Central Rock Gym

Negative experience: TLDR Tried it for the summer, decent climbing but bad "quality of life" so unfortunately won't be renewing my membership. - Awkward hours, i.e., not open before work except Tue/Thu, and then closing at 8pm weekends. Other CRG locations close even earlier at the weekend, so there is nowhere out of all CRG Boston to access a training board after 6/7pm! - Hardly any bike parking at this location, so I have to spend 5 mins wandering around looking for somewhere. - No changing rooms so hard to come straight before/after work. - Decent setting and good hold selection.

Fantastic experience: Always a great time climbing at CRG. Always so many new and entertaining climbs. Mainly bouldering

Fantastic experience: Phenomenal gym with amazing route setting and gorgeous views. I still cherish my tops from this exceptionally fun gym. Amazing location of course but the route setting is exceptional! Awesome quality and variety. Size is much smaller than CRG Fenway and BP Somerville but love coming every time. Pads are not as soft as the amazing Bouldering Project but the ability to access other CRGs is incredible! Note: the review is for v0-v5 grade

Fantastic experience: Good rocks

Fantastic experience: Really small gym but amazing setting and lots of climbs for the space it has.

Positive experience: Can’t climb in my lunch break on Mo/Wed/Fri. The restrictive hours at CRG are getting old

Fantastic experience: Great bouldering gym!

Fantastic experience: This guy is a place of excellent group of friends and very friendly front desk group, who takes care of members. Raj

Fantastic experience: On peut y louer des chaussures. Les voies d'escalade sont cool, j'y ai passé un bon moment !

Positive experience: Fun gym with a variety of problems, got a day pass and did not run out of stuff to do (I am a V3 / V4 level). Grading was consistent with other gyms I have been to. Only downside was the steep price for a day pass ($34).

Fantastic experience: Great space

Fantastic experience: I was blown away at the quality of this gym. My buddy used his guest pass on me while I was in the area traveling and we had such a great time! I hadn't climbed in a bit but it was so easy to grab shoes, chalk my hands and get up on that wall. There were plenty of routes at all skill levels and it wasn't too crowded. I did a bunch of low difficulty routes as I usually do rope climbing, and it was super fun! I wish I lived here so I could go all the time, haha.

Fantastic experience: The staff gave me a clear explanation of the membership options

Positive experience: This was the smallest climbing gym I’ve been to, but the problems were interesting. The grades weren’t as soft as the Fenway gym and felt on par with the other gyms I’ve been to. Not sure if I’d like this gym as my main due to its size, but as someone visiting with a day pass, there were plenty of fun problems and I had a blast!

Positive experience: The employee who served me was very nice and welcoming. The gym is decently sized giving you ample choice for boulder problems at your level. The boulder sets were intricate and well thought out. Compared to my home gym, the grades were harsher; I usually climb at V5 and was struggling with V3s. This isn't an issue since grades are often very subjective. I'm docking a single star for the day-pass price. At $30 USD, I found it a bit pricey.

Fantastic experience: Clean & plenty of problems!!

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed this place when visiting from Wales really enjoyed the route setting

Positive experience: It's fairly small but does make good use of the space. The routes are well thought out and interesting. Day passes are expensive, even for a city.

Fantastic experience: Great place.

Fantastic experience: The nicest staff work here

Positive experience: Decent gym, lack of air conditioning was definitely an annoyance though.

Negative experience: Some gyms have a sauna, this gym is one. Get a fan or something.

Fantastic experience: favorite location, though tbh i've only been to this one, both in watertown, and waltham....but I love how "small" honestly. I'm new to climbing and its been a very very welcoming atmosphere. However, If you want to lead or toprope or autobelay do not go to this location!

Negative experience: I didn’t enjoy their selection of paths, the color coding was not done uniformly at all, I could not use many of the techniques due to lack of variety. I hope they make the necessary improvements. Lovely staff and great instructor for beginners.

Fantastic experience: I love CRG North Station. I just got into bouldering a little over a month and a half ago and this place has become like a second home. The energy and the facilities are incredible. I am so happy to have found this space.

Fantastic experience: Nice route setting

Positive experience: $30 for day pass. Small gym but the sets flowed well and were pretty fun. Mostly static climbs and few dynamic sets. (I like dynamic sets) Spent about 2-3 hours and finished a dozen or so climbs before my hands turned raw. Gym feels tailored towards beginner/intermediate climbers - would need to be patient around people who were climbing for the first time that might not be aware of their surroundings. Everyone I interacted with was friendly and people mostly kept to themselves

Fantastic experience: Bouldering only gym. Best slab feature across all gyms in Boston. Not my style but my friends actively come here when slab resets.

