Portland Rock Gym

I’ve been going to PRG for two years and while I’ve had some times when I’ve been quite annoyed with it, overall I love this place.
First, the staff is great. They’re very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. I have taken a couple classes and private lessons. They were great at helping me push my skills in a safe manner.
The yoga classes may be my favorite part of PRG and justify the raised rates since their expansion. I’m addicted to them. They range in difficulty to meet all different needs. I appreciate the challenging ones that really are aimed at climbers. Manuka’s classes are fabulous. Others vary depending on the instructors.
They do a good job maintaining a variety of grades and bouldering problems. Sometimes it seems they fall behind in changing routes, but then, sometimes a project is gone before you want it to be.
The gym seems safe and staff is concerned about safety. I saw a review complain that they made her take a belay test before she could belay. Um, yes, they do. They also might stop you if you’re not displaying your lead belay card. I personally think it’s great that people aren’t falling from the sky all the time.
The expanded small wall room and party room have helped a lot with kids. I’ve always thought their kid’s programs looked great and thought the instructors were really good with the kids, but often they would really be in the way or distracting. It’s great that a lot of that is in a separate room now. I don’t know if they made a conscious policy change, but whereas there used to often be random groups of annoying kids or a parent with five plus kids running around, there seems to be less of that. I see more beginning families climbing with a staff member.
A couple things I can live with, but don’t love:
–the wall texture and cleanliness,
–the crowded cardio and weights space. Especially when they bring groups of kids in there. Really? Why are you doing that?
Overall, I enjoy going here. Other climbers and staff are friendly. It’s been a great place to learn to climb and as I progress. Lastly, they have way better music than that other gym, but it’s never too loud that I can’t listen to my own or block it out.

I just had my daughter’s birthday party here and it was amazing. The staff was very professional and caring. The girls (12 year olds) had a fabulous time and tried many different routes. The facility is by far the nicest in the area. Both of my children want to start classes there now.

I went here last night with a couple co-​workers, and we had a blast. I visited PRG once before, about a year or two ago, before their remodel. It was cool back then, but after seeing their expansion, all I can say is «WOW»! This place is way cooler. The expansion really helps prevent people from crowding in one area, because there are so many great areas to explore now. The staff was very friendly, and so were the other participants. People were very helpful, and willing to offer advice, and cheer you on when climbing. I will definitely be back. I also want to give a special shout out to Lauren, who was our belayer. She was professional, polite, and made the experience fun, and safe. She went out of her way to find us when we wandered, and make sure we got out turns with her, even when she got busy with other people coming into the facility after us. She was fantastic. Oh, and she helped me conquer my fear of heights. The first time I visited PRG I never actually went to the top of any of the climbs, due to my fear of heights, but with Lauren’s help, I conquered several of the climbs. Thanks for your safe and friendly service, Lauren, and I’m sorry if I misspelled your name. ;-)

I’ve climbed both here and Planet Granite, and if you’re trying to figure out the difference, I think we’ve got it figured out. I’ve only been climbing for 2 months, but so far, this seems to be the common consensus among our climbing group.
At Portland Rock Gym, you’ll find the routes to be a bit more intricate – they will require more technique and creativity, and you will rarely ever find yourself sprinting up the wall. They have auto-​belays. The staff are warm and friendly, and it feels like you’re supporting a local Portland business. I climb a pretty solid 5.9 here.
At Planet Granite, you’ll find the routes to be graded a bit easier. They require more strength and endurance instead. The holds and the walls are newer. They have a large weight training area. They have some higher walls, and a great spot to practice overhangs. The place is very corporate feeling and the staff don’t make much conversation. It’s more expensive than PRG. They provide you with belay devices when top roping. I’ve successfully climbed 3 5.10cs here.
So the two are fairly different.
Portland Rock Gym underwent a large expansion, adding a bigger bouldering area and a small room of top roping and slacklining. They have a yoga studio and a small workout area. I got a membership here because it was not only affordable, but the benefits package was great. In addition to my guest passes, I get a private consultation, a technique class, and tons of other discounts.
The staff are amazing and insanely friendly. I love the way I feel when I walk in the door. The music usually involves Ratatat, so I love it. I recommend taking the intro class or just sticking to bouldering if you can’t/don’t want to take the belay test.

Took an intro to climbing class here a while back and have climbed a few times since then. The intro class was great and very useful as to safety techniques and gear run down.
The gym itself is pretty great, though it can get a touch crowded. Hopefully, the expansion will help with that now!

It’s right now small, but growing as construction continues. Aptly named as this is truly Portland’s primary rock gym – at the moment – which hopefully ignites a bigger Rip City climbing culture. Honors to staff who were quite patient with the kids I brought in.

