True North Climbing

This is one of the better climbing gyms I’ve been to. The space is clean, air circulation is good, and the washrooms/​changerooms are in decent condition. The walls are made of a nice, realistic-​feeling material (rather than plywood), with a solid variety of routes ranging in difficulty from beginner to advanced. True North has a little something for everyone — lead climbing, bouldering, top-​roping, and slacklining. The bouldering section is not the strongest now that other gyms like The Hub have popped up, so if you are exclusively into bouldering, that’s something to consider. I like that there’s a neat training area with weights and campus boards. The staff here are all generally pretty cool and don’t mind offering a pointer or two when you’re struggling with a route or technique.

Great lesson/​intro. Went during the daytime and there was lots of space to climb. Awesome gym with an uplifting atmosphere. Going again next week!!!

I LOVE IT HERE! I came here exactly one month ago and I’m completely and utterly hooked on climbing. I did the intro course for $ 35 at the suggestion of a friend who also recently began climbing and is also hooked. As someone who’s terrified of heights, I was very skeptical of the whole experience but decided to take the plunge for a lack of anything else to do that day (lol). I have no regrets!
The intro course was informative and I got a good idea of how to tie the knots, climb an easy route, and belay someone else (i.e. spot them with the rope as they climb up a route). The $ 35 includes rental fees for the shoes and harness, which you’ll need and is a great deal in my opinion because the rentals alone will cost $ 10. After I did the intro course and fell in love, I decided to sign up for the one month intro membership, which is an extra $ 15 for the month. It should be noted that the one month intro starts from the day you do your intro course, so it’s ideal to sign up as soon as you can so you can go as much as possible. The intro month also includes price for rentals so it’s a VERY good deal.
The facilities themselves are spacious with lots of different routes at various difficulty levels and at different heights (great for those days when you’re extra scared of heights lol). There’s even a huge stalactite like formation with routes on it that’s great for building your endurance. There’s also a pretty good bouldering area as well (from what I’ve been told — I don’t boulder). There’s clips that allow lead climbing for all the routes as well if you’re into that. There’s also lots of smaller areas with basic hand/​foot holds, campus board, rings, hang boards, and weights, where you can practice your techniques or are taking a break from climbing. Not to mention 2 exercise bikes as well for warming up and 2 slack lines, again, for when you wanna take a break from climbing. Seriously, this place is better than a gym! They also change up the routes every few months to keep things fresh. The employees are also very nice. They’re quick to flash you a smile as they walk by or correct any mistakes that they might see you doing (guilty!!).
There’s tons of parking. If you don’t know where to go it’s a bit hard to find. Just google map it and follow the route, that’s probably the easiest way. It’s right beside the go karts building that’s next to the Scotia Pond (arena).

I called to book an intro lesson for me and seven of my friends. I haven’t climbed in years and definitely needed a lesson myself. The place looked very nice and situated smack in the middle of the sports complex in Downsview Park. Best to check the website to find out exactly where it is and how to get there. Not easy to access by bus, but you’ll have no issues driving assuming you’re competent with directions.
We arrived a little early from our scheduled lesson and since we’ve all done the online waiver, there wasn’t much to do but wait until the lesson started. The staff who conducted our lesson was very helpful and took time to help every single one of us to make sure we were doing things right. She made sure that no one fell behind during the lesson. She also took us for a quick tour of the facility and explained some of the basics of climbing and the climbing facility itself.
The cost of the intro lesson is $ 35 with an option to sign up for a one month pass for an additional $ 15. The one month pass included harness and shoes rental which is definitely great for anyone who is contemplating taking up the sport. I felt that this was a good move on them as it allows new climbers to really get into the sport without having to spend too much on renting the equipment or investing prematurely on equipment for themselves.
I came back a few days later to do the belay test while it was still fresh in my mind. The staff that tested us was relaxed about it and didn’t mind that I kept messing up the knot. She was patient enough to let me figure it out (3 tries later), and that was that.
Overall I definitely recommend this place for anyone who wants to get into the sport. It’s a friendly atmosphere and not in downtown Toronto, which is great since you won’t have to pay for parking or put up with the chaos that is downtown.

