Ape Index Rock Climbing

I’m a First timer here. I loved how thorough the instructions were. Mike did an excellent job of teaching the basics. When he was done I felt completely comfortable to climb on my own. His joy of climbing is easy to see.
My only complaint is that it’s dirty and in need of some cleaning. I understand they’re making some changes so I can overlook the dirt for now.
I will be back however, to get my fitness on!

I came here the day after Thanksgiving, having been informed by a coworker of their Black Friday promotion. The cost was pretty awesome with the deal for the day.
This was my first experience on a climbing wall and the staff here were great at equipping and preparing us for our first experience. I loved it, so much that I want to continue climbing. They also have two auto belay devices, so you can climb in two locations without a buddy (I’d love to know if they have a means of connecting solo climbers with a belay partner).
For me, Ape Index is not a viable option as it’s a pretty great distance from my home, otherwise I’d definitely look more into coming here.

This gym is close to my house and I really want to like it, but I just can’t. I’ve been to four other gyms around the valley, and this one is by far the worst. The gym is filthy, and the problems/​routes don’t seem to be changed regularly, if at all. I’m not sure who the setters are, but some of the problems are just very strange. Also, sometimes it takes forever to get someone to come to the front desk to check in. They need a major overhaul.

Love APE Index! We’ve been a few times with our 6 and 8 year old boys and the staff have been super helpful and patient. Lots of walls to climb and my kids loved it. Today we went for a birthday party for my niece and brought our 10 year old almost non-​verbal son with autism. Our birthday party host and the other staff were so patient with him and helped him be comfortable and have fun. He spent the rest of the day saying, «climb” — a totally new word for him. Thanks so much!

A-​OK = 3 stars. I can go with that. There are good safety features here, a good place for first timers to start. The instructors go over the basics with you before they let you climb. Wasn’t impressed by the price or the blasé attitude of the guy helping with equipment. There is also a bouldering area on the second floor «for members only.» There might not be anyone up there for hours, so it seems like a waste.

* Ape Index Rock Climbing Gym offers a safe, controlled environment to practice.
* Super convenient
* Allows you to try the sport with quality rented gear before investing in your own.
* There are routes for all levels of ability.
* The staff is thorough in both the climbing and belaying training. They are also close at hand for questions and tips. They are all longtime, experienced climbers.

I absolutely love this place! My favorite place to rock climb. The space is huge! Very spacious with a variety of options from bouldering, using the auto-​belay, and having a partner as your belayer. They, also, have the portable rock wall, workout weights, and walls with variety of heights. The day pass is only $ 20 which includes the shoes and harness. I would say that is worth the price especially after seeing the features that the facility offers. The staff members are friendly, informative, and prides on safety. I highly recommend this place if you are looking for an indoor rock climbing facility on the west side of town.

This place has a lot of potential unfortunately it hasn’t been tapped into. It appears to be run by mainly volunteers so no one probably cares enough to set up the routes appropriately. They definitely have enough varieties of rocks to make color coded routes, instead they choose to slap tape on the walls (half of which has fallen off) and call it a day. If they would take the time to reroute it would be an awesome climbing gym.

I liked it and my 2 little ones went crazy for it. Staff was cool and helpful. Hardest part was figuring out that knot you have to tie but that is no biggie. Price was perfect for the 2 hours of climbing they did.

I only have experience with the bouldering here, so that’s what i’ll review.
Customer service was fairly good. There is typically a staff member or two roaming around to help people with routes or just to help with having fun.
The quality of the materials and wall can be a little shady. Some walls are unstable. They aren’t going to fall off as far as I can tell, but if you push off of a couple of them they will wiggle back and forth a good 4 inches. Some fire sprinklers are located between rocks, so when moving off of one rock I nearly cut my hand on the sprinkler. Some routes involve utilizing the top of the wall, which isn’t always smooth. So a jumping move can give you a nasty splinter on the fall. Many of the rocks feel like they are going to snap off the wall when you hang on them. Everything is functional, which seems like the motto here.
The quality of the routes are… strange. There is one main setter for all the bouldering routes, so they don’t vary much in terms of style. His style, as of this review, is to utilize the walls for feet and use unorthodox moves. It is fun, but challenging. Some V1’s could be rated as 3’s in other gyms. There are difficult techniques that beginners will not have and rocks that they will not be able to grip in the 1’s and 2’s. On top of that, smearing is something that takes time to get used to, so it is usually used in intermediate and advanced routes. Here it is on every route.
The main reason this gets a ⁴⁄₅ even after constructive criticism is because of the uniqueness. The routes are different than other gyms and I definitely learned a bit. There are some cool structures; bouldering has a tunnel and lots of caves; climbing has «The Globe». There is also a community in this gym.

