Ground Up Climbing Centre

Positive experience: Super functional gym and great community gathering point. 4 stars because I would love to see permanent artificial cracks (lead + TR) and more care, attention, and heart put into community support/development.

Fantastic experience: Lovely staff, fun boulder wall

Negative experience: The facility is great but not a great experience with the staff. Not great customer service. Had a big group of about 10 people coming in, Had called a few days prior to let them know. When we arrived were told they could not do belay tests because they were too busy. Forced to boulder. Staff seemed to chat with their friends most of time which made it strange that they weren't able to give belay tests. 2 stars for the facility, 0 for the staff.

Fantastic experience: We stopped by this gym after getting rained out on our climbing trip and were pleased to learn that they have showers in their changerooms! Well worth the $20 something day pass when you've been dirtbagging. We only bouldered but the grades here felt real! Not wildly sandbagged but definitely not soft. It also seems more of a sport focused gym: the bouldering area is small in comparison to the ropes area. Also spotted a kilter board, tread wall, and a conventional workout area. What else could you ask for?

Negative experience: Really disappointing experience at this gym under the new management. My husband and I have been climbing here regularly for the past 4 years and we hoped to be able to share this part of the climbing community with our son who is under a year old. On our most recent visit it was made clear that this is no longer a family friendly climbing community, and babies and and young children are not allowed to participate. Kids and babies were not allowed to be present on the bouldering mats even if they were under close supervision so as not to be anywhere near other climbers (and obviously never at risk of being below them). Sadly we will be canceling our memberships.

Negative experience: This is not a kid-friendly gym under the new management. If you bring a child and allow them to be on the mats at any point (my wife sat on the corner of the mat to breastfeed), you will be told that it’s against the rules. There’s no discussion about being under other climbers, or anything reasonable, they will hassle you until you leave. Staff found it so important to keep making us uncomfortable that they kept sending different staff members to talk to us, when my child was being kept off the mats as requested. Worst gym I’ve ever been to. For background, I’ve been climbing for 17 years and had memberships/punch passes at gyms all over Canada and the US.

Positive experience: During 4 days of rain, anywhere would be good. But genuinely impressed for a small local wall. Great bouldering wall with well set problems. First time on a Kilter board too.

Negative experience: they let you roll on a dirty mat from shoes in civilian clothes, bullying, absolutely unprofessional approach to the client. Peter

Fantastic experience: Really cool gym, it has everything you need for a good training

Positive experience: Excellent training ground | “Locals only” vibe For background: I've been climbing for over 15 years and have visited many gyms throughout the US and Canada. I feel like I have a pretty solid grasp on climbing gyms and their systems. We've been here a few times and this gym is challenging with their routes. You will definitely have fun and get a good work out. It's not beginner friendly because the grades reflect the outdoor grades. So, a beginner in bouldering will feel discouraged with the orange routes because it'll feel like you're climbing an outdoor grade. Sandbagged. It shows that this place is a community of strong climbers that are serious about training for outside locally and beyond. It's a good facility for its size. They have genderless bathrooms near the front desk. There are 5 private bathrooms with showers and an open room locker area. On the other side to the front desk is a closed off small area for kids. It's a small spray wall with anchors that is used to teach kids how to tie knots and different types of holds. Honestly, I don't think a day pass price is worth the small area for kids, if all they're looking to do is boulder. They have that spray wall and a mini Chief wall with a small slide to go down. The rest of the gym is split between tall walls for roping up and an upstairs bouldering wall. They also have a Kilter board and a small weight lifting area next to it. They make good use of this space. The bouldering upstairs is tough and not beginner friendly, as stated before. Grades accurately reflect outdoor grades. Our beginner friends and family were discouraged and couldn't climb many routes here. If incline routes are your thing, you'll love the bouldering area. The last thing worth noting is the staff. There was a blonde woman working the front desk wearing a beanie who wasn’t friendly or welcoming at all. She acted on assumptions thinking we don’t know climbing protocols. I’m sure we’ve been climbing far longer than she has. There’s something wrong when customers are more friendly and have better attitudes than those working for a company. Also, the young man giving the orientation/tour of the facility to my brother-in-law was condescending. Out of all the gyms we have visited, this is the least welcoming, most judgmental, and “locals only” prideful type gym.

