Climb Base5 (North Vancouver)

Fantastic experience: Fist time and I love it. Friendly stuff affordable prices and great place

Fantastic experience: Great gym, great setting is great.

Fantastic experience: This place is clean and comfortable. The receptionist is very kind. She kindly taught me and my children. Thank you very much. We want to go here again

Fantastic experience: 2024-07-03 It was my first time taking a belay course, and it was an eye-opening experience. After doing the Via Ferrata in Whistler, I became interested in learning more about related sports. Thanks to our professional and friendly trainer. 第一次参加保护课程，真是大开眼界。在惠斯勒体验Via Ferrata后，我对相关运动产生了兴趣。 感谢我们专业又友好的教练！ Es war das erste Mal, dass ich einen Sicherungskurs gemacht habe, und es war eine augenöffnende Erfahrung. Nach dem Via Ferrata in Whistler habe ich Interesse daran bekommen, mehr über verwandte Sportarten zu erfahren. Danke an unseren professionellen und freundlichen Trainer!

Positive experience: Please refill the soap and paper towel dispensers in the bathroom more often

Positive experience: Really good setting in a diverse range of styles! I recently dropped in on a rainy Sunday, understanding that of course it was likely to be busy given the circumstances. Not a big deal, I don't mind waiting for a turn. Unfortunately, there were a large number of children running around the bouldering areas unsupervised that day, often ending up directly under the fall zones of either myself or other climbers. The facility appeared to be too short staffed to be able to spare any oversight, and the few adult supervisors in charge of them were either too ignorant of the danger or too indifferent to do anything about it. I hope this was just an anomaly or someone is bound to get hurt. Every rule is written in blood, as they say. Also, as is often the case with most gyms these days, a lot of the holds are too new and quite harsh on the skin. I prefer old and polished, but that's maybe because I'm old (and UNpolished...)

Positive experience: `We enjoyed learning to climb on our own here, and the staff were helpful. However, I can't recommend their kids' camps. It's unfair that they shorten the lesson time on class days; my child ended up standing around with nothing to do for 20 minutes during a 75-minute class.

Fantastic experience: Had fun on a sunday. The entrance is by the sideway of the building.

Fantastic experience: Super friendly staff, very knowledgeable as well. We definitely visit again soon!

Fantastic experience: best gym in Vancouver area in my opinion. great setting and staff.

Fantastic experience: This place is amazing there are climbs for all levels so my whole family went there :)

Fantastic experience: Top notch!!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic gym, great staff and great sets. I’m a climber and route setter from Australia, visiting Vancouver on holidays and I can absolutely say the setting is fantastic. Plenty of climbs to warm up on, and heaps fun and challenging routes. I briefly spoke with one of the setters after my session (I’m sorry I didn’t get your name!) and he definitely knows the trade well. 100% will be back next time I’m in Vancouver, keep it up Climb Base 5!!

Fantastic experience: Great location for sport climbing in the Vancouver Area. Nothing felt greasy, and you can use chalk

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, great route setting, fun times!

Positive experience: Sick gym- not so much for bouldering, but great for ropes. Downside- it’s tight quarters, and very high traffic. The holds get real greasy real quick. As far as ratings go- I’d say for me as an internet climber I’m pretty limited in this gym. The route setters must be top tier and leaning toward the professional side. Which is so so cool and humbling, however limiting to newbs like me.

Fantastic experience: It's a small, but cozy gym. Staff is really friendly and helpful. I lost a keychain and everyone, including other climbers, were helping and trying to find it. They do have a membership cancelation fee, like any other gym, so keep that in mind when considering enrolling. I've visited all gyms in the area and Climb Base 5 is the best and cheapest option. It does get really busy with kids during weekends and specially holidays, so get ready to compete over the auto belays LoL. Jokes aside, their boulder problems are definitely on the harder side when compared to other gyms, in my opinion. Anyways, if you live nearby, drop by to check it out, it's worth the visit!

Negative experience: We had fun learning to climb by ourselves here; the staff were helpful. However, I would not recommend their kids camps. It's unfair that they shorten the lesson on the day of the classes; my kid was left to stand around doing nothing for 20mins in a 75mins class. I've reached out to the company for an explanation, but they have not responded.

Fantastic experience: Welcoming, friendly environment

Positive experience: Not a big gym, but staff are friendly. Also seems to be a daycare at all hours, not sure whats up with that. Youth/kids programs going late into the evening...

Fantastic experience: Great gym, staff are fantastic, members are friendly and the grading is some of the most accurate I have climbed indoors (unlike the current trend of egobagging the grades), would love to see a system board in here (2016 moon to keep the old school trend pls).

