Sportrock Climbing Center

Old, outdated, crowded, expensive. Membership not worth it. Not a positive experience.

I had a great time here instructor (I had the guy with the long red beard) was nice very informative the basics class to teach you all you needed to know to start. The staff is helpful and keeping an eye out for you if you’re a newbie. I wasn’t expecting it to be such a hard task but climbing really takes some energy strength and grip strength. Went there for a day activity best $ 15 I ever spent thanks to LivingSocial. I will probably go to the one closer to me next time but since it’s a good workout I’ll probably keep going to change up my routine workout schedule.

I took the beginner basic skills class this weekend. It was a lot of fun and my instructor, Adam, was great! I learned a lot and can’t wait to go back. The facility is awesome, a little intimidating at first but I felt comfortable after taking the class.

I was hesitant to bring my 7 year old, as the pictures on the website were out of his league– having no climbing experience. Have to say it was a great time and a confidence booster when they get to the top. Staff was very friendly and patient with the kids. A little pricey but worth it. I will definitely be going back.

This place is fantastic. The staff were extremely helpful, answered all my questions, and really made me feel welcomed. I had a good conversation with a few staff working belay — super friendly. I have acrophobia and wanted to try rock climbing to help get over some of the anxiety as well as practice for mountaineering. They weren’t pushy, let me go at my own pace, and were supportive. Even if I couldn’t quite conquer my anxiety to summit the wall, I couldn’t be happier. I will most definitely go back again.

Gotta say, this place was great. Ryan helped us out when we arrived, two of my friends needed equipment and belay test, smooth sailing and advice on both (no, no leniency on the belay test, but that’s for your safety… and their lawyers).
Don’t worry, even if you haven’t climbed before, you’ll have a great time. Now put on a harness and climb on.

Went here with a livingsocial deal. Best deal ever and definitely worth it. My bf and I and 2 other people were in the same group. The lesson was very thorough and lasted about an hour or so. They provide you with all the equipments so you dont even have to worry about bringing shoes. After the lesson is over, you can climb anything on your own for however long you wish to. They give you coupons at the end for you yo visit them again. The location is not as convenient for me but I will definitely be back for some more climbing!

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Sportsrock Climbing center. We went about a month ago for my birthday. We bought a great deal on Living Social. The staff was awesome and very knowledgeable. They were patient with my friends and I, as this was our first climbing experience. I would definitely go back. Not to mention it was a great workout!

Bought a livingsocial deal for a basic skills course in rock climbing and went with my girlfriend on a Monday. The staff was very helpful, and coincidentally, so was everyone else! Our instructor taught us how to make a figure 8 knot, how to affix our harnesses to the rope, how to properly belay, and common climbing terms. All while remaining pleasant and helpful. The place does smell a bit, but hey, it’s an activity center, not a garden.
Overall, the place is big, open, staffed with courteous individuals, friendly to beginners, and, most importantly, fun! Climb on!

I am very new to Sportrock and to climbing, like a baby new as I have fairly weak muscles and terrible balance. But with my limited knowledge I think Sportrock in Sterling is great. I took the Beginner’s class three times and the first two times I thought I’d come back and do the belay test, start climbing for fun, and never did. So the third time I finally committed to a membership and so far it’s been a great activity to do with my husband. The staff I’ve encountered have all been pleasant, friendly, and helpful. They are encouraging without being pushy — which is nice.
Routes are marked fairly well and other climbers are pretty courteous, and focused on their own thing (*with one exception — see next paragraph). They have standard gym equipment, rockclimbing gym equipment, and hold the occasional yoga class here, too. Sportrock offers a variety of climbing classes and also some outdoor excursions if that’s what you want to get into. Seems like a great sport to take up as a kid, you learn a lot of great skills (both physical and mental), make friends, build confidence, and there’s not so much pressure — everyone learns at different speeds and that’s cool. There are a good amount of kids here and they are pretty inspiring to see climb around with ease (usually bouldering). There are of course shirtless dudes climbing, too, which I would guess is standard, I have no idea.
So while I’ve had positive experiences so far I am docking a star for two reasons. First reason is that it smells so, so badly. Everyone’s sweating and stuff, understandable, but they need a better ventilation system, or maybe open the doors, because a couple floor fans just don’t cut it. Eventually you get used to the stench, but for the first hour or so it’s distracting. *Second reason is that while climbing is an awesome social activity and it’s a great place for people to make friends and hang out, there is maybe too much hanging out on the mats/​floor. Groups of younger people (teenagers or early 20s? I can’t tell) lie down or sit on the mats near the bouldering walls for hours on end. They are somewhat intrusive, and seem to make it difficult to make good use of the walls in those areas. What I’m saying is Sportrock probably needs more seating areas and to encourage people who aren’t actively climbing to seek refuge elsewhere until they’re ready to get back up on the walls.
All in all though, if you’re looking for a different kind of work out, this is a great place to start. People of all shapes and sizes, and differing levels of abilities, will feel comfortable here. If you become a member, you get some pretty decent discounts, too — both at Sportrock and Eastern Mountain Sports.

