Movement Santa Clara — Local services in Santa Clara

I think the best words to describe my view of the gym is it fell very short of its potential. I remember when the gym was built I thought it was disappointing that the walls were very uninspiring. There's no top out wall, the wall paneling is very boring with none of them having interesting characteristics or not being used to its greatest potential. Compare this to the newer gym Pacific Pipe where that gym has everything you can wish for from top out wall, super great roof areas, a wall with a wave like curvature, and more.

Often times the problems are somewhat uninspiring for me as opposed to its Sunnyvale counterpart which I find the problems much more fun to tackle. I think part of this problem stems from how this gym doesn't use volumes that frequently or well. Sometimes they put a blob of volumes in the same place on a single wall which I'd rather call a frankenstein art piece than a climb. Additionally this gym (as a chain) doesn't really buy new or big holds. Competition sized holds would be fantastic to touch but even though they charge each member an exorbitant amount of money they're too cheap to buy any good interesting holds. I see instagram posts of Japanese climbing gyms that frequently buy new holds and they're a fraction of the size of this gym but they have way more psyche than here. I do think that this is a pretty good gym for beginners V5 and under but above that I find the problems don't have too many interesting moves. Part of what motivates me in climbing harder climbs is that they usually have some kind of interesting difficult move but I find that most of them are just "do you have enough finger or shoulder strength to pull through this problem" rather than a combination of cool beta with the prerequisite strengths.

Honestly though the biggest problem for me is the fact that staff doesn't enforce safety and etiquette in the gym when there's an overflow of beginners. It would be really greatly appreciated if staff could tell beginners to not climb a problem when there's a climber on the wall nearby. It really gets on my nerves and I have had 0 sessions where I don't see this happening. I constantly have to tell beginners to get off the wall when someone I see or my friend is doing a problem that intersects the one they were attempting.

Lastly I constantly get disappointed by whoever manages the social media account for the movement gyms. Quite frankly it just feels like they have 0 psyche for climbing. I see dogpatch or long beach rising frequently reshare people's sends on their story, I see other places like hangar 18 orange notify you that there's a fresh new set waiting for you to excite users, and movement does none of that. Their social media rarely posts anything interesting.

Also there's no working AC but at least that can be fixed, though it has been broken for the longest time (a few years) which goes to show how money grabby they are. Pretty...

I've been a member here for a year-and-a-half, and I climb 3-5 times a week on average at a V5-6 level. I've been climbing for almost a decade and visit gyms all over the country when I travel for work. This review is designed for people who climb seriously and are interested in membership. I like this gym, but there are a few things that do not excite me.

Likes: Difficult and creative routes. Routes span the breadth from technical-static to pumpy-dynamic and regularly surprise with interesting moves. Large space with every variety of wall angle. Full weight-training and aerobics area. This area is typically uncrowded but becomes crowded during peak hours. Clean locker rooms. I can only speak for the men's locker room, though.

Dislikes: Extremely crowded: During peak hours nearly every occupiable walkway is blocked by people. I have to schedule around these times as it becomes difficult to actually climb. Confusing culture: The community here continues to confound me. The culture of this gym seems to be very introverted, despite how many people are in the gym at any time. At first I thought it was me, but after visiting other gyms and having very social experiences (as is my expectation at climbing gyms), I feel more confident saying this gym has an antisocial culture. In my experience people who climb here socialize exclusively with those they came with. It's very confusing. Route-setting oddities: Particularly in the V4-6 range the rating can be wildly inaccurate as a measure of difficulty. There are many routes featuring dynamic moves that are closer to parkour than climbing. I have heard that some of their climbs are impossible or improbable for folks of smaller statures and I agree with that. I am 6' with a large wingspan and I regularly finish a climb only to wonder how anyone shorter than me would complete it. Membership Price: At $117/mo I would expect a bit more; you can attend a high-end gym with a full suite of amenities for that price. I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth despite how regularly I attend, but maybe that's a personal problem. It seems climbing gyms in the area are extremely expensive, but this rate is (to my knowledge) the highest in the south bay.

I am sad to admit this review is ultimately very critical but I think this is a great gym with room for improvement. I'm willing to overlook poor HVAC and faulty lockers (these things could be outside the control of management) but I do think with how much I pay the experience would be a little more premium. I am a member here because it is closest to me and I need to climb to keep myself sane, but if there was a better option I would choose it. Hope...

The climbing and staff are great, but the facilities could use a lot of work.

For example, the bathrooms - the probability of having soap and paper towels in a given sink is like 50%, and I find myself always botheringthe person next to me to get some soap. Keeping the bathroom supplies fully stocked seems like the bare minimum given the steep $117/mo membership price.

Unfortunately, it seems they can get away with it since there’s no other climbing gym chain in South Bay (Sunnyvale has the same problem). The actual bouldering routes are well set (could change more frequently), but as someone who comes 3x a week, I dread the bathroom experience. I also feel like it’s an easy fix (just make sure the staff replace soap and paper towels every hour or two?). One of the water fountains has also been broken for at least a week, and the one working one has a red filter light. Also the ventilation here is awful, chalk everywhere can’t be good for the lungs.

I’ll update my review if they fix these issues, but until then, keeping it as is to encourage the owners to do better.

Update: a few days after owner’s response, there are still no paper towels in the bathroom at 10:30pm. Why is it the responsibility of the gym goers to ask for the paper towels to be restocked? By the time I walk over to the front desk my hands will be half dry anyways, and there’s just water all over the bathroom floor from people not able to dry their hands. Here’s an idea - ask every employee to check the bathroom stalls for empty paper towels once an hour. Seems easy enough and should make it less likely for there to be two simultaneously empty dispensers! Still 1 star for me :(

Update: Last few times I went, there has been better availability of paper towels and soap. Bumping up to 3 stars for now.

Update: much better soap and paper towel availability these...