You are hereCity Climber's Club - Temporarily closed
City Climber's Club - Temporarily closed
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As of the 26th of June 2009 the City Climber's Club is closed for renovation. Check their website for updates.
They say: The City Climbers Club is a non-profit member organization formed 15 years ago to negotiate climbing access issues in Central Park. That relationship lead eventually to the creation of the climbing wall at the West 59th Street Rec Center. Membership dues and day-pass fees fund the club and the gym.
The City Climber's Club is a pretty friendly gym. It's in a rather seedy City Gym (bring a sturdy lock!) but the staff at CCC are great. It's a small space and the routes aren't the highest, but as far as I know it has the cheapest membership cost in NYC.
The City Gym is due to be renovated, and for the last year there's been rumors of temporary closure, but this has yet to happen. Check their website before going if you're unsure.
The CCC is predominantly a place for top-roping, but there's a small bouldering cave, and several bouldering routes that circuit the room sharing the walls with the top rope routes.
They do introductory belay courses for climbing beginners for a fee, or a basic belay test for people who have never climbed there before.
Members are expected to bring their own harness, biners & shoes, but a day pass includes gear rental.
The CCC has their own grading system:
White (easy): 5.1 to 5.3
Blue (moderate): 5.4 to 5.6
Green (difficult): 5.7 to 5.9
Red (severe): 5.10 to 5.11-
Black (extreme): 5.11 and above If you feel a route is excessively sandbagged (undergraded), point it out to the supervisor.
My first experience rock climbing was a cold approach at CCC in january 2007. I made a quick phone call and with sweaty hands and all i was determined to go climbing or at least try it.(new years resolution). Not only do i blame my addiction for climbing to these people i also have made some good friends. Since I've been climbing I have tried things i would not have otherwise. I have pushed my limits physically and mentally all while learning a tremendous about myself .The memories of my climbing adventures are still fresh in my mind and i won't soon forget. The CCC WAS the reason for all this good stuff. The environment is amazing. Very friendly and talkative. good climbing. Go there with an open mind leave the stress at home.Thats my review I hope you guys like it as much as i do. Kelvin(percenter@gmail.com)
Years ago, CCC was the premier hardcore gym in the city. That was where the city's serious Gunks climbers trained. I'm not sure where those guys went in the interim, but now CCC is completely overrun with first-timers and NYU freshmen who somehow decided that climbing was what all the cool kids are doing. CCC is now so mobbed with children hangdogging and flailing it is essentially impossible to do any serious climbing there. On a typical weeknight there will be upwards of 40 people packed into their tiny space (a former racquetball court), every rope will be occupied, and every square inch of wall covered with children scratching helplessly for holds and falling on top of each other.
The scariest thing is that these newbies have absolutely no idea how to belay or climb safely, and the CCC staff just doesn't care. I think the only reason someone hasn't seriously injured themselves yet is that the walls are too short to generate a serious fall, but that doesn't make it right. I've seen people climbing with biners unlocked, GriGris threaded incorrectly, and female belayers who take both hands off the rope to pull their panties out of their butt cracks while their partner hangs on the rope at the top of a wall. I'm not kidding about that. Take a look around the gym on any given night, and I doubt you'll see anyone belaying safely, despite the nearby giant Petzl poster that clearly indicates how to do it. The staff is too preoccupied with selecting bizarre european techno on the stereo to bother noticing any of the insanity around them.
It hurts me to say this, but I am glad City Parks will be shutting the 59th St. rec center soon. CCC needs to return to what it was, a training facility for climbers, and hopefully a forced relocation will be one way to achieve that.
Any idea on when "soon" is? It sounds like you've been going there awhile, anyword on relocation plans?
peace,
I like the idea of the CCC grading system. People get too hung up on numbers, altho I would not call 5.7-5.9 'difficult' in most gyms, except for beginners. At the gunks it would be.
An alternative to CCC that many are already using is TRC. Its nowhere as conveniently located for Manhattanites but still right above NYC in New Rochelle. High walls, excellent routes 5.6-5.13, including loong leads on the big arch. Of course there are beginners but belayers are carefully checked out and oversight is good. The kids have their own separate climbing area. And its large enough for all types to spread out.
