Planet rock. Pontiac mi wtf?

I've been pulling plastic at the planet rock in Pontiac and can't help but have many complaints about this gym. I wouldn't have felt the need to post this until the other day. I'll preface by saying about 80% of the problems/routes have long since lost their tape. ..Walking by my warm up boulder cave I over heard the staff members talking about how " the problems are all old" and that they "aren't going to spend a whole day re-taping the old shit, but rather wait and strip it all" thing is this guy was saying this in reference to maybe a 16' wide area. Why would it take a day to re tape ?

The routes and problems also never flow or feel natural, rather are purely strength based. Which I guess is good if you don't like to use your feet.

My other issue ( of many)is the staff is not only unfriendly and seemingly elitist, but uninformative as well. I'll ask a route setter which holds are on on a problem missing 50% of its holds and they just scoff or walk away wtf? Recently I had a grandmother with her 2 young granddaughters asking me how or what they should be doing, since the staff saw it fit to outfit them with helmets and shoes, but not basic safety tips. Like spotting or I don't know how to identify which holds to use. It wouldn't be so much an issue if there weren't five employees at the front desk and a route setter free soloing from bolt to bolt.

I feel I'm a reasonable guy but I don't think I will climbing here after my 100$ monthly membership ( over priced as fuck) is up. I never thought it would be possible to botch the gym experience like the staff and equipment at planet rock Pontiac. Lower your prices. Fire your employees. And stop smoking weed in the basement if you're not going to improve the quality of your gym.

you pay 100 dollars a month to go to a gym? what is wrong with you?

superkick wrote:you pay 100 dollars a month to go to a gym? what is wrong with you?

Such is the misery of living in Michigan. If you want to climb there, you're part of a pretty captive market- there's no good rock to climb in the entire lower peninsula and not much in the way of choice for gyms in the Detroit metro area.

The PR facilities have so much potential, but they're held back by a mismatch between quality of the facility (tall walls, cool terrain) and poor upkeep (infrequent route rotation and maintenance, old manky holds, destroyed flooring, etc).

Superkick. There are a lot of things wrong with me. Thanks for asking. Alas metro Detroit won't have a great gym unless I open one myself.

Brian. Thanks for feeling my pain. Idk if you crack climb but possibly the best climbing in mi is on all the cracks created by expansion joints on parking garages. Actually very good crack training.

I am surprised that Yac town has a gym.

Have you spoken to the owners/management about this?

First rule about Pontiac, MI --- Don't talk about Pontiac, MI

As a Detroiter living in Denver, I can recall having that frustration many times at P-Rock. Definitely talk to the owners, but also just shop around. I did the majority of my climbing at my alma mater's climbing wall, Wayne State. We had the run of the place and helped to set some great routes (*many* years ago). Oddly enough, I climbed more frequently when I lived in Detroit than I do in Denver. There's a big caveat to that in that when I do climb now, I *always* climb outdoors and usually multi-pitch trad about 40 minutes out of town.

That said, make the drive to Grand Ledge once or twice a month. Make the drive to the Red or the New once or twice a month. It is worth it and reminds you of why you climb.

If you really like climbing, he best thing to do is get out of Michigan. There are some hidden gems in the UP, but it pales in comparison to the West or even the Northeast.

Good luck!

DoNstamos wrote:My other issue ( of many)is the staff is not only unfriendly and seemingly elitist, but uninformative as well.

I too found the gym to be of fair quality. I liked that the gym was quite large, but the setting was nothing special. However, considering the lack of climbing in MI, I dont expect much either.

I will agree about the elitist thing. I brought a friend into the gym who had never climbed. Before suiting up and teaching my partner how to belay, the gym manager asked me a bit about myself and my climbing trip. I told the manager that I had been climbing 11 years and a week I just finished New Dawn on El Cap. She congratulated me, I said thanks, and we went our separate ways. I was able to convince the manager to let my partner climb without a belay test because my partner was only top rope climbing and not belaying. However, the gym manager repeatedly pushed my partner to take a class to learn how to climb.

I found it slightly annoying. I felt like the manager was undercutting my experience by asking my partner to take a class. In essence, I felt like she was saying "your partner has been climbing 11 years and just climbed an A3 on El Cap, but he is not qualified to teach you how to operate an ATC, so come take a class with me instead."

I was not bothered enough to say anything. I suspect she was just trying to make money. But I can see how this incident may fit into your profile.

So after trying to teach a friend how to belay in the gym(which is against most gyms rules), spraying to the manager and convincing them to let you do something most gyms wont allow they were trying to drum up some business with your friend who lives in the area? what jerks! I'll never stop there on a gym climbing road trip.

How long are you out there Dono? SLC awaits your return!

Tony T. wrote: That said, make the drive to Grand Ledge once or twice a month.

I gotta second that. I went there a couple months ago and it's a pretty cool crag. It's nowhere near world class, and it's small, and dirty, and some of the routes have glued on blocks that are a bit sketchy. But living in the midwest, if you have a little crag like that within an hour or two, or better yet your backyard for some people, take advantage of it. It's better than nothing, and there are some fun routes.

DoNstamos wrote: ...the staff is not only unfriendly and seemingly elitist...

Elitist and Pontiac do not belong in the same sentence.