Bouldering Project - U District — Local services in Seattle

note: I emailed this STAFF THEFT issue to the manager and assistant manager but never get any response so I decided to post it here

I had just returned from a trip to Asia and brought a box of 10 individually wrapped Pineapple Cakes (凤梨酥) to share with my climbing friends. I was climbing with friends from about 8–10 pm on 9/5. But we were busy climbing so didn't have a chance to open it. I was in a hurry to wash my hands and organize my shoes so I accidentally forgot it in the cubic when I left around 10pm. I'm sure it was inside the cubic when I took out my bag to pack my stuff. Then I immediately realized it and called them around 10:14 but nobody answered.

When I tried to get it the next morning, there were 3 cakes missing. On the morning of 9/6, I called again around 7:54 am. A staff member (I believe her name is Bridget) kindly assisted me. Luckily she can read Chinese and she told me she had found the box in a really weird place in the back office. She got confused when I said it's a whole wrapped box but it was already unwrapped and three cakes were missing. I'm pretty sure we were the last 4 ppl left in the gym. My friends and I were chatting in front of the gate for several minutes. We all didn't notice anyone leaving the gym after us. So only the staff can access it. When I went to pick it up, I showed her the cubic I used the night before. She suggested maybe another climber had taken the cakes while I was climbing, but given that the box was moved to the back office and only staff had access after hours, I am very concerned about what actually happened. To be honest, this feels very unsettling. If other climbers had time to unwrap the box in such a public area, why would they only take three instead of the whole box? If it's really some other climbers last did so, I feel even worse that the community is full of thieves who can do it in front of so many people. And if staff accessed it after hours, I find it even more troubling. I’ve also heard from friends who have had items go missing—such as carabiners and brushes—without resolution. One of my friends came to the staff asking about her missing brush, she told me the staff just gave her a different one that some other climbers left in the lost and found.

I want to emphasize that while the monetary value is small, this was a special gift I brought from Taiwan for my friends, and the situation makes me feel unsafe leaving anything unattended in the gym. I hope the gym can look into this and provide some clarity about what happened, so that climbers can feel confident their belongings...

Honestly this location is the absolute worst of the Seattle Bouldering Projects… it’s like they lead a focus group on ideal gym features and did the total opposite of all sensible suggestions— it’s like they built this jawn on Opposite Day. It appears as if they took the worst part of each gym and melded them together into one perfect bizzaro choss storm.

First off I mean price at any SBP is off the charts and guest passes are borderline unusable since your guests need to not have visited the gym within 30 days. They currently have a promotion that gives you extra guest passes but you’d have one heck of a time trying to use all of them! And it isn’t like they are trying to keep numbers down, nah they got plenty of marketing campaigns out rn to stuff a million people into their smallest gym yet! Which brings me to my second point.. this spot has the least amount of climbing and still a metric ton of people flooding in. And to compensate those hordes there is of course, you guessed it, no dedicated parking whatsoever. So enjoy warming up on the free-for-all which is finding a parking spot in U district Seattle before the battle royale of trying to get on any problem in this plastic factory. Next up they have 0, ZERO system boards of any kind! Which you think they’d want to prioritize seeing as they have enough room for like 20 sets otherwise.

I miss the days where rock gyms would load up walls with a dense concentration of problems. That practice is absolutely a slept on here. Instead there are comp style routes that take up way too much space and leave anyone with good taste in climbs wanting for more.

Then of course they’ve got this policy about having to wear an undergarment under your towel when entering the sauna. Which I suspect is only a rule because that rig only gets up to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which means they’re relying on you to bring your own heat! To be honest they should mandate you wear a puffy or at least an R1 in there so you don’t notice it’s technically one fold above room temp. Heck I’d argue they should be handing out space blankets which you would be expected to wear a 3 piece suit under (of course!) Jokes aside i understand the want to create an inclusive space, which I am absolutely all for. But it feels like they’re scrimping by on a single BIG sauna, forcing everyone in there, are unable to keep it properly hot and hiding behind people’s comfortability factor, all to make me sweat in my limited supply of clothes. Stop shaming people’s naked form so much that you enforce two layers between them and your lukewarm...

So glad for another climbing gym on the north side! Climbing is getting ever more popular and the gyms are pretty crowded during prime hours after work on weekdays.

This is the fourth bouldering project in Seattle and very conveniently located near both bus and light rail. The gym is large, modern, and what you would expect from the new wave of gyms. There are two floors of climbing with the main floor having a small section of climbing and a workout area and the second floor holding much more climbing.

A few things keep me from being able to give this place five stars. Namely the lack of training boards which I feel every serious climbing gym should have these days and the workout area feels very small and not well thought out. There was a pull up bar but it's been removed and there are only a few hang boards (and not even the popular ones) which are mounted quite high and require a stool for most people. There also doesn't seem to be much support for off the wall training with a lack of weights and belts for weighted hands, no rice buckets, and zero no hang devices. The plastic PVC pipes for warming up are also really short and don't offer much resistance the way the wood ones do at their other locations.

The walls are also really close to each other and it can feel hazardous to climb or even stand between some of them when people are on them.

Overall I think the gym is a fine addition and conveniently located for public transit but not a gym serious climbers looking to train will be able to frequent. Parking nearby is also very hard and I would not...