Austin Bouldering Project

Awesome bouldering gym. Facilities are new, shiny and top notch. I like the color scheme for route difficulty and it encourages you to try problems that may be a little beyond your skill level. Good way to keep pushing yourself and growing as a climber.
Only wish is that the gym opened earlier as it would make it easier to swing by before work. Would way rather have a 5:30am opening time (like most gyms in Austin) than an 11pm closing time. Same for the weekend hours. I feel like 7 to 9 am on a Saturday would be a lot better for the average person’s schedule than having the gym available from 8 to 10pm.

Bouldering speaking, ABP is the place to be! All that’s missing is a coffee shop on the second floor study/​lounge area!
Pros:
–Large facility with several rooms to climb. The largest room is closed to adults only, so no worries for wild children running around. There’s also a beautiful yoga studio, gym, locker room with shower and sauna, and lots of seating on the second floor for meetings or a place to study. I also like the large windows that bring in lots of natural light.
–plenty variety of routes. I like what they’ve done with the color scale to identify difficulty level. Although the v1-​v9+ is also another thing to consider.
–the whole ground is covered with a two-​foot thick pad; fun for falling and jumping on and no worries to have to drag a mat around!
–members can bring two visitors a month for free. New visitors get free shoe rental. No fee for loaner chalk bags.
–bandages, tape, hand wipes, lotion, and clean towels are readily available
–Great location in East Austin and minutes away from downtown!
Cons:
–the two times I’ve visited, we couldn’t find a parking spot on their main lot, there is a second lot that was equally full. Street parking was available, however.
–monthly membership is a tad pricier than other bouldering gyms in Austin, but the demand seems high enough for the price to make sense.
Tips:
–sign the waiver form online before you come to make checkin faster
–make the most of your day pass ($ 16, or $ 12 for students) by planning to stay several hours or more! There is no hourly option.

This place is amazing. I came from Dallas climbing gyms which were great, but nothing compared to ABP. Having access to a sizable free weights area, large guest area, and large locker room completely won me over. It would be hard to ever go back to anything less than this.

This is by far the best bouldering gym I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Really awesome rock gym, excellent variation on routes, and great customer service. Another bonus is you get free shoe rental on your first visit.

Maybe I’m spoiled?
First let me give credit where it’s due: The facility was beautiful, brand new with clean design. The bathrooms were luxe, neat, and well-​stocked with amenities. Price was great, with free rentals for newcomers, and a free rental chalk bag if any are available. Finally, huge gym with lots of routes.
My criticisms are for the bouldering portion only. The place was packed with children. Not bouldering children, the running around and rowdy kind. That made it difficult to focus on climbing since you’re constantly battling kids for wall space and worried you’ll fall on them. I also found the climbing terrain and routes to be mostly one-​dimensional; you go up, you go down. I also disliked their method for labeling route difficulty. Rather than use a v scale like all other bouldering gyms I’ve visited, they mark difficulty with color, and the colors don’t represent an indivdiual V level of difficulty. For example, purple can mean anywhere from V2-​V4. I couldn’t tell if I was getting better or just doing easier problems!
I’d probably come back if I was in the area, but I’d be fully aware of how much I love my home gym while I do it.

Socks blown off! From the spacious, well thought design to the friendly and helpful employees everything about ABP is amazing. I brought my son here to celebrate his 5^th birthday and to try something new. We didn’t know anything about bouldering but were instantly hooked and having fun. There’s a huge space in the back dedicated to kids and parents, I even saw small toddlers climbing. Theres about 28″ thick padding on the ground, so in case of a fall they’ll be pretty cushioned. Its definitely got a modern, industrial feel but still warm and super bright with sunlight. Heads up, fill out the waiver online, it’ll save you time in line when you arrive.

EPIC. Austin has needed this place for too long. So happy it exists! The staff and owners are all top notch and the facility itself is a dream! And always CLEAN!

Awesome place! Great projects, and its huge (that’s what she said) I don’t live in Austin, but every time I come to Austin I will be doing my bouldering here! Students, make sure you bring your IDs! 12 dollars for a day pass; way cheaper that New York City!
PLUS: there is a really really cute girl with dreads who works here.

Wow, this is a really nice gym! I live out of town and dropped in for a visit today, and I was really impressed. I’m an avid climber and I’ve been climbing for about 3.5 years, and I’ve climbed at probably a dozen gyms around the country. As a climber, things that impressed me about this gym:
– Access was easy and simple, the desk staff were fun and friendly. I did the waiver online ahead of time and it took about 30 seconds to get my day pass.
– Prices seemed very fair for what you got. I was really impressed that a day pass included unlimited access to the facilities, including yoga classes!
– The space is really nice and really well designed. Natural light through big windows, really ample mats under all the boulders and easy «suitcase handle» ladders to downclimb from the top if you’re nervous, a lovely yoga room, a sweet fitness room, pleasant nooks to camp out with your laptop, pleasing art and décor, etc. etc. I also noticed a «kid zone» in the back and signs on the main bouldering area to create some spaces were adults can try hard without trampling kids underfoot, and kids can roam free without getting squashed. (There were still some kids running around with their parents in the main area, but they were under adult supervision.)
– The difficulty grading system is actually really excellent. By suggesting a range of difficulty for each climb instead of assigning a (possibly inaccurate or «morpho») V-​grade, it encourages you to think less about grades and just hop on whatever inspires you. This is one of the reasons it’s the most fun bouldering I’ve had in a long time.
– And the climbing… it was a BLAST! The routes were hugely varied and so much fun. The boulder features are well-​designed — the perfect height to be ample without being scary — and have a great variety, with everything from a horizontal roof through an arch features to less-​than-​vertical slab walls, top outs, and aretes of pretty much all angles. The setters did a great job using a ton of volumes and boulder features to make awesome, fun routes. Burly, dynamic, balancey, delicate, thoughtful, baffling — there’s something for everyone. Plus, as a shorty, I appreciated how I found very few routes with a really stumper height dependent move. Hats off to your setters!
The only criticisms I could make are that (1) I wish the poster explaining the color-​coded rating system was really really big, like 4′ x 4′; without being tipped off by the desk, it took me a while to find the (small) posted and figured it out, but if the poster were large, I would have had it down in a snap. And, (2) I think the difficulty rating system can lend itself to inconsistencies; for example, many of the black routes I did today (V4-​V6) felt easier than many of the orange ones I did (V3-​V5). But, I still found myself picking lines that looked fun or inspiring regardless of difficulty, and it definitely made the experience a lot more fun.
I didn’t get to check out the locker rooms or look for a campus board/​training area, but I was really impressed with everything I saw. And, I had so much fun I didn’t want to stop climbing! This is a really top notch gym, and I would definitely come back on another visit, or join if I lived in town.

