Katharine S.
Yelp
BaseCamp has such a great vibe. Such hip clientele! Such beautiful interior design! If you like bouldering, it is an excellent gym.
The entrance is a little hard to find: through the windowless double doors on West Commercial Row. Okay, okay, the words "BaseCamp" are written in lighted letters above the doors. There is also access from the Whitney Peak's elevators, but that's only for hotel customers who are stopping in. The location of the front desk is not obvious if you enter from the street and then take the escalator the second floor. Walk around the center bouldering wall, and check in at the front desk in the back corner.
Customer service could have been a little better, especially since I identified myself as a first-time visitor and indicated my interest in learning about what they had to offer. "Give me the spiel!" I had to say. But I know, the climber mentality is stereotypically chill and not vigorously entrepreneurial. So I'm grading on a curve here. But upon prompting, the staff member did give me all the details about the facilities, including the weight and cardio room, the steam room and sauna, why the outdoor auto-belays were currently not accessible, and the pricing plans for monthly and yearly membership. And she was super friendly and made me feel welcome as a newcomer.
The bouldering options were so plentiful! Even though I have been climbing for over a year, I am still pretty weak and can only climb V0 and V1 routes. No shame in that, and there are plenty doable but challenging routes for beginners, which I was glad to see. My boyfriend usually sticks to V3 and V4s, and there were tons of routes for him. I am such a fan of how tall one of the circular bouldering walls is. That there are two circular walls means that there is lots of space for people to climb simultaneously yet safely. A big difference between Rocksport and BaseCamp is the plentiful seating space on the mats, the area around the mats, and the built-in benches for watching others climb. It's a little intimidating for less advanced climbers. (No one wants to watch me solve a V0 problem besides maybe my boyfriend!) But everyone seemed friendly in the "we're all sharing the space and doing our thing" kind of way. Another huge difference between BaseCamp and Rocksport? The quality of the mats. Rocksports have a number of tears in them, and BaseCamp's are pristine! Oh: BaseCamp's women's bathroom was much cleaner than I have ever seen Rocksport's.
BaseCamp is dog-friendly, and there are lots of places to connect one's dog leash. No dogs on the mats. There were four dogs during the hour that I visited today, and all of them were adorable and well-behaved. I think it is also child-friendly, although I only saw one creature under 18ish present. That was refreshing: Rocksport can sometimes be overrun with children, albeit mostly well-behaved ones. BaseCamp has a small room with three walls dedicated to children's climbing. Definitely not big enough for more than four kiddos who don't know what they are doing to be climbing simultaneously, though. Kiddos who do know what they are doing would likely be welcome on the main walls.
One of the reasons why it has taken me so long to stop in, other than me having spent 420 (nyuk nyuk nyuk) for a year-long Rocksport pass, is that I thought parking would be a pain. But it's not! Sometimes meter parking on East Commercial Row is plentiful. They also validate parking in their dedicated lot, which one enters by turning onto East Plaza Street. So glad I know this information now for the next time I try the new instantiation of Heritage on the first floor.
Long story short: I'm kinda sorry I renewed my yearly pass at Rocksport. Had I known BaseCamp was so awesome, I might have argued for us to switch loyalty. The call of the fancy workout room and the steam room/sauna is strong.