Vertical Hold Rock Climbing Gym — Local services in San Diego

Super unsafe belay lessons being taught here. Came in as a group of 3 and one person in our group needed to get belay certified and it was his first time top roping while we have a few years of lead climbing experience. Came in a few days ago, the girl at the counter rolled her eyes. We bought day passes and rental gear to try this gym out over Mesa Rim as we were planning on buying the monthly membership. The girl who gave our friend the belay lesson was almost not paying attention entirely and kept talking to another employee during her lesson. When it came to demonstrations on the wall, she did not bother to correct our friend or inform her of the proper grigri operation. The entire process was about 5 minutes and you could tell she was eager to get back to whatever else she was doing.

We had to collectively teach my friend how to actually belay, how to stand when lowering someone, and the importance of not letting go of your brake hand.

We thought it was whatever, your typical gym, I get it sometimes you get tired of teaching the same thing over and over again, but this is climbing up a literal wall. Our initial belay demonstration with another male worker went very well the day before. He spent the time instructing the group correctly on how to belay, and shadowed us while we demonstrated and even showed us the auto-belay system.

You can very much tell the girl who taught us was not interested in us nor our safety, what if we were totally beginner climbers?

Which brings me to the reason I'm writing this review. We observed another couple with rental gear climbing and incorrectly belaying themselves. The guy was letting go of his brake hand while she was climbing and when she was being lowered she was dropping too fast. It was obvious she was fearful and kept gripping the wall, creating slack, and letting her drop more as she progressively let go. We asked the couple who taught them how to belay and they pointed at the same girl at the front desk. We told them it looked like they were having trouble and that we would love to give them some help. After a quick lesson they thanked us and were upset the girl didn't bother to give them real instructions.

All in all a decent gym with good rental gear, however I will never return to this gym and will never recommend this gym as climbing as a sport is inherently dangerous and should be taken seriously. What is most likely a minimum wage job for some can lead to pretty bad falls if they don't take this seriously. I will be submitting this review to their office as well as this is...

This is the only negative review of any place I've ever written, and I feel compelled to write it because at least as it is currently, this gym is simply not safe (at least for bouldering). Their overhung bouldering wall is "padded" by the flimsiest crash pads I've ever seen in my time climbing, and underneath them is a thick layer of rocks (!!). What this means is that anything other than a fall onto your feet leaves you at great risk of injury. I blew a move on the ~45 degree wall and fell onto my back, snapping my head back and just about giving myself a concussion. I've been climbing for long enough to know how to fall, but I worry for anyone who didn't that there would be far too great of a chance of serious, potentially debilitating injury.

I spoke to the employee whose was there at the time and apparently they are supposed to get in new pads soon, so perhaps this review will be moot. But this kind of flagrant disregard for the safety of their customers is absurd and unacceptable for any climbing gym. To think that a landing area of rocks and half-inch foam are sufficient is neglectful. A shame, too, because the setting is really cool and the problems are quite fun.

Note: no showers, barely a locker room. A real bad taste of...

Vertical Hold is good but it could be really good. I’ve climbed here for three months and previously at Mesa Rim for 8 years. Here is how Vertical Hold stacks up:

The good: -Wonderful staff -Really good route setting, frequent refreshes -Awesome patrons, very friendly environment -More beginner friendly and generally younger, more diverse crowd -Better location, easy to access by bike or Trolley -Way cheaper than Mesa Rim

The not so good: -Short hours. Only 8am-9pm most days. I feel like they could easily go to 6am-11pm. -It’s harder to follow the routes and difficulty markers, especially if you are colorblind. -I don’t think they wash the holds between route settings like most gyms do. Exacerbates the color problem. -Limited effort to develop community. For example, no belay partner announcements, few groups, just 4 yoga classes per week. -Shorter walls than Mesa -Smaller gym, feels more crowded sometimes, fewer weights, limited locker room, no shower. Much better if you can get there off peak hours

I haven’t been to the Poway location so can’t comment on that, but overall I'm very happy these guys are here and I'm going to be a member for...