First Ascent Climbing & Fitness – Uptown

I love this place. I only started climbing 6 months ago, so I can’t speak to their selection of advanced routes. But as someone who worked their way from V0 to V4 here, there has always been fun and challenging routes. I go to one of First Ascent’s locations every other day, and have yet to get bored. After dipping my toe in for a month with day passes, I started getting the membership and haven’t regretted it. I’ve been to one other climbing gym in Chicago, but for me this one has a better selection and a way better price. And the people working here have always been considerate and friendly in my experience.

First Ascent Uptown is located right across from the Red Line Lawrence Stop for an easy convenient commute!
The climbing gym use to be the old Borders Book store and they kept the windows the same which gives great panoramic views of Chicago.
The height of the walls are sitting at about 15 – 16 feet with all kinds of fun and different angles keeping you on your toes. In bouldering, this translates to very fun yet tough moves out of the gate because they sequence unique lines, some traverse movements to extend the length of the problem beyond 15 – 16 feet and body movements all within the frame of the problem. They definitely set the standard for any climbing gym that has walls of similar height. Don’t be intimidated as they have easy/​intermediate problems as well for beginners on all of their walls.
They also have yoga, weights, digital lockers and cubbies for storing your items. As a member, they allow you take a guest to the gym for free each month and it rolls over to the following month, if you do not use it. This is great for the climber that is looking for an awesome date or if you want to share your passion with others!
Day passes are priced fair for the one time thrill seeker and even better as a member! If you are still on the fence, you can always get a 10 day punch pass.

First Ascent is very clean and well organized making it a friendly and fun experience for people of all different skill levels. If you have little experience bouldering, First Ascent makes the learning process simple and easy to follow. All of their routes are color-​coordinated! Compared to other climbing gyms I have been to, First Ascent is by far the most organized (other gyms had a smattering of different colored tapes which caused a lot of confusion).
The routes at First Ascent are definitely a bit more difficult than similarly-​rated routes in other gyms – I completed several V0s after several labored attempts. Nevertheless, all of the routes were extremely fun and creative.
I paid $ 15 for a student day pass + $ 6 for shoe rentals. It’s not exactly super cheap but there were also other amenities in addition to the bouldering walls that I did not explore such as the gym (complete with treadmills and weights) and yoga classes. I will definitely be back for more bouldering and perhaps I will try to utilize the other equipment as well!

I’ve been to this place several times and even though is a little out of my way, I like to make the trip because I know I can always find fun and challenging problems to climb, since they put up new problems every Tuesday! I love the multiple over hanging areas, and the fact that this is the largest bouldering gym in Chicago.

I’ve gone here a few times and it was a nice experience. My major problem is their pricing. They charge $ 75 a month if you auto-​bill, but if you want to just get a one month pre-​paid membership, it goes all the way up to $ 125. I know that a one shot membership should be more expensive, but that is a huge difference.
Another complaint is that shoe rental is not included in the monthly membership fee. And shoe rental is expensive at $ 6. That really adds up quickly.
Sure, I could buy my own shoes, but if I want to go climbing before or after work, I need to carry them with me all the time. Climbing shoes are not like running shoes or cross training shoes, and you can’t walk around the streets on them, so it’s a major inconvenience to have to carry your own around. If they can’t include the shoes in the monthly membership, they should have the option of getting unlimited shoes rentals for a month for like $ 10.
When I raised this concern to management, they said I could just wear sneakers. My take on this is that NOBODY should be allow to climb in their street shoes. Do you really want some sneaker that has stepped in dog poo stepping all over the hand holds? And these hand holds have a porous surface that’s hard to clean. It’s nasty to think that people are using their street shoes to step onto porous surfaces that people touch with their hands.
Overall, I find the shoe policy at this place to be both greedy and unsanitary.
I think its a cool space and a fun activity, but I’ll pass on it.

Worth the price if you’re going to use everything they have to offer. I’m not a climber but will be using it as a workout the more I get the hang of it. Been taking advantage of the yoga classes, which are great especially for a noob like me, and the gym. All new equipment and the staff is friendly.