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| - I've visited Boulders about 5 times now and am becoming a fan.
On my first visit I wasn't too happy to have been told they didn't have my shoe size AFTER I already paid for the entry and shoe rental. I had to make due with a size too small which were barely tolerable and I had to take them off between climbs because they were too painful. After a couple hours I was able to get the right size after someone else had returned their shoes. I've been to a few indoor climbing places and Urbana Boulders is, by far, the smallest one I've visited. I thought for sure I'd get bored really quickly.
I've since bought my own shoes and chalk bag, and I got a 10 punch pass for $80. After going about once a week I've found there seem to be some new routes every week, and I can still work on some older routes that I couldn't do the week or two before (and usually still can't, but I try!). In fact, I'm never bored and as long as they keep changing up the routes I don't think I ever will be. I hear they're adding more climbing walls right now as well. I've shown up by myself more than once and found everyone there to be very friendly and was able to meet people and talk about how to solve routes. The employees also seem enthusiastic and are happy to make suggestions on bouldering problems. I haven't gotten the feeling that inexperienced climbers (I count myself as one) aren't welcome.
While I'm not running out of difficult problems to work, I do wish there was more 'warm up' material, meaning things that are reasonably difficult to climb but not perplexing. I also wish that there was a better pricing scheme. A fixed price for any length of visit at any time or day isn't very sustainable. To me the yearly and monthly rates are a bit high and if you consider leaving town, getting busy, getting injured, etc... it's just not worth the risk. If they had a 20+ visit pass better priced I'd go for that. If they had some way to make it cheaper during non-peak hours, and/or for shorter visits, that would also encourage people to visit more frequently.
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