City Climb

1.) Just to warm you up:
Decided to bring a date here. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary for myself. I was getting tired of dinners and coffees. lol. I went out on a whim, browsing around Me trusty Ol’ Unilocal to find out fun things to do and found this place.
2.) What your eyes may see:
Located in an industrial park, next door to it is a run down warehouse, City Jump is secluded from all other businesses. Inside is a pretty decently large warehouse with many walls of difficulty. They have other rooms for working out. I first saw children attempting to climb one of the smaller walls, so it’s cool that it’s kid friendly.
3.) Staff:
Zach was our guide. He was nice, friendly, sociable, and taught us a thing or two about rock climbing.
4.) My info:
I didn’t know how much of a leg and forearm workout you get from this, emphasis on using the legs more. This was a test of my mental strength, learning how and when and where to execute a climb, as well as my patience, persistence and motivation. I loved every second of it.
5.) Extra info:
They have a personal trainer in rock climbing named Matt F. Dude is jacked and puts you through workouts conducive to rock climbing.
6.) Impressions:
For dates, for kids, for groups, for individuals, for those who want to get into rock climbing strength, for fun? This is an awesome place!

City is definitely a smaller climbing gym, with a limited number of problems and devoid of extra features like weights or benchpress machines. This makes it better for beginners. If you’ve never climbed before, this place is a great place to start! The staff are super friendly and there’s a very real sense of community. Members bring things like baked goods for others to snack on or their pets. It’s never a bad thing to have free cupackes and cute dogs running around!
Some tips: Chalk is definitely recommended if you’re going to boulder here. Also, this place does not pop up on most GPS. You have to take a left off of Winchester Ave and drive past Farmington Canal to find it.

This place did not meet my expectations. I was looking for a new climbing gym after moving to the area and I thought I would give this place a shot.
The Staff: The staff are friendly and pretty laid back. They didn’t really explain much of the gym or where anything was. But I’ve been around gyms up and down the east coast to know what’s what.
Top Roping: The routes are pretty solid and are definitely the focus of this gym. The routes are laid out by tape color (a problem I’ll get to later) and the grades vary so everyone can be challenged. I don’t know how often they reset the routes though.
Bouldering: To be honest, the problems were a complete joke. Many of the problems were missing their tape and hadn’t been replaced. Sometimes it’d take me 5 minutes to figure out how a v3 was supposed to work after studying what foot holds had missing tape and which ones went to other problems. Most of the cave problems had tape that was about to fall off if it hadn’t already. And most of the holds were very worn out as if they hadn’t been reset in months. There was that feeling of holding on to slick marble rock instead of the clingy plastic that’s indicative of a clean hold. What’s worse is that for lower grade problems, this could turn a v2 into a v4 or v5 because the holds are no longer set up as originally intended.
The grades: They were completely inconsistent. Based on outdoor bouldering in new river gorge and NY, I should be at the v5 level. This place had v4’s with undercling dynos. Most of the problems might have been the grade that they suggested if you were a specific height (over 6 ft). This is a pet peeve of mine because climbers do get discouraged if they don’t understand why they can’t land a v2 when they’d been flashing v4’s for months. The lack in consistency keeps novice climbers from having a positive mindset to get better.
The Wall: It looks like the wall is some kind of poured plaster. It seemed ok when I was climbing on it but definitely showed wear and tear. I forgot to ask what material it was though. Regardless, it was something I had never seen before.
Overall, I’d say if the consistency improves and the problems are reset more often then it’d be a good place to go. Otherwise, visit another gym.

This gym is pretty nice and the owner was really a nice guy. I’ve visited 2 other gyms in the area and this was by far the best one.

This was my first time indoor rock climbing and I would love to go back! I came to City Climb with a Meetup group. FYI — If it’s your first time going with a Meetup group, it’s free! All the staff members were really nice and accommodating. One of the guys on staff gave us a quick intro and showed us the ropes (haha, get it?). They give you special climbing shoes and a harness.
The climbs range from beginner to expert and the rocks are color-​coded with tape, which makes it easy to follow your designated route. I started at a few beginner ones and worked my way up a few levels. Your belayer can guide you along if you get stuck. It got pretty busy after an hour or so, but there are plenty of climbing spots. We were there on a Monday night.
The place itself was tucked away behind a few buildings and parking lots. You turn into a driveway and keep following it until you see a big sign that says «CLIMB». It will guide you from there. There are cubbies for your stuff but no locks, so it’s probably smart to leave valuables in your car. I didn’t have any issues with my stuff though.
Not only was it a lot of fun but also a great workout. Rock on!

My fiancé and I came here using a Groupon, as I have wanted to check out indoor rock climbing for a couple of years now. This place is difficult to find (no signage, behind a driveway near the Ivy Bistro), but once we got there, we had a blast! We did the 1 hour Intro to Climbing Class with Jess and she was so helpful and knowledgeable and made us feel right at ease. It’s great to find new and fun ways in New Haven to work out. We would definitely come back!

City Climb is great fun! Thanks to either a LivingSocial or Groupon deal, rock climbing became a date night (well date afternoon) activity.
It is really hard to figure out where the place is. If you put the street address into your GPS you just end up in front of Yale Science Park. Once you figure out how to get there, City Climb is a fun way to workout. You will challenge yourself mentally as well as physically. I felt really exhilarated afterwards. My arms felt like Jello however.
The staff is very friendly and will put you at ease about the whole experience. I wanted a challenge so Nicole recommended a couple so walls that I could try. She was really good at guiding me along.
I will point out a couple of downsides to this facility. Aside from how difficult it is to find, I also disliked how cold it is in there. I did inquire about membership fees and drop-​in rates and both seemed pricey. That said, to a serious rock climbing athlete it is probably a great value for money. While I had fun I am definitely not ready to spend upwards of $ 400 on an annual membership.
Gyms are so excruciatingly boring that it’s always great to discover new ways to exercise. I plan on returning.

Just wanted to report that the birthday party was awesome. Two staff members helped belay eight kids, and they were great at working at each kid’s level — encouraging those who were nervous about climbing for the first time, and challenging those who were ready for more difficult sections of the wall. After 1.5 hours of climbing and swinging on the Tarzan swing, we went to the birthday room for pizza and cupcakes (which we brought) — the room is nothing fancy, but once we put tablecloths on the tables and tied some balloons to the chairs, it was plenty festive. Highly recommend!