True North was an absolute pleasure to deal with in booking a birthday party for kids in their 20s. I had originally thought I should book a bday package but was informed that a group lesson would be more appropriate for our audience. They had proceeded to book off an entire time slot for us on a Saturday afternoon.
Half of our party showed up 10 minutes late (I know, shame on us) and our instructor Neil was incredibly accommodating, as with the fact that I reserved for 7 and the final number was 9… In fact, he brought another instructor over to assist. Neil was patient in teaching everyone how to belay, how to tie in safely, how to do partner checks, and painstakingly monitored everyone through this process. Safety is a priority here!
Lastly, we had an awesome time, there were a variety of paths fit for everyone, and one of the walls can overlook the CN Tower (if you can get up there). There is a training area with wall exercises, row machines, weights, and a bouldering area as well. You can spend as long as you want here under the day pass with introductory lesson ($ 35) but your arms will likely be too sore to do so. Highly recommend this experience!

Went here for during the Doors open weekend. To find the place was a bit confusing just like the name «Downsview park» which implies that its a Park. but its actually a big area filled with buildings and fields. Anyways took me a few minutes to find True North. I dont think there was even a signboard or anything to say this was the entrace. Once inside the wall climbing for me was quite fun. Staff seemed quite cool… All in all good place looks like a fun place with quite a few walls to do rock climbing.

The staff here are incredibly nice and joke around with the regulars. They are pretty relaxed about the belay tests here as well. I’ve never met the owner but he seems like generous person. A storm last year had caused a lot of people to lose power and the owner posted on Facebook offering up the gym for people to stay.
The community here is great too. Everyone is friendly to each other and I’ve met tons of great people at this gym. It gets really busy at night. Just be aware that parking might be hard to find.

Great gym. I have been climbing there for a few years, and they always update the walls. Very helpful and friendly staff. Clean.

I’ve only visited True North once, but I can’t wait to return, because their walls are hella high. Built in a refurbished hangar, the gym has walls that reach 36 feet in the air. Awesome! The problem, of course, is that it is located in Siberia.
LOCATION: ¹⁄₅
If you have a car, then this is no problem for you. If by TTC though, you can go to Downsview and walk, but it’s a loooong walk. Or you can wait for a bus, but you have to take the specific one that goes through that weird industrial area — it’s really in the middle of nowhere. In the summer, if you have a bike, my advice would be to go here on a weekend, bring your bike on the subway, and ride from Downsview to the gym.
Or get a car. Lots of parking! But be forewarned — I’m an ex-​York student. I know that neighbourhood well, and I got totally lost getting out of there. I was traveling south east and popped out on Keele Street. It was like in science fiction movies when the compass starts going crazy and spins around and the compass breaks and suddenly the heroes/​rogue scientists/​ragtag group of soldiers end up somewhere in time/​on a different planet/​travelling through an inter-​dimensional portal to a world where up is down, left is right, dogs and cats living together, and hamburgers eat people. Bring a map. Bring two maps. Bring a Sherpa guide and road flares.
CROWDEDNESS: ⁵⁄₅
We went on a weekend and it was empty until a big class showed up. I imagine the location scares people off.
SELECTION: ⁵⁄₅
I’ve only been once, but there was a really good variety of routes — from one end of the gym to the other, the height increases from really low (short little mini-​routes adjacent to the bouldering area) to outer space. The range of difficulty appeared pretty wide, with lots of options in each of beginner, novice and expert.
ROUTES: ⁵⁄₅
I don’t remember any designs that disappointed me. The massively high walls were an absolute blast, and with that much wall to work with, there’s lots of opportunity for different types of problems in a single route. The giant stalactite that hangs down in the middle of the room is the highlight — even the easier routes have challenging starts since there’s a gap between the floor and your first foot-​hold.
BOULDERING: ?
I didn’t check it out at all. It seemed relatively small, but I don’t think this is the kind of gym that people will flock to for boulder problems.
PRICE: ⁵⁄₅
It’s 19 dollars, which is pricey indeed — but given the nature of the gym, I think it’s clearly worth the value.
STAFF: ⁵⁄₅
Only spoke to one staff member during our belay test, but he was friendly.
GENERAL FACILITIES: ?
Hard to judge on one visit, since it’s such a big space, so I won’t.
MUSIC: ?
Don’t recall hearing music, but I’m willing to bet it was 90s rock.