Fantastic experience: Very nice bouldering gym. Interesting problems!

Fantastic experience: It gud

Fantastic experience: LOVE this place!

Positive experience: Nothing special for the price, especially if you're visiting from Europe. Relatively small, fine route setting, bizarrely no changing rooms besides a big disabled toilet.

Positive experience: Salle de bloc en plein centre de Boston, petite mais sympa. Profils variés et ouvertures efficaces mais manquant de diversité et de créativité. Hyper cher pour des Européens (28$ ...) mais c'est le tarif à Boston

Fantastic experience: Very nice gym. Better than Boston Bouldering Project for actual bouldering. I liked the hold selection, the use of volumes, and the varied setting. Interesting problems and they really make the most out of the space. There‘s even a phone charging station and skin care stuff, too.

Negative experience: As an casual climber who usually top ropes, this place is a nice an accessible spot with usually friendly staff and nice climbs for amateurs in bouldering. While small, there’s a variety of climbs and chill atmosphere. However, I encountered a really disappointing experience. I really don’t leave bad reviews and let things slide, but this was really weird. So, because I rarely boulder, I usually come in with my friend who will sign me in as a guest. At this time, our mutual friend was climbing for the first time at this gym and needed to sign a waiver. A front desk staff asked her if she had already signed online - and he was visibly annoyed when she said she hadn’t. If we had known that one should pre-sign before going, we would’ve. I didn’t encounter this type of attitude when I came in for the first time and hadn’t signed the waiver. Fine - if he had to deal with a lot of waivers today, it’s fine to be a little annoyed. However, he continued on with his annoyed attitude by making snide remarks to our mutual friend and brushed off any questions, making her uncomfortable. Me and my friend didn’t know what to do. As we were leaving to go climb, he called after my friend and said “I hope you read the tips” in a mocking tone. I know this is not the acceptable behavior of staff as his coworker gave him a look and I heard the guy say “what? Sometimes I just don’t have the patience”. It’s understandable to have a bad day, but to not only start but to continue making snide and uncomfortable remarks to new climbers isn’t the most awesome. I’d give this place a four star, but that experience kind of sucked. It usually is a pretty nice place if you avoid this guy.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic bouldering gym in downtown Boston, managed by a fantastic team. Would recommend CRG Boston to ALL my friends!

Fantastic experience: Amazing place to climb for recreation/amateur level climbers. Tends to be a bit small of a gym for serious, competitive climbers. But for those looking for something fun in the city indoors, this place will have plenty of different ‘problems’ for you to climb on. There is a small fitness/weight training section as well, for strength training and warming up. Day pass is a bit costly with shoe rental fees, so I recommend purchasing your own shoes, and getting a monthly pass, if you plan on climbing more than twice a week. You will get to meet all kinds of different friends too!

Fantastic experience: Very fun all you can climb buffet for bouldering

Fantastic experience: Great facility. Great route setting. Sometimes gets a little crowded on weekends.

Negative experience: Small, expensive, no shirt policy

Fantastic experience: All skills levels truly welcomed. As a first time climber, the staff couldn't have done a better job making me feel welcome and supported. Lots of routes to choose from V0-V9.

Fantastic experience: Best setting in the region. Slab, decent overhang, and lots of vertical wall space makes for plenty of opportunity for training all around.

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff, solid COVID precautions and safety measures, and a wide variety of creative routesetting. Having an area for lifting and stretching is an added bonus

Fantastic experience: A small bouldering location. Great staff, walls are set well, highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Always some great boulders, frequently reset, fun part of town

Fantastic experience: The boulder problems here are well rated, and although its a smaller gym this place always competes with others in the area.

Fantastic experience: Great place! Super friendly staff and great climbs.

Fantastic experience: Local muito agradável para a prática esportiva de escalada. Com diversos graus de dificuldade. Monitores atenciosos, jovens, alegres. Ambiente muito gostoso e divertido. Vale a pena a visita.

Fantastic experience: Awesome gym - lots of problems with a ton of variety. Helpful staff, chalk available, and a nice workout area. Only quibble would be the price, but given the area, it's not unreasonable.

Fantastic experience: Great gym with fun routes and an amazing location!

Negative experience: I called last night to verify they would open at 6. They confirmed. I stood outside in the snow for 45 minutes this morning and nobody showed up to open. I finally caught an Uber to Rock Spot. Looked fun enough inside, but wasted a lot of time i could have been climbing.

