to write one or not after having my sons 13th birthday party there this past weekend. I am going to start with the negatives first and then go to the positives. Me and my wife have never been there, went on line set the party up which was really easy to do. Called about the waivers making sure we did everything correctly before we arrived to make sure that went smooth, and well that didn't. I walked in with the boys 15-20mins before the party, not really sure what I needed to do, well I figured I'll climb also so I quickly signed the waiver. someone asked the boys if they were there for the party and told them to go to the room. I went to the front desk and they said to also go into the room and we will do the payment afterwards. The young male that's apparently is new had the worst attitude, he was very rude and all he said to me was something about the waivers. Mind you I have never been here before and we are spending money for a party a little more guidance would of been nice. All the kids that came parents did the waiver and also emailed them a picture of their IDs. they couldnt find any of them so the parents had to redo them and remail them. The manager talked to the rude young man and said this has been happening. while they were figuing this out the boys chose to eat while we waited. Once all the waivers were done The young man never said anything to us about whats next or what we have to do. finally I said something to him and he was oh yall are ready. then took us on a tour of the place and got everyones gear. MIND YOU this is a kids birthday party, and he was just the rudest and didnt make it enjoyable. It took 50 mins before the kids were able to start climbling and now we only had 70 mins left for them to climb( i know about 10-15mins were used to eat) 30 mins before the time is up he walked up with a rude tone and was like its almost time go up to the front and pay for it. Mind you I am also climbing and just said ok to him. 15mins before the party ended he again walked up to me and said to go pay and at this point I was completely done with his rudeness and told him I will pay when the party is over even though it took him 50 mins to get the boys climbing. He and the waiver issue is why I am giving it a three star.

Why I didnt give the rating a two star, First the Manager that I told about his rudeness was very nice and helped out. The place is a cool place to have a birthday party for that age. They also had two workers that went with the kids and that assisted when they needed help which was completely awesome.

I can get over the waiver thing case things happen but working a kids birthday party and being that rude is just...

I would give this gym 0 stars if I could. My fiancé and I are out of town visitors and have 13 years of climbing experience between the both of us, and love to visit different climbing gyms (we’ve been to 25+). When we first arrived, they asked to see our ids. I had left mine at home by accident and was almost denied entry. However, there was absolutely no reason to check ids since 1) I had completed the waiver beforehand, 2) there was no alcohol served which would require that check, and 3) the front desk worker barely glanced at my fiancé’s id (so what was the point exactly of checking I have no idea). We asked if we could get lead certified, but were denied saying there was only one person and he was teaching the lead class (even though there were 5 workers at the front desk at one point just talking and no lead class ever happened). The manager gave us the required tour, and told us that (obviously) no climbing shoes/gear in the restrooms, but then proceeded to show us how to fall off an auto belay in his flip flops that had obviously been in the restroom. Finally, when we were bouldering (a very small area of the gym), there were 3 young boys wrestling, playing tag, and running underneath climbers. None of the workers came over to address this extreme safety issue. But when my fiancé and I sat on the edge of the mats, one of the front desk workers rudely told us we needed to move out of the fall zone. So running underneath climbers is okay at this gym, but sitting on the edge of the mats is a safety crime. I watched that same worker look at other people sitting on the edges of the mats, and standing in the actual fall zones, but walk away without saying anything. In conclusion, I would not come back to this gym or recommend this to anyone due to its illogical “rules” and extremely lax...

There is plenty of parking around the area of this gym, parking was not a issue at all for us.

As we came in we saw that the place is pretty nice and large, with lots of walls and plenty things to do (so we thought) we had a tour of the gym and saw all walls and the members only gym too.

They had some walls with a machine kind of thing that made possible to climb with no need of a spotter? idk if that is what is called, the person who holds a cord.

They also had a "pit" that apparently only people who had classes with them has access and they also have some short walls that not equipment is necessary.

IT is a lot at first but once we saw the price and realized that we could not really use the entire place it was a bit of a let down.

now, I wanna make sure to let you all know I understand that safety is important and a class or two should be necessary to use certain more challenging walls. HOWEVER, they charge like almost 40 dollars and have a hour class to use all areas, besides the "pit" (this place only if you gave them enough amounts of money in form of classes"

now, I get it to charge a fee to teach, but most people like me who wanna come for one time and get to experience the place cannot.

They could make the class shorter and cheaper or think about something to make possible to train new people safely and in an affordable way so they can have more people who will wanna use their facilities.

I will probably not come back I was only able to use a couple of walls and it was not worth it in the end as a first time user of the gym, seems ikon this place is made for people to commit to It and not meant for people to come and experiment and see if they would...