Went here to take a climbing class to work on technique and movement. Definitely very imformative staff. I’ll be going back for climbing and bouldering hopefully once or twice a week.

I took my 7 and 10 yr olds here on a teacher workday. I was pleased there was an open climb time in the middle of the day that we could take advantage of, and no crowd. None of us are «climbers» but we thought we’d give it a shot. We had no equipment or knowledge base… and we needed none of that. I was pleased that they offer a variety of difficulties and lots of instruction.
My 7 yr old says: Sportrock is a good place to go if kids want to climb on different heights of rock walls. There is a lot of space.
Open Climb was 5 hours… no way we could stay that long. If you *can* do 5 hours, $ 25 is probably not so bad, but for just a couple hours it’s a little steep.
Overall, a fun experience… something other than the «same old, same old». We may be back again.

I loved the staff they were very good with my 6 and 10 year old children. The facility has a good variety of climbing surfaces. The only reason I didn’t give them 5 stars is they need to do something about the rental shoes. They make the gym smell like dirty feet.

One of the best spots to climb, busy some days but always spend about 2 – 4 hours here. Holds are fine, everything is marked the way it should be. Open great hours and very friendly staff. I had to become a member after the first day I climbed there. Two great locations in Sterling and Alexandria. Pricing isn’t bad either, good admission and rental fees, or you can choose to bring your own as I do.

Great rock climbing gym in the Sterling, VA area. Ended up climbing here on a Wednesday and can comment on the following:
— Wednesday snacks were a nice touch: GORP, M&Ms, etc.
— Rock walls are about 2 – 3 times higher than my usual local gym in NJ.
— Nearly every wall can be lead climbed.
— All routes have assigned ratings and names. Found it nifty that new routes are voted upon to determine difficulty.
— You need your own ATC and belay biner. No requirement to use daisy chain floor anchors. A lot of NJ gyms coddle you giving an experience not conducive to being comfortable in an outdoors environment.
— Daily rates can be expensive.
— Memberships have initiation fees. Also, the rate is a bit high, especially given initiation fees, etc.
I will be back, but only for daily climbing when in the area. Dont think its a good membership deal. In NJ, I break even for the month in only 5 days of climbing (and I have enough money for some beer leftover!).

I love, love, love this gym! I’m not a good climber by any means, but I still enjoy going with my boyfriend who is an avid climber. My only gripe is that a day pass is stupid expensive ($ 18), but my boyfriend (former military) gets away with a $ 9 day pass with military discount. I broke down and bought a 10 visit pass for $ 160.
In my opinion, this gym is indefinitely better than Alexandria on all counts. The staff is friendlier, fewer bouldering gym rats, newer facilities, better parking, and the list goes on.

Fun place to go on a Saturday morning. My brother and some friends took me here after I stayed the night in VA with them. It wasn’t very crowded which was nice. There was a couple of birthday parties going on but the kids stayed mainly to the belaying walls. We bouldered on the other side of the facility, which was fun. This was my first time here (or bouldering in general) but I can see why my brother and friend are really starting to get into it. Fun activity that incorporates physical exercise and mental and emotional courage (some of the climbs require you to push yourself).
And a side note: there was some eye candy if that is a bonus for you. There was a mix of n00bs like us and veterans but everyone seemed to get along and the staff is always around and helpful.

Excellent facility and I’m not so sure why it took me so long to visit this place since my other half is part monkey. Yes this place reeks of feet but you’ll get over it within 10 – 15 minutes. I’m sensitive to smells but the excitement of waiting to climb, learn and act like a kid again over powered the stink.
My only gripe was one particular employee that could have handled our experience a little more professionally. We went on a Saturday afternoon aka little people everywhere. Lots of kids but they didn’t bother me it was the soccer moms that did. Now I went with two avid and experienced climbers and we had been waiting for a section of the wall for me to try out (since I’m a beginner) and it finally opened up. Before I could even tie in we were kicked off by a rude staff member so that he could tie in a soccer mom with her kids. As we untied without question (because I didn’t mind since she had kids) I could hear her bitch right behind us about how she didn’t like waiting and so on.
Tip for employees: Next time ASK politely how many climbs/​climbers we have left or come to us 5 minutes before you need the wall for someone else. You get a free pass this time.