Fantastic experience: Great bouldering gym. Very clean, great community, great music, and routes are updated frequently

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff! Great sets for climbing! Small gym but has very diverse climbs. This is currently the gym I go to the most! Since I live in Boston. I commute to north station and walk 20 seconds! It’s very accessible. And they have a over 14 age limit, after 3pm I believe. Making the crowd pretty mature at night. Which is great for socializing and meeting new people! Friendly environment!

Fantastic experience: Different than several other crg (Hadley, Framingham, Watertown, Randolph, Cambridge, Warwick) I’ve been to, crg Boston really utilize their volumes. It’s a small gym with no rope climbs around, but they renew quarter of climbs weekly, which I think is pretty enough. The grading is consistent and fair(for my level, v5-v6), easier than Cambridge, but either harder or the same as the other crgs I’ve been to. Because they use a lot of volumes, the problems become more interesting than the problems I’ve climbed in other crgs. Crg Boston is currently my favorite gym, and I suggest everyone to try it out.

Fantastic experience: Great classes, always updated paths, helpful staff, and great music!

Fantastic experience: A downtown location that makes use of every available square foot to provide a bouldering gym that is both convenient and challenging. Central Rock Boston is a great example of working with the space you have, and while more BR's/Changing space would be an improvement, what they do deliver is amazing.

Fantastic experience: Awesome gym. The staff is so friendly and helpful, and they're always adding new things like classes and climbing routes. Super chill atmosphere. Very happy I found this place!

Fantastic experience: The staff are extremely friendly and quick to respond to requests. I have attended two yoga classes there, Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 9:30am and enjoy them as well. The bouldering walls provide great variety in both difficulty and style. The workout equipment provides a place to pop into and workout too during the week between bouldering. Showers are great, plenty of space to workout and shower. People are friendly, great place to meet fellow climbers and learn from them as well.

Fantastic experience: Love the new North End location of Central Rock. Main positives: - Very friendly and attentive staff - Great location and super accessible (North Station) - Nice balance of climbing grades - Routes are frequently reset (1/4 weekly) The gym is also very clean. There's free chalk and a small area that incl. weights and a bench for regular workout. The only shortcoming is that it is a little small compared to other bouldering-only gyms, but given all the main positives I mentioned above, it's absolutely worth it and has become one of my favorite Central Rock gyms.

Fantastic experience: Our home gym is the Randolph, MA location but this is super convenient after work since we work in Boston. Just as it is in Randolph, everyone is extremely nice, it is clean, and there are plenty of routes to work on (they change the routes quite often also!). We've already brought our friends to this location several times and plan to continue doing so! Adding a location in the city was a great idea and the members who work here certainly appreciate it!

Fantastic experience: Started out here a month ago, and I’ve been having a really good time. I haven’t done any bouldering before, so I was a little nervous the first time; but it’s really easy to pick up, and quite challenging as you keep going. Pros - great location - affordable monthly rates - move at your own pace - members are really friendly - free chalk ( which I hear is a good thing ) - membership perks

Fantastic experience: Been coming since it opened and this bouldering place has been great. They rotate 1/4 of the wall weekly so there's always something new to work on. Great challenges. The staff and atmosphere are fantastic

Fantastic experience: Fun bouldering gym with great access to the T. The gym includes boulder problems that are rotated on a weekly basis. There is limited fitness equipment so prepare to be on the wall. So far, great community, staff and facility.

Fantastic experience: Awesome gym, awesome staff!

Fantastic experience: Cozy and cute gym. Extremely convenient from the T, and they seem very attentive to details in keeping the space nice and clean. Super smol but got everything I need for day-to-day bouldering and climbing-relevant physical training.

Fantastic experience: This is a small gym with bouldering only, but I'm a big fan. There's fun route setting in the v2-v3 range I'm climbing, it's clean, and the occasional free coffee, snacks, and pizza nights give a friendly feeling.

Fantastic experience: Small spot for bouldering only, but you can’t beat the convenience. Offers free chalk as well as bandaids and antiseptic if you mess up your skin, which is good because the walls and holds are quite new and still sharp. Not much gear for sale, 2 kinds of shoe. Still a newbie myself, but I’d rate their grading on VB to V3 as harder than BKB, and a bit easier than the CRG in Cambridge. Not a ton of diverse wall geometry, but some nice problems even at the lower grades. There’s a V11 set right now if you’re an absolute beast.

Fantastic experience: Bouldering only and a bit small, but it is quite convenient having a gym next to north station.