Sunday I climbed outdoors for the first time thanks to PRG’s Gym to Crag class. Josh and Adam were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful on guiding us up more difficult climbs and showing us the basics for climbing outdoors. I’ve always enjoyed climbing at PRG and this is my second class I’ve taken with them and as always it was a wonderful experience. I look forward to many more classes at PRG so I can learn new techniques and skills to safely enjoy my newfound hobby.

My friend and I checked this place out on a whim. Neither of us had ever climbed before. For $ 23 we got a day pass and the equipment we needed, signed a waiver, and were given a quick tour of the gym and how to use the auto belay systems. We ended up having an awesome time. A week later, we have purchased all our own gear and have been going almost every day. We also bought the gym package that consists of the intro class and a month membership. Now we can belay each other which has opened up the rest of the gym to us.
We have never had a bad experience with any of the staff members. Everyone so far has been quite friendly and patient with our questions. We have also met a lot of cool fellow climbers. All in all: great experience thus far, and an awesome way to get in shape.

Had my first outdoor rock climbing experience with the Gym to Crag class and Adam. Had an amazing experience, improved my confidence during the 4 hour class and 4 different routes. Can’t wait to go again outdoors and continuing my rock climbing journey!

I adore the Portland Rock Gym. I’ve been a member since 2012, and learned to rock climb here. I am a casual climber, though I’ve gotten better over the years, and the PRG has always presented challenging new routes as well as those I felt comfortable just jumping on and completing.
The staff are amazing. Anna, Jason, Gary, and Sean (and all those I don’t know names of) are always helpful, funny and say hello when I visit. I work for a non-​profit serving low income kids and the staff have been generous with donations so these kiddos could climb too!
With my membership I’ve taken clinics to improve my skill and techniques as well as strength training, and the gym is always offering new indoor and outdoor climbing opportunities. I’m super excited for their expansion, which sounds like it will add more space and a yoga studio!
Yes it gets crowded, yes there can be those off putting arrogant climbers, and it’s not perfect, but I’ve been more than once to the other gyms around town, and I still love the variety and training PRG gives me!

It’s the first rock climbing gym in Portland so the walls are not that appealing.
Had an OK experience for my first time coming here but I probably won’t come back.
They have 5 auto belayers and it’s pretty cool if you’re alone and don’t want to ask a stranger to belay you. But those auto belayers are fixed to routes thus only giving you about 10 routes to try.
Some of the holds are so greasy from use. So it doesn’t seem like they update their routes or brush the holds often.
For bouldering, they have portable crash pads.
Anyway the other gyms in town are more appealing to me and updated. But props to being the first rock climbing gym in Portland.

Great atmosphere! Just bought a membership for the gym portion and it kinda disappointing so far… the price went up but online its still at $ 19 and 2 out of the 4 cardio machine are out of order:/ And the towels are never stocked, hope it gets better!

We have the family membership, the best deal on memberships around if you have a large family like ours. Kids have a lot of fun especially in the teen club that comes free with the membership. Some great problems and variety of climbs, I’m looking forward to the expansion into the parking lot with more climbing and space and a yoga gym, it can get quite crowded some days. I am not looking forward to even less parking space though, at least its not paid.
I have only encountered friendly people here including the staff. I recommend checking it out!

In a pinch — sure, I’ll pop into Portland Rock Gym again. I do enjoy visiting other indoor rock gyms when I travel and it’s fun to note the differences and similarities.
What I liked about Portland Rock Gym:
* Masonry wall — I was told this is similar to the kind of surfaces at Smith Rock SP. There was an auto-​belay area which had regular wall and masonry pitches. The masonry wall gets to be a bit more challenging than you might expect despite being able to put your hands/​feet anywhere you want!
* Auto-​belay — there were several auto-​belays set up and another in the main climbing area. OK in a pinch, but not my preference — as soon as you go off the wall and put weight on the auto-​belay, down you go!
* Climber rating & naming — all the new routes have tags & markers soliciting climber feedback on the rating, the «fun factor» and a name. Great system, IMO!
* Color coordinated holds — all holds for a given route are the same color; at the time, my home gym chain wasn’t doing this, so I found it refreshing and much easier, and made the suggestion when I returned.
* Pitches — some of the pitches were quite fun, but I noticed a bit of inconsistency on ratings, making it difficult to pick a route.
* Adults — It wasn’t too crowded in the middle of the day — but I was lucky that there were a few loose climbers at the auto-​belay area, so I was able to find someone to climb TR — and that was a pretty good experience (thanks, amigo!).
* Children — There was some kind of kids camp with a bunch of young girls happening mostly in the bouldering cave. I was extremely impressed with the way that the young male instructor interacted with the girls — he was really keeping it fun, enthusiastic without being «weird» and the girls really looked like they were having a blast. The girls were giggling and not shrieking or being too loud or underfoot, and I enjoyed watching their games.
What I disliked:
* Climbing walls surface — basically like plain painted drywall. I’m not kidding. that slippery — no flagging your foot out on the wall here, you will slip. The pitches are spaced a bit farther apart, so no going international/​rainbow in some cases either. I really really disliked the wall surface here. Not at all like being outdoors.
* Dirty holds — ugh. Some of these holds were so dirty and blackened as to be completely slick. I was very careful to not touch my face (ie, rub my eyes) because the holds look like they have never seen a bucket of bleach and a scrub brush. Yuck.
* Music — why do climbing gyms (or gyms generally) feel the need to inflict bad, loud music on people? And why do climbing gyms always play CCR or crappy 80s music?
##