For my 400^th review I’m celebrating the joy I felt at getting a membership here. Might be a tad premature to go 5 stars when I don’t have many other baselines to compare this to, but what the hell. I’m slowly but surely conditioning my T-​rex arms to be functional, and regaining some of the tone I once had during my martial arts training phase. I wish my social/​work/​personal schedules allowed me to visit more often, but I definitely feel like I’m getting my money’s worth. The adult non-​family rate at the moment is $ 65/​mo for a year sub, $ 75/​mo for half a year, and $ 85 for month-​to-​month. After 3 – 4 visits you’ve basically broken even for the month, but I’ve been happy to come back to SR3 two to three times a week. Slowly taking advantage of the member’s discount on gear as well!
Love the sign-​on specials they’ve had going these past two months. The initiation fee is a pretty steep dissuader, but last month they knocked the $ 95 down to $ 5 if you brought in school supplies, and this month they offered the same deal for pumpkins. They’re big on safety, so non-​members will have to keep filling out the waiver form every visit.
My first visit was augmented by Jon R.‘s guest discount, and I’ve since paid it forward to Jeff W. with two of my passes. Definitely agree with Kevin L., the amount of eye candy here that Wednesday night was redonkulous. Shirtless or not, it was pretty amazing to watch these athletes traverse the wall with ease. Eventually the eye candy becomes background noise, though. I definitely leeched confidence by trailing behind a mom spotting her son on the V0s. I figured if a nine-​year-​old kid was able to go as far as he did, I could too. ;)
I’m a little bit of the shy type at the gym, but the climbing community members at this location seem friendly. I was also amused to realize that I ran into a friend from middle school there but we didn’t greet each other because we each figured the other person’s resemblance was more coincidental than fact. I’m relieved that the staff members have been easy to approach, and it’s nice that they occasionally put out snack bowls for people who are too hardcore to remember to eat. Appears that a decent amount of essentials are sold here.
Started taking yoga classes here Tuesdays and Thursdays. I get why Jon R. was pretty unimpressed by Jennifer’s vinyasa flow curriculum on Tuesdays. It’s definitely struck me as being more about fitness and exertion, with a playful goal towards the eight-​legged elephant pose. The consensus seems to be that Ann’s class (Iyengar Method of Hatha Yoga) is better geared towards personal development, both spiritually and physically. I’d call her a hippie if I thought people would take it without the negative connotation. She encourages questions, has a very positive outlook, and is pleasantly serious. The room for yoga is next door to the workout room, and Sportrock provides the blocks, belts, mats, and blankets, but I’m probably going to bring my own mat just for hygiene’s sake. Room is swept regularly, and room capacity is definitely being pushed on Thursdays, even if the sign-​in sheet looks sparse.
Excited about eventually taking the climbing classes here and maybe getting into the top-​rope stuff, but for the time being my mildly acrophobic self is happy to boulder around the V2 level. I’m finding route difficulties to be slightly inconsistent, but I do love a challenge.

I tell myself that I come here because it’s good for me. That it’s far more fun than just going to a regular boring gym to move around some heavy plates of metal or to set myself up like a rodent on a wheel and go absolutely nowhere really fast for an hour. I tell myself that making time and partnering up is better motivation and will ensure that I actually make the time to work on my fitness.
Forget all that. I come for the eye candy. Plus, I lie to myself and imagine that if I keep up with climbing, I’ll also have a ridiculously ripped, lean, toned body with a perfect V-​shaped torso. No, don’t burst my little dream bubble.
Fair warning. Until you obtain a membership card (which took us roughly three weeks from signing up), you’ll have to deal with the stench by the front desk. Our suspicious: the stack of rental climbing shoes that have been worn by countless people. Fortunately, I can now hold my breath or breathe through my mouth as I navigate past the worst of it. Once you’re back into the main part of the gym, it’s much easier to breathe.
With plenty of bouldering, huge tall walls for belay climbing or top roping (which I still haven’t experienced myself), and a couple of auto-​belays, there has always been ample room to find a wall to climb. Plus, membership benefits include free yoga classes, a significant discount on climbing gear (which, believe me, I looked… it’s never on sale anywhere), and a huge benefit on pricing for classes.
The staff here seem well-​informed and helpful, and it’s always been easy enough to hunt someone down for questions about the gym, equipment, or suggestions on how to improve.
After about a month, I can legitimately say that I’m pretty addicted. Whether it’s on the climbing itself, or the view… well, jury’s still out.