New Jersey Rock Gym

In the best way, this is a tough gym that makes strong climbers! The staff are really nice- with an extra shout out to Camren who is extremely supportive and helpful! My fellow climbers are also very nice and friendly. I’m happy to have chosen this as my home gym! Parking is super easy with the parking lot- what a game changer. (I just wish they had a slack line to practice balance.) This gym has great bouldering and rope climbing; it really feels like it has something for everyone here.

NJ rock gym is a great place for kids and adults. Our daughter loves the kids programs and looks forward to her weekly lesson. The staff is friendly and skillful. The space is very clean and offers comfortable waiting areas for parents. The abundant parking is another win!

I had the best time at NJ rock gym and was treated and helped by the friendliest staff, Camren. Any question I had he answers, even though he was feeling under the weather he took the time to chat and make small talk, and he made it a point to walk around and make sure everything was being conducted safely. I’ll definitely be coming back to this gym, there are many choices and varieties of walls and climbs!!

We got an awesome deal for a beginner lesson and get two weeks of membership included. Jackson as our trainer was so informative and fun. We’ve already decided on getting a year membership because we had such a blast!

For context, I am an intermediate climber that has been a regular at NJRG for about 3 years. I started climbing at this gym at the end of 2022. I enjoyed the sets a lot as a new climber and would climb 3-4 days a week for about a year and a half, and met a lot great people during this time as well. I'm not sure of the exact timeline and the causes, but from word of mouth I heard about setter changes, grading changes, etc, but my enjoyment at this gym has definitely fallen off. I am by no means a great/advanced climber. At one point, I was climbing V5-7 range at NJRG, but despite improving as a climber, I now frequently fall on many V3-4 climbs. While I try not to focus on the grades, I think it is still discouraging sometimes / would be discouraging for others in a similar situation. The climbs themselves also have not felt as fun, oftentimes feeling awkward or as if the beta was just to "pull harder", but that may just boil down to style preference / change in setters. These above points may be more personal and less systemic. The worst example is that there was a V1 that was recently set on the island. It was fairly crimpy and I fell off this climb 3 times. Unsure if I was just doing it really incorrectly, I consulted other experienced climbers who also stated that they fell off this climb multiple times. I read some of the other review responses stating that the gym wants to grade closer to "outdoor grading". While I have my own opinion on doing this in an indoor gym, won't let that affect this review score. However, I do believe there is an issue with this grading scheme not being consistent throughout the gym. Pretty much every other V1 in the gym is a jug ladder, so while this is probably the most extreme case, I do feel like at least for the other climbs in the V2-4 range, there is also a lot of inconsistency, in terms of both strength and technique requirements. If the gym wants to do outdoor grading, then I think it would help to make it more consistent. Especially with the prices having gone up a lot, truthfully the location of the gym was the main thing keeping me renewing my membership here. But with all the listed issues, it is hard for me to want to renew again. To end this review on a higher note, the staff and community are both great, which is the reason why this review isn't 1 star. And a side tangent is I've heard from better climbers that the V7+ climbs are graded more consistently/are set well, but I am not good enough to try those out.