Movement - Boulder, CO

Typically I try to stay away from giving my opinions about the different gyms that I have visited in the sorrounding area of Colorado, but what the heck I need some filler and I'm sure people want to know what I think about Colorado Climbing Gyms(maybe that's a stretch).

Movement in Boulder, CO is simply one of the best gyms in the world! With walls up to 40-ft in height, and steep climbing up to 50-ft long this gym was built to do one thing and that's to make you a climbing beast.

The gym itself is huge at 22,000 square feet. It's got nearly everything that one could possibly want in a gym including: fitness center with weights, treadmills with LCD screens, stepper, ellipticals, free spin classes 5 days a week, and free yoga 6 days a week. There are also a number of other classes such as Core Essentials, Ski Fit, amoung others. Besides the free classes which are included with memberships there are also a number of classes that you can take such as Climbing Training with Justin Sjong and personal fitness training with various instructors which have an extra expense.

The climbing walls have nearly every angle, two cracks, and plenty of bouldering. There is also an area for training which has been my biggest complaint with other gyms. The training has a spacious area with campus board with different size rungs and a very nice system board for training those weaknesses. I have two favorites of this gym: 1) Hands down the employees are some of the nicest folks I have ever met. They really go out of their way to get to know who you are and what your name is. 2) The quality of the routes and bouldering problems are amazing. I have yet to be disappointed on anything that I've been on. My personal favorite route setter is J-Strong (Justin Sjong). His routes tend to make the most out of the wall, and you have to work for every move. Movement has a dedicated team to changing the routes in the gym 3 days a week. They tend to work in change about 10-15 climbs per week if I'm not mistaken.

Since no gym is perfect I'll give what I think makes it less than perfect. 1) The free classes are at the worst times possible. Now if you goto the YMCA and try to take a Spin Class during any time of the day it's impossible to get a bike if you come in right before the class starts. Maybe this is Movements mentality, but seriously at 12pm when there are only 3 people climbing in the gym as is, I seriously doubt any one is lining up for the free yoga, and spin classes. I know this from personal experience. 2) The bouldering grades switch from either being very soft to right on. This seems to change from week to week. This is pretty typical of the V3 grades up to about V6/V7. But hell I love an ego boost just as much as anyone else. 3) I wish the walls were 60-ft instead of 40-ft in height. However Movement works with what the city has allowed and they do a damn fine job with using as much of the wall as possible to simulate longer climbs. 4) It's freaking crowded!!! However they are a business and guess what? Business is good! 5) Just because you can climb 14d does not make you a safe belayer!!! I've seen employees of this gym walk up to the sub-5.11 climbers and critique their belaying techniques, but I've also seen employees completely ignore the 5.14+ climber completely out in the open stand 20-ft from the base of the wall with slack literally hanging on the ground. This belayer was not remotely interested in the person they were belaying, but instead was staring at the 14a route on the overhanging wall. If the climber had fallen ANYWHERE on this route they would have hit the ground!!!

The last thing I'll mention is this gym the most environmentally consicience gym I've ever visted. I'll let you read up on it in the November issue of Urban Climber. You can check out the solar panels on top of the building, and view just how much energy input/output this gym uses and creates by turning around the next time your at the counter. It does not stop there. Take a look around and you'll find so many different ways that are being pro-environment from the mens wall urinals to all the natural light that comes in from the gigantic windows.

Gym Overall: 9.0
Quality of bouldering: 8 (Plywood style not my favorite)
Quality of routes: 9 (Taller walls would have been perfect)
Attitudes of owners/workers: 10 (Incredibly friendly staff with a native of North Carolina Anne-Worley Moelter)
Attitudes of climbers: 8 (Boulder climbers just need to realize they aren't curing cancer with their climbing, drop the elitest attitudes guys)
Cost: 10 ($10 your first time, $16 afterwards. It's a full gym so it's worth it)