I've been spending a lot of time in Chicago lately for work. It's usually cold, overcast, and wet this time of year. Getting motivated to do anything is hard in this town. I usually struggle between going to the gym, staying in the hotel, or catching a movie somewhere at night. When I do get motivated to climb I spend quite a lot of time sorting through what exactly is a climbing gym and what is a fitness gym with a "climbing wall."
North Wall in Crystal Lake is about a 30 mile drive Northwest of Chicago and has a good selection of boulder problems. This gym is not where you want to go if you need to get on some routes since the walls are very short at 20/25-ft tall. However the quality of the boulder problems is as good as it gets. The gym also has a very cool feature that starts off super steep and then comes into an almost tidal wave feature. The height of some of the routes is intimidating, but there are plenty of pads that you can shift around if you become sketched out.
One of my favorite things about this gym was the friendly climbers. These guys were some of the coolest guys on the planet that I've been fortunate enough to climb with. For those of you that want to get your bouldering fix fulfilled this was the place to do it. Although this gym might not be appealing to everyone, I definitely had a good time climbing there and meeting everyone. Just be prepared to drive about 45 mins outside of town. The indoorclimbing.com website mentions 50-ft of climbing, but I was never able to locate it.
Gym Overall: 7.0
Quality of bouldering: 8 (Great quality of bouldering problems)
Quality of routes: 3 (Very poor route climbing, and potential)
Attitudes of owners/workers: 7 (Pretty friendly staff)
Attitudes of climbers: 10 (Friendliest climbers I've come across to date)
Cost: 7 ($12 seemed steep for a gym that provided very little route climbing)
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2 comments:
Jeff Thanks for your great comments about North Wall! The 50-ft of climbing refers to the ceiling Lead. However just so you know we have the blue prints to expand next door, wich would include raising the roof. So next time you come back to the Chicago area North Wall will be over twice as big! Thanks again from all of us at North Wall
I've been in search of rock climbing facilities in the Chicagoland area and saw your review featured as part of today's Groupon. Would you say this is a suitable facility for beginners? I have never climbed before. Thanks!
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