I’ve never been to a climbing gym before, so this review will be more relevant to novices and families than to serious climbers. And after reading some of the reviews, I was worried that this place was just too hard core for us – that without any knowledge of how to belay, we’d be unable to participate, since there weren’t any staff available for private lessons today.
But PRG was as welcoming as could be! Dan encouraged us to climb as a family — grownups as well as kids — and showed us how to use the auto-​belayers and how to spot the kids on the bouldering wall. I’m a total chicken myself, and a worrier when it comes to the kids, but I felt totally comfortable giving it a try.
And our kids loved it! Our little guy was a bit put-​off by the auto-​belaying, I think because he finds it reassuring to have someone else on the other end of the line. But our daughter loved it, and was up and down a few different walls more that a dozen times.
Even I was able to get halfway up a wall at several point; the onlyobstacle to going higher was that OMG I AM HALFWAY UP A F*CKING WALL AND I HAVE TO GET DOWN AGAIN. Trusting the cable to support me on the way down scared the bejusus out of me. But again, the relaxed and friendly vibe was perfect — the various staff and fellow climbers who I shared my fears with were all very encouraging, and I ended up pushing myself more that I thought I could and having a better time than I had imagined.
It was also very convenient to find a small selection of cardio and weight training equipment — while my daughter got in a few more climbs, I had a few minutes on the elliptical, which is always tough to fit in while on vacation. In combination with the climbing itself, I actually had a real workout, hurrah!
This was a great way for our family to experience climbing together, and it’s something I think we’ll do when we get back home. We were really happy to find such an enjoyable family activity on vacation — and one that made us feel more like locals than like tourists.
Thanks PRG for a great afternoon!

I’ve been climbing here for a few weeks and am really enjoying the gym. I decided to leave a review after reading some of the negative ones and figure I’d address some of their issues…
Can you walk in and just climb… Yes! While I did a bit of research and opted for an intro class before I jumped in, I have seen plenty of people come in, do a basic rental, sign the waiver, and get on auto-​belays in just a few minutes.
Is it beginner friendly… — I’m a beginner. I started by signing up for the intro class + first month, which seemed a decent deal. The intro class was taught well and left me confident I wouldn’t hurt myself or someone else. When I can’t climb with friends I do laps on the auto-​belays. Of course it isn’t as exciting as climbing with a partner, especially since I can only climb 5.8 which means there are currently 3 auto belay routes for me. This opens up as you can climb tougher routes. However, 3 routes is a great plenty, especially since at that level there are many, many ways up each route.
Friendly or mean staff… I haven’t had a ton of interaction with the staff. My intro instructor was friendly and funny and taught very well. The desk staff seem quick enough with a smile but they just seem to be there to check you in. Taking belay tests did seem a little bit of a chore for the staff, but I think I’d get bored of doing the same testing over and over again. That said, they were still friendly, and they definitely made sure I knew what I was doing each time. They were also very helpful in showing me how to properly use a Grigri.
Friendly or mean gym members… Well, I guess I am one so maybe I’m biased. Nah, probably not. I climb mostly with friends, but when I do interact with others its what I’d expect from any Portlander or Seattleite, the «nice to meet you and lets chat a bit but we’re going to stay distant» sort of attitude. I have run in to no jerks or anyone who has «put me off».
Cleanliness… the gym portion is always very tidy and clean. My true test is the bathrooms… they’ve always been as clean as you can expect from public bathrooms and have never been smelly… hurray. As far as personal hygiene, I haven’t had any whiffs of obnoxious BO, which I’d sort of expect from a gym (my experience with the big box gyms was not so good in this regard).
tldr… Yes its beginner friendly. No the people there aren’t jerks. You won’t get herpes from the bathrooms.