There was rumor of CCC going to ?Brooklyn, but that was a while ago. Its gotten in that situation like a furniture store with a 'Going Out of Business' sign in the window so long that its fading...its too bad because it really does (did?)fill that niche of a convenient after-work friendly place.
The latest update is that the CCC gym will be open through April 1st. The issue is that the renovation work for the rec center has been put out to bid, and the city is still evaluating the bidding results. If no bids are selected and approved, the city will have to restart the bidding process, which could keep the gym and rec center open for a while longer until all the work bids are finally filled.
I will check out TRC when I have a chance. I'm also going to check out Manhattan Plaza for an option within the five boroughs. In speaking with the CCC board members, I've heard the rumors about them finding a new temporary space in Flatbush or possibly LIC Queens, but if the way they oversee safety and run the daily operations of the gym is any indication, it will be months if not years before they secure a new space. No one seems to have any idea where the money for a move will come from, and large industrial space in NYC is not exactly cheap. Neither are new climbing walls.
The sad thing is that there are plenty of procedural improvements the gym could make in the interim so that climbing would be more tolerable. How about making one evening hour a day for members only (no day passes)? At least then the folks who have made a serious financial commitment to the gym could get some climbing in. The staff should also enforce at least the most basic belaying rules. I've been climbing there for over ten years, and I've never seen this bad before.
I agree with you about the tiered grading system, though; it's better than the stupid YDS numbers other gyms try to assign to their routes. It cracks me up when people say "I'm a 5.11 climber" when they've never climbed outdoors before. Sorry, but climbing the holds with the pink tape and smiley faces next to them does not make you a 5.anything climber. The gym doesn't count. Go try climbing a 5.11 at the Gunks or Daks and see how well you do. There's no pretty tape there. It's like saying you're ready to ride a century bike race because you took a spinning class at a Crunch gym.
Hi Clancy. You're probably a great climber and with 10yrs of climbing know a thing or 2 about climbing to be sure. I don't mean any disrespect by this at all but what's wrong with just climbing indoors if that's what a person enjoys? Sure the outdoor climber will probably develop skills that a strictly indoor climber won't and get to experience God's marvelous creation, but isn't it community, health, confidence and a sense of achievement that fuels climbers as well? And if a "rat" finds some of those things in a gym, shouldn't they be able to qualify the level at which they climb? If a "rat" constantly climbs indoor 10's & 11's how should they rate their ability?
oh, and I'll be at MPHC, tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, with some friends from 3-6 and could really use some technical pointers. I've yet to get an indoor v4.
respectfully,
chuch c :)
As a city resident, I've spent more days pulling plastic than I have on real rock, unfortunately. If you enjoy gym climbing (and I do), then climb inside all you want. I just see it as exercise that's great for training the muscles I need outdoors, and there's no rain or bugs. However, I don't confuse it with the outdoor version.
Regarding rating one's ability indoors, my point was that you can't put much stock in what people say about themselves, or what gyms label their routes. Indoor and outdoor climbing, especially trad, are just too different from each other, particularly in their mental aspects. If someone's climbing whatever their gym calls a 5.11, they should just say they can climb the pretty hard ones at that particular gym. Routes and grades vary drastically between gyms, and in comparison to outdoor routes. I'm definitely not a 5.12 outdoor climber nor a great boulderer, but I've walked up some gym routes labeled 5.12a or some such nonsense, and been shut down by others labeled 5.10. There's usually no consistency or standard to how those routes are labeled at most places, beyond whatever guidelines exist in the routesetter's head. I think of them as "easy, hard, harder, or way too hard." They're like trail signs at ski resorts: they only relate to other routes at the same place. For example, skiing that "black diamond" at Mountain Creek in New Jersey doesn't mean you can ski the Front Four at Stowe.
I enjoyed your post, it was well put. I know what you mean about the seemingly arbitrary ratings from gym to gym, and the sad truth is you can't put much stock in what people say about themselves (myself included). Not that people are purposefully misleading, but I know I've been guilty of rating myself by "that one route that took me 3months & 20+ attempts" vs. what I can flash.
peace