Fantastic experience: Friendly, helpful staff and instructors. Great routes

Fantastic experience: My favorite gym

Positive experience: One of the staff memebers is incredibly sassy and they seem like they don’t want to be there. The extra star is for the kilterboard which is the best thing in the gym!

Negative experience: It's my first time in this gym and I'm a bit dispointed as I wanted to do lead test and there were no one available for the whole afternoon. I came all the way from Vancouver to do some lead climb... not fair Otherwise it's a nice tall wall.

Fantastic experience: Chill space, fun routes, good people

Fantastic experience: Great for children

Fantastic experience: Awesome gym to learn and meet new people

Fantastic experience: Nice climbing gym in Squamish, good vibes, a little bit busy at evenings but totally recommended !

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, great variety of routes and grades, lots of social engagement - events, information posters etc, environmentally conscious. An amazing place to train, hang out, have fun.

Negative experience: Very unfriendly staff. Brought my nephew for his first climbing experience. Wont be back

Positive experience: Great route setting, short walls, lots of kids but they weren’t in the way.

Negative experience: It's one of those scammy hard to cancel gyms. We all know what I'm talking about. Disappointed to see this sort of behavior from a climbing gym.

Negative experience: We came here for lead, but gym staffs said lead will take up too much space so it's not allowed today (even there were only about 5 pairs climbing). We are happy to wait and take turns but they only seem to care about their convenience for operating. They seem to care about safety but there were small kids running around on the boulder mat so I guess they only follow their manual or talking points but not really care about the actual safety. This is not a very pleasant experience.

Fantastic experience: Some of the best route setting I’ve seen across BC gyms. The training area — including a “tread-wall” — was very impressive. The staff were very kind and welcoming and the community was very friendly. 10/10: would recommend to any climber visiting Squamish on a rainy day

Fantastic experience: Awesome

Fantastic experience: Actually a pretty fantastic gym given the size of Squamish. Would I like more space? Of course. But they are doing amazing given the footprint.

Fantastic experience: Great spot for climbing and bouldering rain or shine. Coffee is good too.

Negative experience: Decent enough gym, can do lead, top rope, bouldering, or work out at their gym. However, I had a poor customer experience with them. When I injured my thumb hiking I requested to freeze my EFT membership on October 15th with a doctors note and they continued to charge me until November 12th even though I was unable to climb.

Fantastic experience: Great climbing gym! Has both top rope and lead routes, an extensive bouldering area in the mezzanine and even the kiddos get their own mini bouldering wall.

Fantastic experience: Good routes and variety

Negative experience: Unfriendly staff will ruin your climbing experience in this gym .

Fantastic experience: If you live in Squamish this gym might be the right one for you ! Hard but love it it really challenges you .

Negative experience: rude staff and bad customer service.

Negative experience: One of the worse gym I have ever been to. They do not open on time, the staff only favours their friends and the setting is not changed often. The gym takes advantage of being the only climbing gym in Squamish, with that said there is no pride in customer service or effort in rectifying issues that are continually brought up. They never have staff available for lead tests, or TR test, which is a bare minimum IMO. Prior to Ground Up, I use to LOVE climbing and went to gym 4-5 days a week, and due to the poor service and limited change in setting, I lost my climbing spark. I am lucky if I hit the gym once every two weeks. I have cancelled my membership, which is fine, but makes me sad I won’t be able to climb all winter :( . My advice is make customer satisfaction a priority, set new routes more often and have staff always available to do TR and Lead tests.

