MetroRock

Me and my boyfriend took a day to go rock climbing at Metro Rock. Its a great place for beginners but also experienced climbers. All the instructors were great and super helpful!
Defiantly a fun date =]

Decided to try something different with my 8 year old daughter, it was our first time climbing. To me customer service is very important, when I walked in the young gentleman was very helpful but at the time that we were actually climbing two employees a female and male passed by us stopped to tell us we were doing something wrong (I appreciated that) but didn’t bother to help or explain what we were doing wrong and how to do it right. This was very disappointing to me, I was confused and was scared to do anything else. We just cut our day short and decided to head to skyzone.

Like record shopping (remember Jack Black in High Fidelity?) this place is not very user friendly for the noobie. We attended, and then hosted our own excellent birthday party for kids here. Definitely worth the money and we hope to do it again. Going without a birthday party is a different experience, with the front desk invoking a Jack Black approach to customer service. But once past the gate keeper, the rest is exceptional.

Despite their stated policy not to do so, MetroRock sold my information (Name, Address, etc) to an outside organization to market to me. If you value your privacy, or it is important to you that organizations stand by their word then do not climb here.

Love this place. Been going here for over 10 years. Routes are updated regularly. It’s roomy and you’re not climbing right on top of people. In a convenient location. Dogs in the lobby to greet you. Regular brew nights hosted by local breweries. Such a great place that I even travel an hour to Everett to climb here. There’s something for everyone here, new or experienced.

Incredible routes that change up regularly enough to not get bored but long enough to project, best staff of any gym I have ever been to around the world in terms of both friendliness and knowledge, great bouldering, and a high ropes course + nightly yoga classes for members. Best gym ever. Cannot recommend enough.

If I could recommend a single climbing gym in the metro Boston area, Metrorock would be my vote overall. The bouldering problems and top rope/​lead routes are reset regularly and they have a variety of setters that make climbing as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one (all in the name of fun). The community is a big reason I stay — everyone is friendly and encouraging, whether you’re climbing a V0 or a V9. There are lots of classes such as Granite Girls (a women’s only 4 – 8 week climbing technique class) and learning to lead. Metrorock has so much to offer, it’s worth a visit.

Wonderful place for beginners and first-​timers with 0 experience. Although this is my 2^nd time rock climbing, I’m still not belay certified, but it’s okay, no problem. They have these things called auto-​belays that do the work for you so there’s no need for a 2^nd individual to help you out. Very convenient. Would be a wonderful place to bring a kid as well, not like a 5 year old but maybe a 10 year old.
This area has 4 auto-​belays for beginners, all the way in the back, and it’s as simple as it gets. Then there’s a few in the middle as well that are a lot more challenging and a lot more higher LOL.
Bouldering is also a nice option for those who are too cheap to rent out a harness LOL. There’s plenty of crash pads and so many different areas to climb. These are a ton more challenging imo. I could only do the super basic ones and I didn’t have enough strength to do more.
Glad to have a rock climbing center nearby Malden! Although it’s located in a weird sketchy area, the facility is very nice and spacious! It’s about a 10 minute walk from Wellington Station however. The address is also a little wonky and my Über driver had a little trouble finding the place LOL. It’s right next to Skyzone doe.
For an auto-​belay harness, shoes, and admission, it costed me $ 26 as a student, so it was a pretty good price.

Without a doubt the best top rope routes in the Boston area. So many talented setters there are making fun routes all the time. I love the social environment there too. It seems like anyone could walk in on a week night and find someone interesting and fun to climb with. I have never failed at that.
Another thing I want to recommend that I don’t think enough people know about. If they have a boulder competitions such as the Darkhorse series (I think this is true for most competitions everywhere) they set problems to challenge any skill level, even beginners. So if you’re new to climbing and dig a competitive environment go sign up for the next competition. Then you can hang out socialize, and watch the finals in the evening with beer and pizza. It’s so much fun!

The ONLY negative thing about Metrorock is its location! If I could pick it up and drop it closer to Cambridge or the Red Line, I would do so in a heart beat.
Metrorock has what other gyms don’t. Its focus is on climbing (as it should be!), and it lacks a country club feel (yay!). It is far superior in terms of top rope route quality, as they challenge both the body and the brain, and allow you to build up your strength-​whereas other gyms just use impossible holds and make the whole experience frustrating. Plus, the staff is super great, and you can walk in the door and be geared up, belay certified, and climbing in under 10 minutes.
I can spend 4+ hours here, and the only things that force me to leave are my aching fingers and my zipcar reservation. I always leave with a route that I want to work on next time.
Try Metrorock! And then feel sad that you’ve been going elsewhere.