I really love ABP and not just because it’s the shiny new alternative to ARG. I love the fitness classes and the steam room. I love that the women’s locker room has a jar of hair ties and a basket of tampons. Everything is just really well thought out and the staff are always enthusiastic, patient, and kind.
It’s got that whole body nourishment thing going and not just the climbing part.
I can’t wait to see what new things they add as they grow.
Also, having a student membership option is Amazing.

By now you know about the yoga, sauna, lounge spaces and all the other cool bonuses at ABP. What surprised me during my last visit was the fact that they are going to constantly change their routes. It’s an added level of customer service that I really appreciate. It will keep the gym from getting stagnant and boring. The gym is still really new so I think over time we’ll see things like more classes, bouldering competitions, and possibly some training in the free weights side of the gym. I think the best is yet to come at ABP.
Also, if you DON’T climb. This is a great place to start. The climbing community is very friendly and so is the ABP staff. Don’t be afraid to try this sport out! They’ll rent you any equipment you might need until you inevitably fall in love with the sport and buy your own.
Climb on!

The bouldering gym of my dreams.
Included in your membership is: access to a HUGE bouldering area, weight room, yoga classes, climbing classes, locker rooms, and a lounge area.
The bouldering area is massive to say the least. When I took the tour, it was mentioned that there are over 200 boulder problems with all varieties of walls (slab, face, overhanging, roof, dihedral). The holds on the routes are color coordinated and are not marked by tape which makes it very clear which holds are on the route. One huge plus is that ABP has a bouldering area for kids to reduce the number of kids running under you while you climb. ABP also has a beginner area with easy routes which are are great for warming up. Also, their climbing treadmill is an awesome machine you can use to train your endurance or get a great warm up.
The weight room is very spacious! It has free weights, squat racks, benches, hang boards, pull up bars, cardio machines, and more!
I haven’t tried the yoga or climbing classes…
The locker rooms are the bomb. Amenities include showers (with changing area for privacy), soap, towel service, and a sauna.
Lastly, the lounge area is very spacious. Yes, there is wifi! In fact, I’m writing this review while watching Marvel’s Daredevel in ABP’s lounge. It has many electrical receptacles spaced out generously along the ground. Awesome for anyone who wants to chill out in between climbs. Especially students.
The creators of this gym have really thought of everything. Austin rock gym is great but they better step up their game because ABP is on another level.

Do you like living life on the edge? Do you enjoy climbing rocks without the use of pesky ropes? Do you want to have the strength of a grizzly, the reflexes of a puma, and the wisdom of a man?
Then you need to get yourself over to Austin Bouldering Project.
Simply put, this place is kick ass. They have everything and more. Dozens of bouldering routes of varying difficulty levels, locker rooms equipped with showers and a sauna, a fitness room with exercise equipment, yoga and fitness classes, a mezzanine level for chilling with free WiFi, merchandise and climbing gear, and those awesome water fountains that make filling up your water bottles easy peasy. I probably even forgot about a few things — that’s how much stuff they have to do here.
You can have access to all of that stuff for $ 16 for a day pass or $ 68 for a monthly membership with a $ 40 account initiation fee. They also have annual memberships, family memberships, student and youth discounts, and punch passes. Notice how I said family memberships? Kids are totally welcome here and they really encourage it. There’s an entire area created specifically for children! Just make sure there’s an adult supervising at all times, but that’s no big deal.
This place is HUGE. Just when you think you’ve explored it all, there’s even more to check out. It’s like the TARDIS, you know? It’s bigger on the inside. Apparently, this is one of the largest climbing gyms in the United States — how cool is that? And have you seen their hours? They are open from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekends, so you can get your climb on almost any time of the day or night!
This gym is for bouldering, not top roping. I don’t know if that will change in the future, so just keep that in mind. Now, I’m not going to lie — I have a fear of heights and my hands get crazy sweaty when I exercise, so rock climbing is probably not the best hobby for me to get serious about, but it is a lot of fun and it is great exercise. I’ll stick to the easy stuff for now, thank you very much, but maybe that will change with repeated visits.
The space itself is beautiful — clean, open, modern, and spacious. I really don’t think you can ask for more in a gym and they clearly put a lot of time and effort into getting this place set up. You know what else is cool? You can even have parties or host events here. Say whaaatt? I think I might have to host a birthday party here because that sounds awesome.
Before your first visit, you can fill out the waiver online or you can fill it out on the computers right near the entrance. It only takes a minute or two and everyone must fill one out when they enter the gym, even if they are not climbing.
Austin is super lucky to have such a great space and if you are into climbing at all you owe it to yourself to come check this place out. What are you waiting for? Get your butt out here and climb on!