Fantastic experience: Great customer service

Negative experience: I was very disappointed to hear from a staff member that the climbing gym in Squamish “ is not a lead climbing gym”. Came to the gym twice and tried to get a lead test. The first time I asked for the lead test, the staff told me they don’t have the staff to do the test, but maybe in 20 minutes. In 20 minutes, I’ve been told that the gym is too busy to do a lead test, however, there were still people lead climbing and open routes to do a lead test. And then I saw the staff member lead climbing, although it was “very busy”. The second time I came to the gym and asked for a lead test I got the same reason, that they don’t have enough staff to do the test and that it was too busy. Both times it sounded like the staff was just trying to come up with an excuse why they don’t want to do a lead test. After being in the gym twice, I still didn’t get to do a lead test and most likely will not be coming back to the gym or recommending it to a friend. As the staff was not friendly or accommodating. Although if you like to top rope, the gym is good, with a big variety of different grades.

Positive experience: The facility has a great vibe to it. Would love to see a couple auto belays for people that are going there solo

Fantastic experience: Yes it may be the only large climbing gym in the area but they don't abuse that monopoly. Reasonably priced compared to other gyms; they actually have some of the lowest rates in comparison to the lower main land. A good chunk of routes and boulders are changed every week which is awesome! They have a pretty balanced representation of grades, this is defiantly a climbing town though so not a lot of beginner routes. Don't let me get your hopes down it's still a blast to try the harder routes and watch your progression over time. They have a small training room which has everything you could need. Overall their staff are gems and always make you feel welcome and part of the community. They have lots of programs too that I have yet to sign up for but have heard from others great things. Now with restrictions lifting you can really feel the community vibe here, and meet other like minded climbers.

Negative experience: Emailed for a lesson for my child, got an email back with a time suggestion I said great when I showed up they didn’t have me on the calendar and no apologies for their mix up. Never coming back here.

Fantastic experience: Staff accueillant et espaces de grimpes suffisantes pour les journées de pluies :)

Positive experience: The staff are excellent, great amenities like the kilterboard, training area and a small traverse wall for warming up. Coming from Canmore where the climbing gym is world class and the price is 40$ per month, I do find Ground up to be excessively expensive. 80$ a month for a membership I can live with, but the 68$ initiation fee was a bit out there and I'm not sure why it is needed, as I've never seen a gym charge a similar fee for registering a new member. The route setting was great, although some moves were a bit awkward and felt unnatural/not "flow-y". All in all great gym, maybe just slightly overpriced but hey, we all get desperate during the rainy season so we all pay anyways!

Positive experience: This is a great climbing facility replete with climbs to suit beginners to seasoned climbers. Great variety of routes set up that will have you using every bit of skill in your repertoire to ascend. Ideal facility when the weather prohibits outdoor climbing. Good equipment and knowledgeable staff make for a great climbing experience! Masks are required while climbing and access is quite easy as reservations are no longer required.

Fantastic experience: Nice set up, great staff

Positive experience: Great balance between bouldering and roped climbing. Kilter board and treadwall are a nice addition. It'd be nice if there were a few auto belay stations.

Positive experience: Should have auto-belay and tailor more routes to all body types - not just short climbers.

Fantastic experience: Great routes variety and training facility ! Lots of community events during non-covid times and good coffee for early climbing sessions.

Fantastic experience: Love this place! Good climbing routes for a variety of skill levels. New routes almost weekly so there is always something new to try.

Fantastic experience: Great route selection, tons of variety with creative moves that seem perfectly designed to help you to improve your technique. The staff are always friendly and helpful and the facilities are always clean. The people who go there make a wonderful community and all around just a fun way to stay fit and improve as a climber. Climbing at other gyms and then coming back to Ground Up feels like leaving dungeons and returning to a palace ❤️

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff and great design of the wall. This is not only a super training facility to reach your red point but a great place for my kids. The cafe is fantastic and the small retail has everything you kneed.

Fantastic experience: So much fun, hard climbs but also some for beginners.

