VW or Stone Garden...Thoughts and Suggestions?

[tempo]

I tried to look at an archived post...but it appears to be forbidden. Does anyone have any input on the merits of Vertical World vs Stone Garden in the Seattle/Magnolia/Ballard area? As the season gets cold, I've resolved to not let myself go through 6 months of no climbing this year...Thoughts?

[eternalX]

Having been to both the Seattle VW and Stone Gardens, I personally like Stone more. The bouldering area is much bigger and interesting, they use ATCs at Stone, and it just feels more homey. On top of that, Stone is cheaper.

 

However, it seems that VW would offer more long roped routes.

 

My only beef with SG is that a few weeks after they set the routes, the tape tends to come off of the lower rocks and sometimes routes become undoable. They should either find a stickier tape or have one of the 2-3 guys that are always at the front desk out in the gym remarking routes as necessary. That's a pretty minor complaint though.

[tempo]

I have never been a bouldering person (that may be changing soon if that's what I have to do to work off-season) and my biggest enjoyment is gaining altitude...if you were going to judge soley off of the roped routes (or potential leadable rope routes) what would you think?

[Distel32]

VW does have better ropes, but that is it.

 

stonedgardens4lyfe

[tempo]

Any other opinions are welcome of course

[cracked]

Stone Gardens is clique-ish. Mainly boulderers, finding people to climb ropes with was impossible for me. I never really fit in, and quit going after a while. It just wasn't fun. Not my cup of tea, you might well respond differently.

 

Never climbed at VW.

[Matt]

Stone Gardens is filled with scene-sters. I thought SG was mostly young pad people who never climbed on real rock vs. at VW there are more 30something Mountaineers (each bad, each different). The other week there were 6 Subaru Outbacks lined up in a row at VW.

 

SG seems dustier than VW.

 

 

 

 

All in all VW It will be nice if they open a new VW in Georgetown.

[thelawgoddess]

if you want to climb routes, go to vertical world. sure, sg has some routes, but not nearly as many as vw. rumr climbs at vw ... what more do you need to know? really, though, you can get a great workout at vw. and they do have bouldering as well.

[ken4ord]

Bouldering....Stoney VW

 

TR-ing..........Stoney VW

 

Leading........Stoney VW

 

Crowds.........Stoney VW

 

Cost.............Stoney VW

[tempo]

How bad of a crowd are we talking about? If I show up on a M/W/F evening or early afternoon and want to do some climbs am I going to be spending most of my time waiting in line to do one route?

 

I mean...that's what I had to do at camp when I was in 5th grade...stand around for 1 1/2 hours for every climb I got to do. That's not a workout, that's a waste of time.

[ken4ord]

No not that bad, you just might not be able to get on the route you want right at that moment. No worries there.

 

That reminds me, I forgot

Hours.......Stoney VW

[Pandora]

Stone Gardens is it for me...it just feels more relaxed and friendly, and saving money is always a plus. Also, if you are deathly afraid of Gri-gri's, as I am, you will stay out of VW!

[Gary_Yngve]

With the UW wall closed over the holidays, I checked out SG and VW in the past few days. I think I'm inherently biased in that I like to gain vert and that I'm not a numbers-chaser. So I liked top-roping at VW better than bouldering at SG, though both were still fun. The UW wall is my fave though in terms of the social scene.

[tempo]

If only there was ANY way that non-UW students could use that climbing wall I'd be on it in a heartbeat. But last I heard it's strictly UW students and faculty...my mom is faculty at UW but that counts for ZERO last I heard. Anyone who can correct me is welcome to...as I'd love to use that wall. It's 5 minutes from my house as opposed to the commute to VW or SG.

[Gary_Yngve]

Yep, you need to be directly affiliated with UW. Or be a spouse or a RSSDP of someone directly affiliated with UW.

Unfortunately, it's not the wall manager's choice -- it's the idiots above to thank for that strict policy.

[COL._Von_Spanker]

Stone gardens does tend to have the clique factor that someone mentioned earlier, especially among boulderers, but not in that lindsey lohan/mean girls sort of way. But it can be annoying when there are 7 dudes sitting there working their latest V8, and you want to climb something. I do like there atmosphere there. But I am biased 'cause I work with the kids there too.

[RuMR]

IMO...which isn't worth much, all of the gyms have some positives and some negatives and i seem to get more out of the "gym" experience more based on who i am climbing with...

 

get yourself a motivated crew and either place is fine!

[eternalX]

My favorite is when SG is packed and you have a bunch of tools that want to traverse the whole gym.

[catbirdseat]

You're not kidding! "One of these days, Alice, one of these days... POW!... right in the kisser"!

[Rad]

Pros and cons either way, as many have said.

 

Go try them out yourself and see what you think before sinking $ into membership. Punch cards at VW could help you do that, not sure if SG has same. Single vists are spendy at VW. Student discounts used to work at SG.

 

I like the non-hold textures at VW better than SG. The old SG walls were like slick wooden slats with holds bolted onto them. It's better now but still not up to VW IMO.

 

Have fun.

[tempo]

I ended up with a gift certificate for X-Mas for VW, so I now have a membership there (ok...so the certificate just covered the membership fee) and so far, I'm pretty happy about it.