I’m so conflicted about climbing in Boston. I climbed at Metro for the past few years, when I lived closer and had a car. Now, getting there is an hour ordeal on the T. The routes are much more interesting and have lots of fun features (love that chimney), and the walls are much better for smearing than at BKB. The staff and other climbers are almost always really friendly. I want to be able to climb regularly, and I just don’t think I would with a two hour commute (+ $ 5 T fare). I wish BKB had followed Metro’s lead and designed the gym to prioritize good, interesting climbing.

Ererrgh I’m conflicted on writing this as when it comes to routes, I really like this gym, their walls, etc. much more than the closer, newer, BKB but I’ve now had several unnecessarily bad experiences with staff just reflecting a really low priority on professionalism and seeing the customer has a good experience.
Many of the staff are totally lovely as a whole in a perfectly friendly nice sort of way one should hope as a base minimum, though I haven’t had any sort of «exceptional» experience with them.
Though many friends have related that they feel once they purchase something they feel like they become disposable, like once they have your money, they don’t care about your experience.
I can only relate my own experiences of recent here:
I hadn’t been to MR for a year or so, but was confident I still had several passes left. I let the desk clerk know I wanted to use one of them. He responded that there was no record of me having any passes, or really having ever been there at all (aside from the week before when a friend guest passed me in).
(For the record I had a round or two of annual memberships, and have bought several rounds of drop in passes)
I relate that is pretty weird, I’m confident I had several passes. I have a gear rental card that had 4 punches left, so that probably correlated to the number of drop-​ins I had.
«We don’t accurately punch gear rental cards,» he countered.
«Okaaaaaay, so I mean I have several unused passes and it isn’t my responsibility to keep track of what I have and haven’t used.»
«Well we don’t have a record of that and we can’t just let you in for free.»
«Uhm, it isn’t _​for free_​if I paid for the passes, and it is your responsibility to keep track of what I did or didn’t use, or at least alert me that some how I’m responsble for proving to you how many times I have or haven’t been here.»
Again he countered that he can’t just give me anything for free, that they have no record, etc. He was so generous as to let me know that he’d let me in this ONE time for free. Finally he just had me give him his email and told me management would reach out to me.
I still haven’t heard from the management about the passes I paid for that they seem to have lost track of.
I also went a couple of times with my small dog, a well trained quiet creature that sticks around me by about 10 feet or so and waits at the bottom of the climb. I would walk right in with her and the staff generally adored her and didn’t say anything.
The third time I went with her, I was putting my shoes on while she sniffed around, and some rando from 20 feet away is like «Is that your dog?»
I nod and let him know it is. He then asks me incredulously «And you just let her walk around?»
I respond that she generally stays pretty close to me and no one ever told me there was anything wrong with that.
He then goes on about how she could piss & shit wherever she pleased, run under climbers, etc. (the place was practically empty as it was late Thursday morning).
I let him know she is well trained, has just done both those things before I brought her inside, stays close to me, and again the staff hasn’t said anything.
Keep in mind this is just some random guy talking at me so far as I know.
After a few more hostile, unclear questions he lets it be known that there is a policy that dogs can stay in the front area, or need to be kept on a leash. And it is like «O okay, that is totally fine let me put her leash on,» which I do. Why that wasn’t made clear from the get go is beyond me.
Also every time I had brought my dog in was midday during the week when the place is dead.
…apparently this was the owner. Why the staff never said anything to me earlier I don’t understand.
I was seriously considering re-​purchasing an annual membership but after these experiences within a week of each other I’m reticent to take climbing back up as intensively as I originally considered.
–OTHER ISSUES:
While their guest policy has improved quite a bit. it is still lacking.
It used to be more of a silly taunt than a real perk; you could only bring a guest the third Monday evening of every month, and only if they’d never been to Metrorock before. Now you can bring 2 guests a month, though you can only be a guest once a month, which is still a little weak.
Climbing is a partner activity and if I have friends with memberships who want to use their guest passes on me, that should be their discretion.
–LET US TAKE A VACATION OR TWO A YEAR ALREADY! I totally understand not wanting to find yourself pausing memberships for a 10 day honeymoon here and a long Christmas to New Years weekcation there, but when I’m out of town for study/​work or some such for 1 – 2 months give me a break! Certainly letting people pause their membership once per cycle seems reasonable,
I put up with all your heavy construction and load sounds and disabled parts of the gym while you were expanding without any discount after all.

I love you guys! A wonderful place to climb and the environment is unpretentious. Friendly people all around and awesome music! Plus the events (pub night, holla!) are great! AND free yoga for members! I could go on and on but just go there. You get the the idea.

I was eager to come here because it is one of the original climbing gyms of Boston. However, after repeatedly wasting 45+min waiting for their shuttle to pick me up and Wellington station, I’ve given up. I waste too much time trying to get here. The metro itself is not an inconvenience but the shuttle arrangement is terrible. You have to call them when you get to the station. They don’t always know where their shuttles are. The front desk does NOT communicate with the drivers of the van so if multiple people call, it’s a toss-​up if the driver knows to be on the lookout for more. Terrible process. Miserable in the winter. UPDATE! Waiting an hour at Wellington, skipped 3 times.

