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| - I boulder regularly at a different gym closer to where I live. Love it there, but sometimes I'm in TO and I have friends who want to try bouldering. So I've sampled a couple gyms in Toronto as well. I could probably ramble for a bit about why I was very unimpressed with this place.
The fast summary: unengaging staff, unsafe environment for bouldering (did not top rope or lead there), poor route setting. Overpriced considering those conditions. Looking for bouldering? Go elsewhere, PASS on this place.
- staff is not very welcoming
-we were not given a run down of the gym, safety rules (don't rest on mats, how to fall, etc.), general climbing rules (what colour means what, etc.). That's fine enough for someone who has done some bouldering and understands these things, but my friend was new to bouldering/this gym. At my gym, even if you've bouldered elsewhere, you still get a quick rundown so they know that you know basic safety.
- HARD floors to fall on. They are mildly soft, but not the mats that should be there. There were some loose mats we were to use (I get that this is similar to bouldering outside, but these mats were small and THIN. Plus, we're not outside, be safer), but only 3 small ones available and two of them were so worn down it was the equivalent of using a bed comforter to pad your falls.
- I witnessed a beginner class happening, and they instructed these people to jump down from walls, but never explained how to fall so you don't injure yourself.
-not enough space to fall. In some spots of the bouldering area, you had maybe 3 feet of room on the raised platform to fall. Miss that and land on hard concrete. This is very plausible if your angled away from the wall, or don't fall right.
- terrrrrrible/uninspired route setting. Beginner routes that my friend was trying out required some pretty difficult moves. But even these "difficult" moves are not hard because of needing technique. They're hard because there's a lot of wide gaps. So it's not even like fun, smart, technically hard routes. Just wide gaps + jump.
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