Lots of fun! Heard about this place from a friend. They have a great deal for people just starting out. Can get a lesson on the basics (incl belaying) and rental for shoes and harness for ~$ 35, and you get a day pass (stay there as long as you want!). The «permission» to belay only lasts for that first day though. When I went back a second time, they just did a quick test to see if I remember, then I got a laminated card with my name saying so, so that I didn’t have to do the test every time. So much fun, and a good workout for your arms and legs. I found it best to group into threes, so while one person is climbing, the belayer has someone to keep company with. Plus, depending how long you’re there, your arms might start to get tired lol so it’s good to trade off on the climbing and belaying bit. The rocks have coloured tape. You’re supposed to climb only on one colour to test your level — they different levels. They also have bouldering and walls without the rope attached to the ceiling (sorry, I don’t know the lingo). Great for kids and adults. If you’re planning on taking the lesson, call in advance to save your spot since it gets really busy sometimes!

I went here with a friend using a Teambuy. For $ 25 we got a climbing lesson and two weeks free use (total deal).
The first issue I had with True North is its location. It appears to be near the Downsview subway station… but not really! You need to take a bus from the subway station (my bus driver didn’t recognize the street name or gym name when I asked for directions), which drops you at a random bus stop in a field. Lol I’m not kidding! What ended up happening is my friend drove there on her own, and then had to pick me up from the bus stop because I was lost. Had she not picked me up, it would of been a good 20 min walk through deserted industrial looking streets looking for the gym. All in all, from union station it took me ~80 min to get there.
We got inside and its a big place! I’ve been indoor rock climbing once before in Burlington. In comparison True North wasn’t as clean, and there were around 50 (?) stations to climb. The washrooms were messy, water around the sink, lots of chalk stains.
They checked us in and loaned us climbing shoes to wear. The first guy serving us was super friendly, we had missed our training time (because of my bus fiasco) but he told us just to join the next session on the hour.
However the guy teaching that next session was a bit of a douche. My two-​star rating of True North is primarily based on him. He did not pay attention to our concerns during the training session, instead focused on flirting with some random girls in our group. My friend had trouble learning to tie her knots, he didn’t come over to help. I asked him how to tie the figure 8, he wouldn’t tell me. Later when we were practising going up, I only wanted to go halfway on my first try (fear of heights) just to practise letting go and my friend bringing me down. This guy yelled at me repeatedly to keep going. And it wasn’t in a nice cheerleader manner. He then did the same thing to my friend, who was even more nervous than I. Basically we were just happy when the training session ended and we could do our own thing.
After than I had fun :). Rock climbing is cool and a total workout of muscles I didn’t realize I had. I felt all ‘jello’ limbed afterwards.
Compared to the gym in Burlington, True North was lacking in quality of service. In Burlington I had a 1 hour extremely professional training session, where I felt all my questions were answered, I learned all knots required, and I felt confident with what I was doing.
Oh, and I did make it to the top, many times. As did my friend. Take that, douche instructor.

I’ve rock climbed only a couple of times, but this place is great — awesome walls, great staff! Love this place:)

This is my climbing gym and I think it’s pretty rad. The facilities are relatively new (and as a result, clean).
My only complaint is how busy the gym is getting. I’m not sure if this is a result of the Groupon that was available a few months ago, but waiting in line for climbs is getting ridiculous. Coupled with the large groups of children having parties on the weekends, its starting to get way too crowded.
TNC would benefit from expanding. Not only would there be room for more climbers, but they could also consolidate all the exercise equipment into one area. Right now the Olympic rings and climbing ladder are on one side of the gym — while the chin-​up/​weights/​general exercise area is on the other. Feels a little disjointed.
But other than that, I love this little gem of a gym.

I’m not an expert climber… I’d rather say I’m a n00b at climbing. The staff and facility makes me feel incredibly welcomed there. The environment isn’t snobby and it makes anyone new to climbing comfortable being there.
There are tons of parking spots. During the times I’ve been here (I’ve been here about 4 times in a week so far), the facility has never been too jammed and crazy busy, unlike the ones downtown Toronto. Theres lots of space, room to breathe, and tons of areas to practice climbing. You usually don’t have to wait in line to climb a particular wall.
I accidently cut my finger while climbing, and the staff were helpful to give me two bandaids to make sure it stuck on for the remainder of the day.
What’s there… bouldering, high ceilings, low ceilings, tight ropes to practice your balance, still rings, and more.
Free technique lessons every monday evening.
This place is awesome.