Fantastic experience: I am loving this place. Lovely staff, updated path+ nice mentors (Anna) she really made me love rock climbing and every week, I cant wait to go there

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff, amazing members, amazing community

Fantastic experience: Good environment nice for active sporty teenager. Staff was helpful , passionated. Thank to Mahbod Ehsani

Fantastic experience: Top old school gym. Route setting is great! Very creative. Lots of auto-belays for climbing alone. Amazing staff and instructors! Top gym!

Fantastic experience: My son cannot stop talking about how much fun he had at his camp the other day!

Fantastic experience: It wasn't too busy when we went which was great, service was awesome and the facility was great. Took my kids a couple times and it was great.

Positive experience: Great gym, definitely one of the harder (more accurate) gyms in route and problem grading. I almost always enjoy my time here. Only qualm is I wish I knew when to avoid camps/kid groups because it gets a little hectic

Fantastic experience: Love this gym, the setting for routes is excellent and the bouldering is excellent as well. We live in squamish but come here to climb on rainy days as we prefer this gym. Great atmosphere too

Fantastic experience: Great variety of climbs and bouldering for all levels. Fun atmosphere and great staff!! 10/10 recommend.

Positive experience: Really decent gym, with a number of well laid routes and plenty of auto-belays. Friendly staff and a decent amount of space plus bouldering. Just unfortunate that belaying has turned into a money grab. Saw numerous people who clearly just needed a refresher (including myself) told to take a full-on belay course for something that honestly is a 5 minute process to learn. It isn’t rocket science and shouldn’t require a course. Every other gym I have been to gives you a demo for 5 minutes, then asks you to repeat the process in front of them and then lets you belay.

Fantastic experience: Total novice. Went in to check out the gym and Anna was such an amazing help. And really took time reassuring us will totally be back. Thank you Anna

Negative experience: You can add 1-2 ratings on the bouldering problems v0-v2 can be v2-v4 in other gyms. v4+ problems are rated fairly. Not beginner friendly. Top rope route ratings are fair, probably even easier. Edit: kids run under you, and the parents are wearing outdoor shoes on the mat.

Negative experience: Me: the gym is too crowded. It’s a chaos. Manager: it’s still under the maximum limit. Me: you’re running camp, members’ drop-in, and birthday parties at the same time. I just saw three incidents which one of them was near to sever injuries to a kid. Someone fell on a kid. And that’s why I finished training today as I don’t want to regret for the rest of my life for falling on a kid. Manager: if you’re not happy, you can leave! Me: ? Note to the manager: This isn’t personal problem between you and me. This about us as members of this gym. Your job as a manager is resolving the issue that is brought to your attention by a customer and trying to attract customers; not encouraging them to leave. There are some free courses via safe sport which is mandatory for all authorities involving in any sport. Totally recommend.

Negative experience: There were two huge groups of children today, along with their parents. They really needed a cap on group size as there were several unsupervised children running full pelt underneath our rope as we were belaying. Happened on a few occasions. A fall from anyone would have taken them out. Definitely too large a group with insufficient supervision.

Fantastic experience: Favourite gym by far. The community here is lovely, and there’s a lot of access for training if you’re solo as the autobelays cover a lot of routes. Good mix of lead and top rope climbing, and I really like that there’s little “corners” and lots of small and fun/cozy spaces in the gym that you can climb, try hard and not worry about being “on display” if you’re totally failing! I always feel really comfortable climbing and the staff are super kind and welcoming as well. So glad this gym exists in Vancouver :)

Fantastic experience: As a novice climber, the amount of auto belayers at this location make me want to come back. No fuss getting into climbing. Also, convenient that you can wall climb and boulder in the same location.

Fantastic experience: Great instructors, bouldering, routs with top rope, lead and auto belay options, chimney, crack, everything you need! Easy to find new friends

Fantastic experience: Very well put together, helpful, friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Fantastic experience: Just held my 8 year old's birthday party at Base 5. So impressed. The kids had a fantastic time. The staff were amazing. Great venue. Thank you Base 5.

Fantastic experience: Great climbing gym, would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Very Friendly and helpful staff. I am a beginner climber and I found the routes challenging and rewarding. They have rental gear you can use if you dont have your own and want to try it out.

Fantastic experience: One of the few climbing gyms in the lower mainland that keeps grades comparable to outdoor climbing. Has to be with outdoor climbing so closeby. If your looking for a place to train that will make you stronger and make you want to get stronger, THIS is the place! Personally, I love the old school vibe and the focus on what the gym is about - climbing! If your looking for a bougie, top of the line, newest equipment, place to inflate your ego? Maybe not the best place for you. There are plenty of climbing facilities in the lower mainland that are tailored for that though. Base5 North Van, keep doing what your doing. Your beautiful and focusing on EXACTLY what you should be. Climbing.

