A visit to Mesa Rim climbing gym
A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to check out the new climbing gym in San Diego that we had been hearing about. The main attractions (in my mind) are 52 ft lead walls, misbirth top out bouldering walls, epidemic a bunch of cracks at different sizes, treat and a weight room. Mesa Rim is scheduled for a grand opening on May 22nd. What does this mean to us? - Shorter lead walls generally increase the difficulty of the routes by making the holds smaller and more crimpy. By having longer lead routes the setters are going to have a bigger canvas to increase route difficulty in unique ways that might also take into consideration the pump factor. - Some of the cracks at MR look pretty hard. After training here, we will crush at the creek. - Currently we can't really lift weights and climb on the same day due to the time it takes to get to both places. This means that every day is either a lifting or climbing day without much room for recovery. By climbing and then throwing up some weight we will be able to condense this into one day and allow us to have adequate recovery. Get Huge and get strong!
Some specific highlights: * 30,000 sq ft of climbing surface makes it the largest climbing gym in the US. * Walls are 52' with lots of overhangs, ceiling is 55'. Longest lead route will be 85' * 450 lead bolts * ~ 200 routes and 200 boulder problems * Top out bouldering wall * 2 undercling cracks that connect to a 35' wide hands crack. * A 60' slightly overhanging handcrack * A 45' ft off fingers crack (wide 0.5s) * A 20' ring lockish crack (wide 0.5-0.75) * Offwidth or maybe squeeze chimney horror show * A tight hands crack * 55' crack in a corner that starts at .75 and goes to #3. * weight room complete with aerobic stuff, machines and free weights (I asked specifically about squat cage, deadlifts, and bench press). * Training tools: Campus board, HIT-strip training board, and later to come surprise unique super-training tool. * yoga, and sauna. * He seems to be placing a lot of effort and money on route setting. There is even a database system where people can log in and keep track of the routes they climb and suggest grades and quality ratings. This provides concrete feedback about the setting skills of the various setters. * 8 full time route setters on staff, some "nationally certified". * Problems change every 3 months. * Modern, good lighting, and clean. * Kids birthday-party room with an adjacent "kids" wall to help concentrate birthday party people in one corner of the gym. * Paperless electronic membership management system. * Low-energy consumption lighting. * Air filtering system, with heating and AC. * Discouraged use of loose chalk (mainly by only selling chalk balls), although it won't be forbidden. * Generally designed to keep different types of users separate -- family zone, boulderer zone, etc * The floors are pads, not rocks, which will result in better air quality. * There will be 5 slacklines up to 35' off the deck (some leashless!) * Environmentally conscious - eventually there will be solar power. * Retail shop * Climbing specific crossfit training and personal trainers
Pseudo bad things about the gym: * Bring your own lead rope * Yoga will cost extra if you intend to go more than once a month (though I would prefer this than simply raising the membership rates for all people).
Overall we are pretty stoked on the gym and are looking forward to the opening. Note the images are a few weeks old and Mesa Rim actually is much more completed than these images display.
If you want to check it out: www.mesarim.com
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