Negative experience: Terrible Gym. Worst experience I have ever had with a gym. Very poor management. Asked to speak to the manager and was given a fake email. Was never able to get an appointment and appointments were cancelled on me when I could get in. Overcharged even after I asked to cancel my membership.

Negative experience: Pretty disappointed with the gym especially the fact that squamish had such an awesome climbing community. First of all, they take advantage of the fact that they're the only public climbing gym in squamish so they're over priced for a climbing gym. The initial fee is just unnecessary. You can only cancel on the 12fh which none of the staff seem to know why when I ask. You need to let them know 7 days before the 12th that you're canceling it putting your membership on hold. Also no one can tell me why. Anyways I put in a request to cancel my membership on March 12th. Somehow someone made an error and did it on Feb 12th. So i put myself on the wait list to climb, I got a spot; on the 12th of February drove from Langley! More than an hour and half away. When I got there they said oh your membership has been terminated. You need to pay for the next month to climb today. That doesn't make sense cause in the contract it doesnt say anywhere that you can't climb on your last day. Even if it did, shouldnt they have told over the phone when they checked my booking that they have terminated my membership a month early? Anyways I could have just paid for the extra month but I was not happy about the whole confusion. Overall not happy with the way the terms/ conditions and overall pricing of the place. However, I have to say the staff is super nice and friendly. The setting is pretty awesome. Maybe I just had a bad pick of the tree.

Fantastic experience: Great facility and super friendly staff.

Negative experience: Squamish grading. If you’re a novice climber then don’t even bother.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic. Well run, well organized, routes changed often and great staff!

Negative experience: I had a bad experience. I pre-paid for a year instead of paying monthly thinking it would help the business more and I wouldn't have to worry about getting a payment in each month (prices between pre-paid years and EFT-monthly are negligible). Five months later COVID hits and they freeze all existing memberships. Very fair. Two month later they partially re-open but continue all memberships in full with zero options for anything else. Upon re-opening they cut their hours in half, had a 3 time weekly limit reservation schedule for 2 hours each and kept all other amenities closed. I appreciate them offering what they can for people wanting to climb but these are not the access or services I paid for upfront. The ability to continue freezing my account until a full re-opening, transferring to someone who could make use of it, or cancelling for even a partial refund for what was left all would have be fair in my opinion and kept me happy. But given absolutely nothing could be done I need to vent.... Good people. Decent gym. Poor Policy.

Fantastic experience: Awesome staff - great to have for rainy days and winter

Fantastic experience: Excellent coffee served above room temp. High quality Dyson hand drier. One uniquely narrow door to a secret spot. Extremely well crafted fir benches, railings and trim. Sturdy mezzanine supports including supplemental 2×6s where required. A selection of recently dusted lights. Net/mesh anti-poaching barricade for garage door opening. Lovely, caring staff trained to operate backpack vacuums. Drywall finished by artisinal labourers. Strong, hidden, in-floor anchors. Music.

Fantastic experience: Staff is incredibly knowledgeable and nice, amazing facility, very well maintained

Fantastic experience: I have no words to describe how awesome the staff is. On a rather busy Saturday afternoon I brought my daughter and her friend (7 & 8) there for an afternoon of fun. My daughters friend was trying out climbing for the first time. She was super excited after I showed her how the harness worked, and took off up the wall. At 15 feet she stopped, looked down, and started loosing it. She was not happy with her predicament and was not about to trust the harness to get her down off the wall. Seeing she was clearly distressed, the staff jumped into action, bringing out a rather large step ladder and climbing along side her to help her feel safe. After what seemed like an eternity the Camp Program Director - Marlena - was able to coax her to down climb off the wall while I slowly lowered her under Marlena's direction. After she got down from the wall, she was clearly rattled, and not being herself. Marlena spent one on one time helping her regain regular breathing (she was hyperventilating) and to get her mind off what happened and onto things she was looking forward to. The display of child psychology prowess was impressive! Ultimately, in the true form of Epic Turn Around, an hour later my daughters friend asked me if she could try it again, as she wanted to get back to the spot she was just at. She did. She conquered her fear, and went back up the wall on her own terms. She can't wait to go climbing again. Nicely done Marlena and crew! Thank you!!

