Calgary Climbing Centre Rocky Mountain

I’ve had good experiences here before, but my visit last Sunday changed that. While browsing gear with my family, we were approached unsolicited by a woman who didn’t appear to be staff (she was working on a laptop near the front and was not wearing the usual staff apparel). We had already been helped and spoke with the friendly employees from the front desk area. I later discovered that this woman who approched us is a manager. Her tone was judgmental, condescending, and patronizing, especially toward newer climbers. What could have been a simple, comfortable shopping experience for replacement shoes turned into something unprofessional and uncomfortable. That interaction alone was enough for me to take my business elsewhere.

They age discriminate here, they would not let 3.8 y/o ***experienced*** climber use to Clip n Climb (despite meeting weight requirements). There is no reason to do this.

**Bring shoes/sandals!!! Best gym in the city if rope climbing is your jam. That being said, treat it like you're going outdoors. Because of the layout there are outdoor shoes walking everywhere. I took about five steps away from the cubbies area on my way to bouldering and was immediately told to put my shoes on and no barefeet, even off the mats. So my shoes got to track all the outdoor dirt and grime to the wall. All the CCC climbing gyms are great but this is my least favorite for bouldering.

I am a long time user of CCC's facilies, I have participated in their competitions and volunteered for them. The reason I am leaving such a negative review is that over the past few years there has been a noticealbe decline in the user experience while bouldering at their facilities. As climbing has become less of a niche thing to do, there has been a rise in people coming out and giving it a try. This is not what I take exception to, in fact I'm stoked that groups of all ages and makeups are trying something new. The problem arises in the way the gym handles these groups. As far as I can tell there is at best a very meagre orientation given to newcomers and apart from that there has been no evidence to suggest that any employees are intent on enforcing any rules as far as the bouldering area is concerned. This results in most sessions, whether it be morning, noon or night, having some mixture of children running around on the mats, climbing beneath people, or large groups of newcomers standing beneath boulders and taking large area's of the wall hostage, resulting in no one else being able to climb. Not only is this very aggravating but it's also dangerous. Do I blame the parents of the kids or the newcomers? No. If its your first time in a gym there's a high likelyhood you're not going to know what the expectations are. My blame is primarily with the gym and its staff, as there seems to be a genuine ignorance when it comes to enforcing any sort of rules when it comes to the bouldering wall. Furthermore some people choose to not use rentals on the wall, once again fine with me but issues begin to rise when its obvious that they're using their outdoor sneakers, and again, nothing in the way of any sort of enforcement regarding this. I like to be a good ambassador for the sport, I love answering questions for newcomers if they're not sure about something, but I don't think the onus should be on the members to orient newcomers every single time a new group of them comes in and takes half the wall hostage.

My favorite gym in Canada so far! I have been to a tonn of gyms and this one takes the cake. The staff are great and so is the setting!