Fantastic experience: Small but ABSOULTELY AWESOME gym with a really great atmosphere, hard not to love for 90 a month :)

Positive experience: I have been climbing at this gym since the early 90's. The new management is doing pretty well by the the place. I am impressed with the amount of investment they are making to fix the old place up. The route setting is once again becoming worthwhile. I am glad to see the grades getting slightly harder and more consistent with Squamish style grades. I am looking forward to see what changes are yet to come. One improvement I would like to see more of is better consistency across the different route setters. Is there a base 5 route setter training program?

Positive experience: Always changing routes. Great staff. Just a little small of space, you feel a bit on top of each other when it gets busy.

Positive experience: This place is alright. Bouldering problems feel a bit tougher than I'm used to, but that's alright. The space is a bit smaller than others, but charge a comparable price. The staff are relatively friendly. What actually makes me feel like it isn't that great is the space. 1/3 of the gym is under construction. Walls and mats are a bit old (and not very grippy) and at some places just broken. A couple of the volumes are splintered making a bit iffy to utilize, and one of the walls is straight up missing a small piece wall, leaving exposed wood. Wasn't very crowded though with the bookings so it was good in that aspect!

Positive experience: If you are into rock climbing then this place is a good option. A good place with quality equipments.

Fantastic experience: Fun fun fun. Got what you need

Negative experience: Extremely rude young employee. It was my second time this week having the same experience. Unfortunately it is not kid friendly. The way he behaved with my 7 years old daughter was so aggressive and rude in front of others that my daughter asked me just to leave the gym! I won't recommend you to go there with your kids when he is there.

Fantastic experience: Great experience and staff

Positive experience: North Van location is not a large gym, but has quality route setting for both routes and boulders. Covid protocols are well followed. The place always has been clean. Due to covid restrictions, booking a spot, especially an evening slot, has been a challenge for some time. That's fair. But recently they have been filling more and more after work time slots with classes, in some cases, three classes at a time. This leaves precious few spots for anyone else to get in. I recommend using the place as a drop in backup gym until Covid restrictions ease off if you have a job or school. A membership that can rarely be used is a very poor value.

Fantastic experience: Great spot, friendly staff, fun problems on the boulder wall!

Fantastic experience: Love Base5, staff are friendly and whenever you have any questions or concerns they are very prompt in replying back via email or phone. Love both locations

Positive experience: Bouldering route settings here are pretty good.

Fantastic experience: Very welcoming, friendly and encouraging group of boulderers. Fun problems. The old walls and good crew brought back fond memories of the gym I grew up climbing at.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely love Base5! Both their gyms are well managed and they have great climbing for all skill sets and are doing a good job with Covid-19 rules and not crowding the gym. Highly recommend for a rainy day or just a fun afternoon!

Fantastic experience: Climbing is fun. When the weather isn't fine you can keep on climbing. Partially covid conscious but overall climbs were fun. Will go back

Fantastic experience: They were sold out of climbing spots but yet still not that busy was able to climb as much as I wanted or need to while maintaining social distancing Nice and clean place with mandatory mask at all time Safe friendly and fun

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, good climbs

Positive experience: Staffs are a little bit restricted! It took 40mins to let us to go in for the first time.

Fantastic experience: Great littler gym in North Van. Lots of auto belays, top roping, lead climbs, and bouldering with a well thought out layout.

Fantastic experience: Always a great time!

Fantastic experience: Not a huge climbing gym but it's good. Staff is friendly, there are several auto-belay roads, usual roads, lead, bouldering in the gym.

Fantastic experience: Nicole was our instructor, there was a little confusion with the booking and another joined our private group, but everyone was very accomodating and she went out of her way, allowing us to go overtime, to ensure we were all up to speed with the beginners belay course. Had an awesome time. Came away wanting and feeling ready for more climbing.

Positive experience: Had a great time. Good variety of climbs.

Fantastic experience: Had a great time taking the belay course, and I'm feeling more confident than I expected I could considering my fear of heights! All of the staff were so knowledgeable and friendly. The base+ was such a great deal and we cannot wait to get more into climbing.

