I have purchased a day pass here a few times now, rented shoes and chalk each time. As a recreational climber, this is a great place to go with friends as a social get to gather. Orientation by staff, and no limit on how long you stay and climb. Lots of variety of climbing routes that are changed up weekly.
The entrance was a bit intuitive to find, without clear signage outside. It was hard to see in the dark while it was raining out. The gym itself is fairly clean and the people were friendly. Most of the walls are fairly vertical and have a strong tendency to slab, which is a plus or minus depending on your preference. My main gripe is the lack of down climb holds. Some tops have nothing but crimps and slopers on the way down, with one or two downclimb jugs if you're lucky. You need to jump off most of the problems. This is fine if you're younger or used to crash mats outdoors but indoors it's a bit inconvenient and, depending on the route, a bit scary. It was also cold as sin in the change room area. Not a huge fan of that. The gym is fine otherwise.
Amazing staff. Communal vibe beats any regular gym. I’ve met great people who’ve helped me along my climbing journey and now have a few gym buddies to go with. Large variety of climbs. They won’t all fit your style, but there’s always a new set next week. Come be social and have a good time!
Large , clean , spacious bouldering gym with a great variety of climbs. Nice staff. You can tell they take care of the wall and holds well. They have two tension boards on the lower level. On the upper level they have a small workout area (in a massive unutilized space) with a bunch of weights, hang boards and pull up bars. Despite the low ceilings they would benefit from adding a campus board and even a moonboard (they would fit.) . Could get a stationary bike or something too to fill in the workout area.. Would be nice if they had a shower as well...
I was at this gym on opening week back in 2019. I was climbing for 2 years before that, so I'm at 8 years of climbing at this point. I also come from the days where we still had Peaks Mountaineering (Another climbing gym) nearby, so maybe that taints my experience a bit. I (F / V9 climber) and my boyfriend (M / V5 climber) have this to say: While the mats are top quality, as are the holds, the lighting. The actual content of the gym has been inconsistent at best. A majority of "hard" climbs are dynos, paddle moves (Of which there are MANY. Like the setters have a fetish) or "let's see if you're brave enough to stand on dualtex 15ft off the ground over a volume on incline slab" As of April 2025 (my last attendance) it wasn't as dangerous as it has been in the past, but there's been years where the gym scared me and I climb 8+ which is higher than the gym sets. The gym suffers from a massive lack in variety. Almost all the walls are slab, or gently inclined slab. There is no cave, just one small corner of overhang in the back. So unless you like slab, you're climbing slab anyway. And since the setters love to make you stand on dualtex and sketchy feet, I've seen more cheesegratered legs here than at any gym in my life. Rarely did I go a week without seeing someone applying a bandaid after they slipped off the shitty holds they make you stand on. They don't put much thought into what is beneath you as you climb. Setting team needs a complete rebuild. They've kept on a certain old head-setter who I'll refer to as "L" who built up the most stupidly dangerous routes I've ever seen for well over a year before they finally took her off as head setter. They don't care about grading at all, as 8 can mean anything between 8 and 12+ while lower graded climbs are effectively randomly assigned. When I last climbed in April 2025 the new grades came out and I stood around with all the newer climbers all wondering what the hell they were thinking when they put up the numbers. Asking the setters about it they said they "don't really care about grades" presumably because they are already all 6-7+ climbers themselves. Meanwhile my boyfriend who I always attend with is a 4-5 climber and relies on grading (like most new climbers) to gauge their progression in the sport. And I use it to gauge my weaknesses (I send 8-9+) but the setters don't care enough about doing a high quality job I guess. Another climber told me he asked the setting team why all the climbs are effectively the same, and they don't ever switch it up with traverse routes, downclimbs, short, odd shapes, volume only, just 'creativity' their response and I quote (from him) "You should climb at a different gym" I guess they just don't make good climbs here, you know? Only mediocrity it's the St Catherine's way. Guess that's why if you compare opening day pictures to modern day every wall has 50% less climbs on it. Look this is too much text at this point let me try and close this out: If this wasn't the only gym within 30 minutes of this area, no one would attend. If gyms like The Core and Climbers Rock were within 10 minutes this gym would be a ghost town. Abandoned and neglected just like the quality of climbs on the wall. There's not enough to challenge, not enough consistency to build with, not enough creativity to encourage repeat visits. And every few weeks they don't bother to set at all. This gym doesn't care about you and your experience, make the extra commute to another gym or pick another hobby. This place isn't worth the money. Only a change up in wall shapes, and new setters who care will change that. P.S - When the average new climber sees all the strongest climbers huddling around the tension board because your walls have nothing to offer, it sends a very clear message.
I've been a member of this gym and community for 5-6 years, and I feel the gym has been in slow decline for a while now. The setting is overall very lack luster. An overwhelming majority of the climbs are competitive, parkour style, which most of the community seems less than thrilled about. It seems as though the setting team is only interested in setting climbs for the Gravity team. A lot of the climbs are outright dangerous, with fall zones leading directly into volumes. The grading is also pretty poor. Gravity is roughly 20 minutes from one of Ontario's largest bouldering crags, yet there is is absolutely no connection to it what so ever. A lot of gravity members use the gym as a training tool to prepare for climbing outside, yet we have to beg for outdoor style climbs, At any given time, maybe 5% of the climbs in the gym are relevant to this crowd. Imagine how cool it would be to see pictures of members doing cool outdoor climbs around the gym! The weight training area upstairs is almost always a disaster, its dusty, weights and equipment left all over the place. On numerous occasions, I've seen gym staff use weights and just start climbing or leave the gym entirely without returning anything to its home. The employees should be setting an example for the members. The staff is laaaaaaaaaaaazy. Unless they're giving an orientation, you'll always find them at the front desk, doing school work, watching videos, doing cross words, or reading. Upon being told the washrooms were a mess, one employee outright said that cleaning the bathrooms wasn't in his job description. Wild! The gym is FAR too hot during the summer months. I've heard they have AC, but I've never felt it on on. Instead, they would rather open the bay doors and let all the humidity into the gym. The front area feels tolerable, while the rest of the gym is full of uncirculated, heavy, hot air, and you can feel the humidity while you're climbing. It's not an environment that is conducive to trying hard or having fun, it's just a miserable experience quite honestly. I've seen numerous people bring in their own fans to even try to have a chance at staying cool. Lastly, management should be absolutely embarrassed with the state of the rental shoes they provide to their gym goers. They're full of holes, long overdue for a resole or the bin. It's cool that there is a push to introduce new people to climbing, but new comers are too inexperienced to know they're given bogus equipment. They're great at setting community events like mock-comps, or climb in the dark nights, but that's about it. I see the potential for this gym to amazing and as a member I want to see it succeed, but no one seems invested, not the owner or the employees. At this time, I think your time and money is better spent supporting almost any other climbing gym.
Great climbing facility, I always try to go when I visit St. Catharines. It’s way bigger than my home gym so I really appreciate how spaced out a lot of the climbs are able to be here. Pricing is very reasonable too. I find the setting really fun, especially the use of volumes. My main complaint would be lack of down climbs here. Most routes only have 1 at the very top, and since the routes are spaced apart there aren’t many other holds to come down on other than the ones you used to get up. Jumping from the top is hard on my knees and climbing down on holds from tougher routes when I’m already tired is sketchy. It would also be nice if it was open later on weekends!
Gravity Climbing Gym - Niagara is a Canadian Rock climbing gym based in St. Catharines, Ontario. Gravity Climbing Gym - Niagara is located at 399 Vansickle Rd Unit 3, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3T4, Canada.
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