Asylum - Outdoor Bouldering — Local services in San Diego

Top notch boulder problems in the great outdoors! Jordan (the owner) has a background in high-level competition, both as an athlete and coach, and obviously knew what he was doing in offering a full range of training options. He was my kids’ favorite coach when they were youth climbers and guided my older son to four national competitions and a world championship event. This was my first time experiencing his setting and I’m psyched to say he made even the easy problems interesting. I’m not a big boulderer. I’m nervous climbing without a rope, and often the problems in my range (V4 and below) are boring, unless the setting is technical comp-style. I managed to send 8 high quality problems and project a few more. Even though it’s a small space, the quality and frequency of resets makes for an enjoyable experience for all levels of climber, and the gym has all the important training equipment. The atmosphere is upbeat with a backyard-gym-with-friends kind of vibe. Even though the scene is high in youthful energy, I felt comfortable as a middle-aged mom climbing with a mixed group of serious and newer climbers. Everyone was friendly and participants observed safety rules and acted respectfully to other climbers. I felt a sense of positive camaraderie between kids, young adults, and seasoned climbers alike. Finally, I loved the wide variety of music, inclusive of many...

This was a great experience! I’ll detail everything below :)

They are currently in the soft launch phase so they have hours later in the afternoon, location is tucked away from the busy street which was nice

There is currently one large Boulder to climb - other walls (grasshopper wall) is going to be done soon. While the Boulder seems small it fits a lot of routes, grading scale was good too. We were able to send about 60% of the routes and the rest were a bit out of our skill range!

They plan to set new routes 4 times a week, so there will always be things to climb. There is also going to be a small dog run if your pup wants to come and can’t hang off leash

The environment is more appealing to the adult audience, but if you aren’t scared of a child baring witness to a beer or a curse word then they are fine

Overall the concept is awesome, it felt like being at the crag and something about the environment made it special. The sun on your skin, climbing with friends, with some good music playing.

The staff is also very welcoming and talkative which I greatly appreciated

If you are in the area, it’s an awesome place, and I’d recommend everyone...

I absolutely loved my time at Asylum - Outdoor Bouldering. The vibe made resting between send attempts almost as much fun as the climbing and I can't wait to go back with friends. The route setting was really interesting and even the easier problems (V0 - soft V2) put the climber in cool body positions that you don't always find in lower climbs, without making them too difficult. It looked like there was something for everyone and each face of the 4 sided boulder had about 1 climb per grade range (indicated by tape color), sometimes more (2-3) for tape colors that overlap difficulty ranges, making it so there were plenty of problems to try. The grades went up to V8+, so most people will find something fun and challenging here. If somehow you do run out of problems before the next reset, which is planned to be pretty frequent, the grasshopper board offers an almost unlimited number of climbs to add in that you can "create" yourself, or follow patterns set by other climbers using an app that lights up the holds to use for that problem. If you climb in San Diego and you haven't checked this place out yet, you're...