Last night I was able to make it out to Rock Spot Climbing in South Boston. I would have to say that is was a decent gym. First of all, they were open until midnight everyday, which is amazing. That alone wins out in my book. Second, when you first walk in, the proshop is well stocked and the entryway is clean and odorless.
Like a lot of gyms, you sign in on the computer and it sends the info to the desk. The girl at the counter was pretty friendly and had no issues letting Alex come in and watch without having to pay. Once inside, I was a little disappointed. As difficult as the gym was to find, I expected it to be a little larger. With the exception of a decent sized bouldering cave, the rope section was no bigger than that of Fort Bliss. As far as the setting, it was okay. There were some problems that were beautifully engineered and then others that were awkward and tweaky. The real issue came with consistency. There was a V9 that I nearly got, then another that didn't really look possible. This could have been by nature of some secret beta (which I wouldn't normally mind, except no one was around to bounce ideas off of.)
The whole gym maybe had 10 people in it. Granted we showed up at 10 and stayed there until midnight, but there were hardly any people there. What made that fact worse was that almost every boulder problem had a sketchy top out on their wall. I wouldn't mind most of the time with a spotter, but I'm not breaking my neck just to top out in the gym.
The price, however was the best of any of the gyms, so far. It was $12.00 for just bouldering, which still does not beat Exposure at $8.00, but we'll get there.
Overall, it was a decent gym but lacked a little in the setting and versatility department. I think there is a lot of potential there and I would recommend anyone in that area to pay this gym a visit and see what they think themselves.
Size of Facility: Fair
Route Asthetics: Good
Route Climbability: Good
Route Maitenence: Good
Training Equipment: Fair
Staff Friendliness: Good
Staff Knowledge: Good
Grade Trueness V1-V4: + 1-2 V5-V7: True V8+: True
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