Very cool place. My kids love it. Lots of climbing options.
A bit of a note to the owner… Your place is filthy. There’s no reason why you couldn’t have clean bathrooms and sweep and throw away garbage that’s laying around. It’s really bad. Clean glass. Sweep up. Throw away garbage. Dust a little. Get rid of cob webs you have. Show a little pride in your business.

This place is really fun! Just like everyone else stated, the customer service is great. They are always there to help out and are able to answer all your questions. It was really hard for me at first because I was using my arms and I talk to one of the employees and she was able to explain how using your legs will help get you higher. There are so many choices when it comes to the walls. I highly recommend this place!

Absolutely wonderful customer service! I loved the environment. The orientation was informing and well presented. Great price for the experience. My wife and I were very happy with the trails. It’s a nice family experience for those that are of age. The place comes with equipment and shoes if your unprepared like me. The temperature is on the warmer side but I came there to escape the gym with my wife. We were planning to sweat.

There are definitely some drawbacks (mainly no AC in the summer), but out of all the rock climbing gyms that I have gone to Ape is the one that I feel most at home. Ape was where I really started getting into rock climbing and they taught me a lot. Just from being there often, I got to know the owner and he is a great guy, very friendly. Ape Index has a good community there too. They have a lot of routes with varying difficulties and they are well spread out. I like climbing on the globe, it’s a fun challenge.

The receptionist that greeted us was very rude and accused us about being under aged. After that she had an attitude when we told her we didn’t fill out the waiver online. Other than that the rest of the staff was very friendly and helped us when we has questions since we have never rock climbed before, which is good because I was really nervous. They have different difficulty level walls for all kinds of climbers. Even though there is no AC I had a lot of fun. I would go again.

No Ac but did have big blower fans. Being on the north side of phoenix there are not to many climbing gyms to choose from with out a long drive.
The price has increased over the last year for a membership.
The main thing is you need to have a person to climb with. they do have three self pulleys but they have so many other walls to climb that you miss out if you go alone.
The staff is awesome and are really help full.
Discount for saying I am a good monkey for first time, they have groupons once in a while, and Wednesday is normally ladies night.

Great place to climb. I love that there is a place to climb in the west valley. They just repainted and it looks really cool. A lot of fun routes to be found here.

The customer service at Apex Index was great! They answered all our questions and helped make the check-​in process easy. Btw, if you say «I’m a good monkey» and it’s your first time there, they will make your entrance ½ price! Once we had all our gear, we were directed to the «lessons» area so we could be taught the appropiate way to wear the belts and use the ropes. Once we were done with that, our instructor showed us around the facility and gave us tips on how to use the different ropes and walls. Overall we had a great experience and it made a great memory. Only reason I docked one star was due to their lack of AC. The building is really hot and they have industrial fans to kind of keep the heat down. But the heat definitely served to burn a few extra calories.

Great friendly staff. Good top roping routes. I am not a member so I could not use the bouldering wall on the second floor. Could use a bit of cleaning like most other climbing gyms.

On our trip to Phoenix, my daughter wanted to go rock climbing. After researching, we headed over to Peoria and went Ape.
Apart from the facilities, which were great, I really noted how helpful the staff was here. With their help and advice (and not to mention great instruction on how to belay) my wife and I were able to encourage our daughter to make it all the way to the top of the climbing face. It was a great, fun experience for all of us.
Yes, we will be returning here on our next trip to Phoenix. It’s a great place for beginners to learn how to climb.