True north climbing is exactly that. It’s up north, I actually think it’s the closest gym north of the 401 (which is co-​incidently perfect for me). If you’re downtown, you have a plethora of climbing gyms to choose from but I guess you were kinda limited to the number of gyms up north… until now.
Upon entering the gym, the first thing you’ll see is a giant stalactite hanging from the ceiling. And true to it’s name, it isn’t touching the floor at all. Personally I think it’s kinda gimmicky, but it is marvel to see and go up at least once or twice. Be aware when leading on it though cause you can ninja drop kick someone next to you if you fall and swing to the side (boo… that would suck).
The gym is about 40-​ish feat high I’m guessing (I may be off by a bit) and has features from slab, to overhangs to caves. Perfect for a little bit of this and that. Oh, and throw in a stalactite as well and you’ve got the whole cake.
Most of the routes in the gym are roped and are equipped with non-​fixed gri-​gris (I really hate the ones that are fixed to the ground). There’s also a kid’s area with auto-​belayers that they use for kids parties and classes (which is nice cause it’s away from everything).
The bouldering area is able to be topped out from corner to corner, but the best part about it is that they have moulded Asana mats that fit to the whole area. No ankle breaking gaps! Yay! Top that with a gym floor that can also take some impact force and you’ve got yourself a pretty safe landing if you bail out from the top (trust me… I’ve done it before and it sucks).
Now the crippling part of almost every gym comes in two flavours. One… they don’t change up the holds very often and leave up routes forever; not the case for this gym as problems and routes are reset every couple weeks or so (more often from bouldering problems). Two… they don’t clean their holds; again, not the case as we’re constantly spoiled by new holds and often see the staff in the «laundry room» with grip cleaner (hence the industrial non-​hand-​melting gloves). Oh and I forgot secret flavour number 3… The gym is actually clean! Ever go to a gym with chalk everywhere or smells of shoe everywhere? Ya… Febreeze doesn’t fix everything.
Now every gym has got it’s downfalls or rather things they can improve on. I’d like to see more sustained roofs (or more intense for that matter). Actually if we’re dreaming I’d love to see a crap load more free-​standing boulders while they’re at it =). Another thing that I notice every once and a while is that the tape in the bouldering cave gets kinda confusing (ie. blue tape problems that end up intersecting with blue tape problems…).
After all that the most important part of a gym is it’s culture and community. I think that the people at the gym are pretty cool. No one is really too busy or «good» to offer help, talk to or even to climb with. It’s a pretty friendly place with a good formula for success. There’s even free programs like yoga, technique classes and mental training they run to help you on your way to be the next pro climber.

Finally a climbing gym up north!!! Wooohooo!!!
and such a great one!
the facilities are brand new! the stuff is friendly! the routes vary from beginner level to challenging for all types of climbing (bouldering/​top rope/​lead climb)!
the routes are also higher than in some other climbing gyms I been to and it makes climbing even more exciting!
there is a big parking space in front of the gym which makes it super convenient for drivers. It is also easily reachable by TTC buses.
One of the other favorite things is a slack rope they have in the gym and they’re also offering different free workshops with the day pass (like parkour).

True North Climbing opened yesterday. I went today. I am going to say right now that I am no expert, but I love this place. It is huge. It’s in an old hangar at Downsview, so there is plenty of room to go up. The facilities are brand new and top of the line. I like their stance on being more environmentally friendly.
The gym itself has tonnes of routes and all kinds of challenges, from top rope climbing to bouldering to lead climbing, and it is good for all levels. I am a beginner. I took my first lesson from one of the very knowledgeable and helpful staff and spent the rest of my time on the bouldering problems. The rates are a bit higher than other places, but the sheer scale and quality of the gym will justify this.
I expect to update the review as I spend more time there. Hopefully, I’ll learn enough so that more experienced climbers will get a better feel for the place from the reviews.
Try it out. If nothing else, you’ll leave with burning forearms, chapped hands and a smile in spite of the pain.