This was a pretty good sized rock climbing gym. I went on a Monday afternoon (St. Patricks Day) and the place was pretty busy. After signing the waiver and renting out gear, we opened the doors into the rock climbing area. There were fewer auto belays than I had expected, but people seemed nice enough to make sure everyone had a turn. Walking farther into the room, there is a separate area for bouldering. As a whole, this rock climbing gym was pretty large and offered different types of rock climbing options. Pretty neat!

After 11 months away from rock climbing due to a foot injury, I decided to try my hand at climbing again while on vacation in Portland, and Portland Rock Gym was my chosen venue for getting back on the horse. It was easy to get in just to boulder — the typical waiver process, but made easy and swift, which I appreciated. And I went in the morning, so was delighted to learn that day passes are cheaper if you go earlier in the day (I think it’s before 3 or 5 pm that they have reduced rates).
I didn’t top rope here, but I did boulder (3 different times). They have some great bouldering routes (and LOTS of them!), and their rating scale is more on the difficult side (in my opinion). After 11 months off, I could send all the V0s, no problem. But sending a V1 was difficult, and, in some cases, near impossible. Humbling.
There are signs everywhere that they only permit «chalk socks,» so I felt like a bit of a subversive fool with loose chalk in my chalk bag, but no one said anything to me (and I was very neat, of course!).
Locker rooms could have been much cleaner (when was the last time you swept, guys?)
Parking lot is tiny, and parking in the area is highly regulated. I suggest the north side of Burnside just east of 12^th Av if you can’t find a spot in the lot (which is west of 12^th Av on Couch).

I’ve been top-​rope climbing on and off since 2010, and I’m sorry to say that I let my annual gym membership expire here without any regrets. I barely used my membership since I was so put off by everybody’s attitude. Long story short, this is a pretty unfriendly gym. The climbers and staff here are snotty and have the better-​than-​thou attitude that seems to be prevalent amongst most Portland climbers.
Attitude aside, the facilities here aren’t great. It’s perpetually crowded and the routes aren’t very diversified. Adding to that, the routes don’t change very often at all. If you’re a beginner-​intro climber, good luck finding a route you can actually do – and on the rare occasion you find those routes, have fun doing the same four over and over. This gym definitely favors lead-​climbers.
The routes here are also pretty awful. I once read somewhere that bad climbing gyms make routes more difficult simply by adding more crimps and awkward holds in the routes, as opposed to actually thinking about problems and providing different situations. At PRG, the only thing that distinguishes a hard route from an easy one is the fact that it has more crimps — this is really problematic because if you’re a frequent introductory climber, you’ll end up with a finger injury and not that much more technical climbing knowledge. Lame. The route setters at PRG need to actually start thnking about the routes instead of just pulling out crimp holds.
Overall, I’d give this place 1 star, if not for the convenience of its location and the fact that it’s basically the only top-​rope gym in inner-​city Portland. Sigh. We need more top roping options.

My interest in coming to the PRG started because I was needing something new, an escape from my usual running and general fitness routine and rock climbing sounded like the perfect way to shake things up.
I came as a general walk-​in thinking I would be given a tour and get set up to start climbing immediatly, but boy I was wrong and immediately corrected… to spare you the details — I was informed that this gym was an off-​season climbing gym, that basically means there was no way I was going to climb that day without taking a course and even then I was not going to climb without having a belay partner… tear;(I got some good info from the front desk gal and enlisted my B (ee)FF to take an intro climbing course with me.
The intro course was great, I took a satruday morning slot and our instructors were super friendly, patient and super encouraging. I could hardly believe that learning the basics –tying a figure 8 knot, strapping into the harness, proper roping pulling, safety checking took up the entire time slot but it did and I left feeling confident in my new belay skills and climing comands… BELAY ON! but my Bf didn’t have the same confidence in my skills at all…
Upon returning to climb he was reluctant to allow me to belay him, so like a good sport he let me get a few climbs in before switching to the bouldering section of the gym –where he was not dependent on my lack of weight and skill to belay him… what a kill joy. But at the least my beef felt better& I fell in love with bouldering.
In the end I wound up learning to climb thought a great intro course they offer, but sadly I never got much of a chance to as I’ve had no one to belay me after that. The gym doesn’t seem to offer any assistance either.
Things I wish I knew before walking in–
for starters this gym is not walk-​in friendly for those of us newbies… This places is more or less concidered an «off-​season gym» meaning everyone here climbs to some degree pretty frequently. If your looking to walk in and climb you will need to be belay ready or have a partner that knows what they are doing since they won’t allow those that don’t.
Also designate a buddy to join with you, having a belay partner start at your same skill level (&weight) seems to be key!