As the stoke rises and lowers, you wonder how much your climbing gym membership is really worth. Recently, I spoke with one of my gym manager friends about pricing. I could not understand why the prices were so high. He informed me that the prices were on par with a nearby gym, which, as it happens, is one of the best in the country. I could not understand how this gym was going to compete with one of the best gyms in the country if they have the same price. But what really gives a gym value? Let’s break it down.
Setting
First, we have quality. I would argue this is the most important feature. The quantity of routes lack value if you don’t want to climb any of them. Further, the reason we like climbing is because it’s fun, and it’s hard to have fun climbing without fun routes. So, good setters are a must. Mediocre or worse setting is definitely a minus!
Next, we have quantity. It’s great to have great routes, but if there are only two, it’s really not that helpful. If you just want day pass people, maybe it’s not crazy to have a handful of routes, but if you’re looking for monthly members, you’re going to have to have more to offer. Folks can only repeat the same routes so many times. Boredom is the enemy!
Fitness
If your climbing is good enough, maybe you can get away without this, but you’d definitely lose some value. Climbers need to train, whether they’re injured or they just want to get stronger. A nice barbell, a collection of dumbbells, any maybe some TRX bands, a campus board, and a leg press would really up a gym’s game. People want to feel like they’re getting a bonus with their money. Having a fitness area makes people feel like they have the opportunity to do all of their workouts, making the gym their single stop for fitness.
Fitness classes also achieve a similar goal. They complement climbing, and they also help build community (more on that later). Having a climbing gym and a yoga studio in one is a fantastic win for climbers. Not paying for a yoga studio on the side adds much more value to the gym, and visitors who are less familiar with climbing will be more interested in the gym, too. Any sort of group exercise is a massive bonus for a gym!
Community
This is (or perhaps should be) the core of every gym. At the end of the day, this is what keeps members coming back. Interest and ability waxes and wanes, but a community will always keep people together. Unfortunately, there’s no easy, sure way to build one, but there are certainly ways to help facilitate growth. For example, having seating areas near climbs allows for folks to circle around and cheer for other climbers. Group exercise always brings people together. A little cafe or snack area lets people hang out and chat. Voting for grades on a placard at the start of a route gets people debating and sharing ideas with each other. A training set of rap rings and such let people discuss their thoughts on other climbing skills and etiquette.
Beyond having reliable members, a strong community helps everyone. There is less stress on the gym to help newer climbers, people are safer, and the crags become a healthier place for everyone. Even more, all kinds of people look for a community to feel welcome, accepted, and supported, and when a friend says they climb and they have the best community, it snowballs, and everyone joins in. Locality helps (e.g., being off the highway or train line, good parking), and everyone likes to feel like they know their neighbors. Nevertheless, for a strong enough community and facility, people will join from some distance!
Clearly, it’s hard to have it all, but that’s not the point. The point is all of these things contribute to the value of the gym, and how much that gym should cost. It’s not always clear how much each aspect is worth, but it does help in comparing gyms. What did I miss? What else determines how much a climbing gym is worth?
thedihedral.com 