Day Rates & First Visit FAQ

Yes, every person that enters The Front must have a waiver on file whether they plan on climbing or not. If you are under the age of 18 years old, a parent or guardian must fill out the waiver for you. Save time and fill out the waiver online.

Look at an entire problem before getting on the wall. This ensures the route doesn’t intersect with another climber’s route and helps to avoid running into someone already on the wall.

When on the wall, stay at least an arm’s length away from others and outside of their fall zones. Again, this is helped by looking at the routes other climbers are on before getting on the wall. Problems overlap and one problem may end directly above where another begins. Stay out of the fall zone!

Down climb a boulder problem, when possible. Every fall is a ground fall, so reduce the potential impacts by downclimbing rather than jumping off, when possible. If you do jump, please check underneath you to make sure no one is in your fall zone. There is no way to guarantee a safe fall while bouldering, but techniques have been developed over the years that may mitigate some injury risks. Attempt to fall in a controlled manner and use the following general falling guidelines:

• Spot your landing before releasing to ensure it is clear and there is enough landing space.
• Stay relaxed and attempt to absorb the landing while bent knees rolling to your butt, back or side if needed.
• Avoid extending your arms to catch your fall. If you’d like to learn more about bouldering, ask our front desk staff about taking a class.

Do not climb barefooted.

Do not wear climbing shoes into the bathroom.

Minimize chalk usage by shaking excess chalk in the chalkbag, not blowing it into the air. Better yet – give liquid chalk a try!

In the route climbing area, place water bottles and other personal items next to the wall, not in the middle of the floor.

The dot at the base of a route serves as a general guideline for what to expect. Like many other gyms, The Front’s grading system is intentionally broad to compensate for the individuality of climbing grades. The dots are present to guide one’s time in the gym, not impose a judgement of climbing ability.

The Front uses a dot system to mark the difficulty level of a route. Generally, yellow is the easiest, blue is intermediate, green is experienced, pink is advanced, red is expert and black is hard… Yoda hard. The dots are placed at the beginning of each route and often indicate the starting hold. Posters in each climbing area will tell you how hard the ratings are numerically for both bouldering and roped climbing

Once you choose a route to climb, follow the color of the starting hold(s) to the top of the climb. Using all of the same color holds to mark a route makes it easier to follow and is more environmentally friendly than taping underneath every single hold.

Bouldering is a type of climbing done without the use of ropes or a harness where the climber may fall directly onto the ground. Bouldering routes are referred to as boulder “problems”. Bouldering is a form of rock climbing where the climber does not use a rope to catch their fall and instead relies on falling on padding (a “crash pad”). In the outdoors, bouldering takes place on large boulders, typically around 20 feet or smaller (although some can be much larger). Our bouldering walls can be up to 17 feet tall and we have crash pads in the bouldering areas. Please note: in bouldering, all falls are ground falls that could result in serious injury or even death, regardless of crash pads or the height of falls. Our crash pads are intended to help reduce the impact from falls but are not designed to prevent injuries to extremities or other parts of the body.

There are different variations of rope climbing. We offer rope climbing routes that you can either top-rope, lead climb or in some places, climb solo using an auto-belay. In order to top-rope in our gym, you will need a harness, climbing shoes, and an assisted braking device (ABD) style belay device to belay with. To lead climb in our gym, you need all the items listed in the previous sentence plus a minimum 40 meter-long rope. The auto- belay is designed to be used without a partner or supervision, so after you have passed our auto-belay test, all you need is a harness and climbing shoes to use the auto belay. Please note: all forms of rope climbing require you to pass our test for the specific type of rope climbing prior to you before must ask our staff for an auto-belay orientation/test prior to using them.

If you’d like to learn how to climb on ropes, sign up for a class – members, you can take this class for free!

Please remember, with any type of climbing at The Front, your safety is your responsibility. Do not attempt climbing if you do not accept the risks and responsibilities involved. Please ask our friendly and experienced staff any questions you may have prior to climbing.

Yes! We believe assisted braking devices (ABDs) are an important step forward in the evolution of climbing gear. ABD’s provide an extra function to the belay device, that if used properly can help reduce the chances of a belay failure. (An example of an ABD is Petzl’s GriGri.)

Yes! If you are top-roping, you must pass our top-rope belay test. If you would like to lead climb, you must pass our lead climb and lead belay test. Top-rope tests and auto belay orientations/tests are free. The lead climb/belay test is $5 for guests and free for members.

If you pass the tests, you are required to wear our harness tags when in the rope climbing area.

If you don’t know how to belay or lead climb or if you haven’t done it in a while, don’t worry! We offer top-rope orientation classes and lead classes. Learn more about climbing classes here.

Yes! We allow members and guests to rent climbing shoes, belay devices and harnesses. View day pass and rental rates in the menu above.

No, The Front does not accept cash.