Fantastic experience: So many extras over other climbing gyms. Weights, and various ways to work on your grip strength.

Positive experience: No auto-belay to use when you can't get outside and just want to get on some ropes, otherwise a lovely gym with a relaxing atmosphere

Negative experience: Not very kid friendly, which might be a perk for some. But if you are planning to bring your 5 year old with you, don’t waste your money.

Fantastic experience: Awesome place

Fantastic experience: AWESOME STAFF

Positive experience: I found the routes were graded a lot differently than most gyms, at least for the bouldering section. The holds were super well used and chalky, and the walls have no texture so it is quite slick.

Negative experience: This is the most expensive climbing gym ever, for bouldering you 20, if you want to climb route on top rope you pay 5 more, and if you wanna climb leading 5 more! So total 30 bucks. And I’ll tell you there is not so much boulder. For me not worth it.

Positive experience: Not the biggest climbing gym I’ve been to, but I guess it’s located in one of the biggest natural gyms in the world! Bouldering is very limited for anyone climbing in the lower grades. Bit daft you have to pay for a test, I know it’s only $5 but I’ve never come across that in the UK, maybe it’s standard in Canada? All in all decent and a very pleasant environment.

Fantastic experience: Super friendly and helpful staff for not only climbing gym related things but local recommendations.

Fantastic experience: A very rad gym to train for the real stuff!! Solid route setting, great community and lots of options including ropes, bouldering, tread wall and a brand new shiny kilter board. Grabbing a quick snack or coffee is also an option which is rad and showers are available.

Fantastic experience: Very fun spot. Climbs are changed regularly

Fantastic experience: Nice staff, routes and atmosphere - always a pleasure to come.

Negative experience: Went to this facility for the first time today... Upon entering we were told that we needed to do top rope/lead tests in order to climb BUT it would be 2 hours before we could be tested. TWO. HOURS. I asked if we could simply boulder at a reduced rate, no. Turns out there is only one person on staff capable of doing the test despite there being at least 5 people working at the time. No accommodations were made in an effort to make the experience easier. So we left, came back two hours later only to be told that we would have to wait another 30 minutes for our tests before we could start climbing. I understand that scheduling errors happen and I can appreciate the necessity of a test for liability sake. It was a rainy Saturday and there should have been more certified staff on hand. Unfortunately our customer service experience has left us with a bad taste for the facility, which is to bad as I've heard great things about the gym and I really wanted to like Ground Up. All this being said, the routes we got on were very well set, kudos to whoever sets there!

Fantastic experience: I came here once and watch my best buddy Blair rock climb. I felt very safe knowing he was safe. This spot is of the hook!

Fantastic experience: This is a great place not only to climb indoors but they have a nice work out area and treadwall which makes it nice for training. They also have an espresso machine for after morning workout coffee!

Fantastic experience: Great staff, and a fun place for a kids birthday party!

Fantastic experience: Piiiiimp daddy spot.

Fantastic experience: Great gym! Great route setting.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym, super friendly staff. I only did the bouldering wall but it was big enough and plenty challenging. Also has some weight and hang boards as well as a tread wall.

Fantastic experience: Great climbing gym

Positive experience: Excellent installations, but i felt that the bouldering part is not the best if you are starting... level 0 routes are pretty difficult. Couldn’t try the top ropes but they seemed easier

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, fun climbing, and excellent coffee. As it was my first time at this gym, I was given a complete tour of the facility which was a very nice touch.

Fantastic experience: Whoop

Fantastic experience: A great family friendly, and supportive environment that is was enjoyed by my daughter's and the cousins on a recent visit during spring break.