Fantastic experience: We had such an incredible family outing at Climb Base5 in North Vancouver this past weekend! Our initial outdoor plans were spoiled by rainy weather, so we took advantage of their huge indoor climbing gym for the first time. I was initially nervous because I tend to be scared of heights, but our girls' energy and enthusiasm inspired me to climb higher than I would have ever imagined. The staff got us set up with harnesses, climbing shoes and a tour within minutes of arriving, and we spent over an hour racing each other up walls of varying difficulty, always reassured about our safety with the sturdy retractable harness lines. Such incredible family bonding time + exercise all wrapped into one. And I felt great pride watching our girls climb way higher than me with no fear at all. We'll definitely be back - maybe next time for a date night!

Positive experience: Your experience depends completely on which time of the day you choose to visit and how much you enjoy being surrounded by children

Positive experience: Great gym with great staff. If you can afford it, I would recommend a membership otherwise it can get expensive with day pass only

Fantastic experience: Best climbing place I've been, but I've not been to that many

Positive experience: Not a lot of climbing for beginners but a good, quiet place if you're a more seasoned climber.

Fantastic experience: Friendly, informative staff. Great obstacles for all levels.

Fantastic experience: I’ve been climbing at their location area for a while and decided to try this location since it is closer to home. The staff was super friendly and had a great sense of humour when guiding me and my boyfriend around the place so that we are familiar with where things are. The facility itself is very nice and has many bouldering routes + lead climbs. They are always rezoning routes so that their would be new challenges when I go again in a few weeks

Fantastic experience: I am new to climbing and the staff were super helpful. They took the time to show me all the different routes and even offered to belay for free as they had time. Gym was clean and parking was convenient.

Positive experience: Great place to climb, friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Awesome

Fantastic experience: Great route setting. They take feedback well.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful and knowledgeable staff. Olympic climbing runs with Olympic auto Belays and standard auto Belays, and a great bouldering selection.

Fantastic experience: A totally fun 2 locations for young and not quite ancient.... Great staff who are always available..

Positive experience: It’s super busy and crowded, even at 9pm but you get a good climb

Positive experience: I came here with a group of friends. There was a great selection of top-rope routes. This place wasn't huge but it wasn't super busy at the time so that was fine. They also have a bunch of bouldering routes. Once the renovations are done I'm sure it will be a 5-star-rating climbing gym! I plan to go back after the renos to check it out.

Positive experience: Very dirty and expensive, I wouldn’t come back as the other places clean their locations and you don’t feel like you are covered with dust. Honestly quite gross.. the employees are nice though.

Positive experience: Great staf that is able to motivate and teach kids to excellent beyond their believed capability and instill confidence.

Positive experience: The one in coquitlam is much better

Fantastic experience: Great climbing gym

Fantastic experience: Kia is my favorite coach. Very patient, knowledgeable, well-spoken and a great leader. Highly recommend him!

Positive experience: The place is ok. Good bouldering routes and friendly staff, but the area is very dirty and the crashpads are old and falling appart, which is dangerous for any climber. They should invest a little in cleaning the place more effectively, and to replace the floor.

Fantastic experience: Was my first time here with a group of kids. Staff was great, friendly, knowledgeable. They handled a rambunctious group safely and all the kids loved it. Manager was also chatty and circulating, interacting with us.

Positive experience: Friendly folks and a good vibe. A lot different than the local bouldering gyms but more of a family feel. It was nice to climb with a rope and practice top-rope skills. They even gave me a mug to take home!

Positive experience: Very friendly and helpful staff

Positive experience: School came here and kids had fun. Then a birthday party. Good indoor activity when raining

Fantastic experience: Bill is crazy nice. Awesome gym!

Positive experience: Okay bouldering place. The routes are fairly innovative but one qualm I have is the crash pads. On areas close to the climbing wall, there aren't any pads at some areas and there are "potholes" in the pads where some people have the possibility of tripping or even twisting their ankle. EDIT: Quick reply on behalf of the owner addressing my issue. Thanks for the notification!

Fantastic experience: Love this place! Friendly people as well as great routes and boulders. Staff are knowledgeable and welcoming, and they change up the problems often. It's a much better value than The Hive. I highly recommend The Edge!

Negative experience: Extremely rude young blonde employee. The staff is untrained and seem like they’re only there for the money. Ruined the experience will never go back. Felt extremely uncomfortable with the staff plus they were whispering about clients and climbers very obviously. Was not impressed by the immaturity.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff and great climbing

Positive experience: Friendly staff and reasonable prices. Nice to have a variety of bouldering and roping, but at the expense of being only OK in terms of setting and facility quality.

Positive experience: Friendly staff and a decent climbing gym. We have stuck with off-peak hours to avoid crowds.

Fantastic experience: Vancouver's first and still best indoor climbing! Staff are friendly and helpful, great facility for kids, beginners, and seasoned climbers. Several famous pro climbers got their start at The Edge :)