Just finished a 2 week membership stint at MetroRock, thanks to Groupon, and I’m already missing it. I’m very new to rock climbing (i.e. before this, I’d only gone twice before for a class and belay test at Brooklyn Boulders in Somerville), but found the staff and atmosphere very relaxed and non-​intimidating. It definitely helped me try some of the more challenging climbs that I might have been too shy to try at BB, where people sometimes watched us climb as they waited in line to climb the course after us. Peak times are M-​Th after work, but even on those days we didn’t need to really wait in line for a particular course… just choose do another and come back later. Friday night and the weekends were pretty empty, which was great for us beginners. We went as often as we could during the 2-​week membership period — my arms were definitely feeling it!
They rotate the courses fairly often, so although it’s a smallish gym you can always find a new climb to try. And they run a FREE SHUTTLE between Wellington station and MetroRock, which was AMAZING since I don’t have a car and it’s a bit of a pain to walk to from the T. The only downside seemed to be that since it’s an older gym compared to BB, the gear (harness and shoes) were older and, well, kinda smelly… but I’m sure most members have their own gear anyway. And besides, I guess what can you expect from rental gym shoes? Every now and then there would be a hand-​hold on a climb that was broken, probably just another show of age, but nothing too bad.
If I could afford a year long membership to MetroRock, I’d totally do it — and invest in my own gear, of course.

For me there are only a few things that make a gym good: quantity of routes, diversity of routes, and the people it attracts.
MetroRock really does a great job on all three. The route setters aren’t just technical crimp climbers or jug setters with huge dyno moves. These guys dream up some of the weirdest and coolest sh! t ever. Sometimes I look at routes and think they can’t be done and after a while working on them I can only see beta. This gym is great for that. Lots of opportunity to grow your mindset on how to climb.
The quantity is good as well — as others have mentioned this place can get busy but more often than not you can find plenty of climbers to share beta and that’s a huge part of climbing. Learning how you climb and taking bits from equal or stronger climbers is a great way to push yourself and become a better climber and everyone here is pretty cool. It’s rare to find a climber that won’t cheer you on even if you are just working V1,2,3.
Although I don’t often find myself utilizing the whole gym — I have tried out some of their top rope and lead and even on busy nights I can usually find a few open lines to work and they seem to be pretty unique/​diverse as well.
As a side note — they run a shuttle from the Wellington T stop for free so even if you live in the city and don’t have a car there is an easy way to get out and back.

I have only been here a handful of times, but I absolutely love it! Such a different place than any other gym in the area full of non-​stop challenging walls. I only boulder when I go, but I have a blast every time. Even for the beginners who have never climbed before can get a kick out of this place. There are routes for very beginners all the way up to experts. Not to mention, this place is very kid friendly and kids LOVE to climb these walls. I went with my girlfriends niece last week who is only 10 and you wouldn’t believe how fast kids can pick up climbing!
All in all, this place is worth every penny you spend. If you look on Groupon, they most likely will have a deal up there which can save you a significant amount of cash. I believe $ 119 will get you 10 visits to this place, which is usually a $ 200 value! So if you go once, its easy to jump right in and save a few bucks!
I live about 45 minutes away and it is absolutely worth the drive

I’ve been climbing at Metrorock for about 3.5 years now. There are really only 2 things I dislike about Metrorock:
1. It’s a bit far from downtown, in a place that’s hard to bike to.
2. It’s super-​crowded.
But the quality, variety, price and friendliness of the place will keep me coming back.

We did the obstacle course here recently for a friends birthday and had an amazing time! It was exciting, challenging, and a great bonding experience.
We did the the course twice to get the most out of it, which I definitely recommend.
It was a bit pricey per person, but I saw people using groupons so I would recommend getting some kind of discount if you can.

Note: This review is from a novice rock climber!
MetroRock hosted a fundraising event for HERA, an organization that supports Ovarian Cancer research and advocacy. One of my friends is a climber and somehow convinced me to give it a try.
The intro class covered the basics: What is this stuff I’m wearing, how do I use it, what kind of knots again, and what are those words I’m supposed to say? The instructor was GREAT. He made sure each and every person in our group was correctly outfitted and able to complete each and every safety check before we were anywhere near climbing. I believe his name was Zach– an excellent instructor.
Sunday was packed, but everyone was very personable. The routes are well marked, though my friend noted that some of them were «marked low» (i.e. a 5.9 was really more a 5.10a). Rates to rent equipment seemed reasonable. Small little yoga studio in the back. Locker rooms that, to be honest, could be nicer, but did their job. Oh! Use the directions on their website to get there, or you’ll end up horribly lost!
Definitely a place to check out if you’re into climbing or want to be. Can’t wait to get back and learn some more!