Positive experience: Really great climbing Centre. Definitely not for beginners. Routes are set quite a bit harder and most are 5.11+ or larger. Bouldering is also quite challenging from what I was used to. Staff are very friendly and the facility is gorgeous. Cute little coffee shop inside, party room and lots of gym equipment.

Fantastic experience: Went here with my family during a weekend getaway! So much fun! Tons of different runs and levels! Defiantly a must on your way to or from Whistler!

Fantastic experience: The staff are great here! We took the beginner and intro to technique courses which were very informative and confidence boosting. Awesome facility

Fantastic experience: Really friendly and welcoming staff. Great coffee and great climbing

Fantastic experience: Great variety for their size!! Tasty coffees and friendly atmosphere.

Fantastic experience: Certainly 1 of my favorite indoor climbing facilities around. From 5.13 van livin dirt bags, to shiny biner color coordinated beginers, this place tends to everyone.

Fantastic experience: Our family loves to go to the climbing gym. Their staff and service are amazing. The coffee is really good and climbing routes are changed in a regular basis. I would recommend to join and become a regular in this awesome place.

Fantastic experience: Great vibe. Welcoming to beginners while also having a strong expert culture. Exactly what I want in a climbing gym.

Fantastic experience: Great setup, and even better staff! Everyone is very friendly, approachable and most importantly helpful! The routes are great, and they get rotated as well which is awesome. They have an excellent change room as well as a workout section and additional space!

Positive experience: Cool place. Great deals for traveling climbers. There are nice washroom facilities, showers, coffee, tea, snacks and a really extensive array of climbing activities in a very large space.

Fantastic experience: Great place with kid friendly programs.

Fantastic experience: Hands down, the best climbing gym in BC. Great vibe, great staff and most importantly, world class setting! Nuff said!

Positive experience: Great training facility

Negative experience: Quite displeased TBH. I was thinking about buying a membership so I went with my buddy the day he bought his monthly pass. I paid the drop in price that day and was like yeah this place is alright but I'm not sure if I want to drop those big D's, ya know? Anywho, that evening our buddy tells my buddy that you get one free buddy pass per month, so I'm thinking dope I'll give this place another shot! We show up and buddy is like hey my buddy wants to use my buddy pass and the buddy behind the counter is like ohhh no you can only use that on someone who has never been here. I'm like yeah but I've only been here once and no one told us about the buddy pass so can we just use it now? I'm here and all? Buddy was pretty adamant that we could in fact not. Which I found to be kinda silly cause there was no one around and he could have bent the rules slightly in the name of customer service. Anyways, I left with a gross taste in my mouth. Like a bite of poo or something. My buddy didn't renew his pass and now we just tell this to like everyone and its this on going thing that I feel is sorta screwing Ground Up Climbing cause I've definitely convinced a few folks never to go there. I donno. Sorry I guess. But don't do that stuff it's not very nice.

Positive experience: Was here 7 years ago and loved it, but the gym has kinda gone down hill. The gym was filthy, cluttered, and youth team was running rampant jumping on the equipment people were using in the weight room. For some reason they've decided to get rid of V grades and use a colour tag system which is bizarre. It makes it much harder for newer climbers to track progress, and eschews the international standard in boulder grading. Imagine if routes were graded "5.11-5.13", "5.9-5.11"? Just grade the problem and stop tip toeing around it. They've done a good job with a relatively small space all in all, the rents in BC aren't very conducive to big gyms unfortunately.

Positive experience: My wife and I have been climbing at Ground Up now for 3 months and we are loving it. I am 53 and I was concerned that I would not be able to have fun doing this because I was out of shape. I am finding that it is a lot of fun and the physical demands are producing great results in my regaining core strength and physical strengthening. My only suggestion to the management would be to perhaps have a few more of the intermediate routes as they tend to have people waiting to get on them. The 5.12 or expert routes there is seldom anyone on. Great atmosphere helpful staff we are hooked.