Climb a Boulder at Mission Cliffs

I love it here! The staff is super friendly and the facilities are great. People are respectful and it’s nice as a home gym. They reset the routes often enough to not get bored but not too often so you have time to continue working on routes. The classes are better than I would have thought and very frequent, you have to book within 24hrs but they are the same times each week so easy ti get a routine going, I enjoy the yoga classes. Also, The sauna is an added bonus after a hard climb.

I rarely write negative reviews — especially for a climbing gym — but my experience at Mission Cliffs in SF was so disappointing in so many ways. Maria (staff member) was extremely condescending. We were visiting from out of town and my partner needed to take his lead certification because he hadn’t visited a touchstone before. Between us, we have hundreds of hours of lead climbing experiences, both indoors and outside. We were made to wait over an hour — despite repeatedly coming back to the front desk to ask when we could take it and if anyone was available (they were, but were just chit chatting at the desk). After the hour, we finally went to the desk to ask again and she said “oh, hasn’t someone already tested you yet?” to which she finally agreed to come administer the test. I have previously passed a lead test at touchstone, but was told that by participating in the test again that if I did anything wrong my lead cert would be revoked. Get the need to be safe here, but this felt super unnecessary. She then pointed out that I didn’t have a lead card (we had told her when checking in that we were visiting from out of town and didn’t have this). She then said in an accusatory tone that she could take away my lead cert for not having the card (all before the test, all still extremely unnecessary). She then proceeded to administer the test — which is one of the unnecessarily hardest lead routes for a test imo having visited many gyms in many countries. There is no need for a lead climber to be able to climb an overhung 10b successfully and clean in one go — the emphasis should clearly be on safety rather than ability (other gyms I have visited have plenty of great 10.b and below lead routes). There is also no need to intimidate the climber taking the test prior to them taking the test. Her instructions were convoluted (“clip 6 clips, you can discuss which ones between you” — unclear why she couldn’t just say clip all the draws on the route) and she was just downright mean. The cumulative effect of this is a gym that feels extremely oppressive and unfriendly to climbers — both old and new. I cannot even imagine how a newer lead climber would feel taking this test — intimidated, scared, and frankly not wanting to bother to clear these hurdles. Sadly, to top it off, the route setting was not even good. Straight up and down and nothing very interesting.

Great place to indoor rock climb. Went with my 9 year old daughter and her friends. They had a blast.

The gym is awesome! They have all necessary equipment for climbing and for working out. There are a steaming room, shower with shampoo etc., they also provide with towels. Gets really full during rush hour, so the time using cardio section is limited (30min) during this hours.

My recent visit was one of the worsts experiences I’ve had with any business staff. Maria was very condescending. Plenty of other better gyms nearby. I came in for a day pass to lead climb. From the beginning the front desk employee, Maria, was dismissal towards me for wanting to take the lead test. My climbing partner was already certified. She asked us to wait an unspecified amount of time for the test. We warmed up for over 20-25 minutes and ended up doing non lead climbs while we waited. All our gear was ready near the lead test station the whole time. Almost an hour later of doing non lead climbs, I checked in again and Maria treated us like we were being an inconvenience to her for wanting to lead climb. Before I started the test Maria was belittling and condescending as if she didn’t want me to pass. Being critical of everything I could potentially do wrong. Ultimately it came true. Failed my first lead test. I’m not the strongest climber but I’m a safe climber and have passed at every other gym. I didn’t make any mistakes, just slipped off on the 2nd to last hold. I guess that’s what happens when you do an overhung lead test after an hour of “warming up”. I have hundreds of hours climbing indoors and outdoors. I’m all for safe climbing but damn this is just gatekeeping. Never coming back to this gym again. Don’t need this kind of toxic and non inclusive behavior in the climbing community.