Carabiner's Gym - Worst Gym EVER turns to Deception to make money...

Steve once started messing with my belayers anchor and who knows what else while i was 50' up a route and told me it was for "safety". They are backwards and require you to be loose on the anchor to prevent shock loading.. except it works the other way around.

Their walls could be amazing but they don't hire good setters and do not change their routes very often. They also have a lot of light colored holds which all turn the same color once covered in shoe rubber so you can't tell what is what. Many of the routes are "blue and black for 5.8" "blue for 5.9" so it's confusing as shit.

their bouldering isn't half bad depending on who is setting. they have a bunch of guys who are very strong and apparently don't need feet so they don't set any foot holds. unfortunately a few of them have migrated to my local gym and set the same way.

Steve is a loser and a well known joke amongst climbing gyms and climbers in this area. He makes money off of birthday parties and although most gyms do.. he could care less if he has any real climbers.

CT people have a great new gym in Glastonbury coming very soon from the Central Rock gym folks.. i went to their "open house" preview while they were putting the walls up and have seen their recent photos on facebook.. it will be a great gym.. owners are very good climbers who know their stuff.

I am going to have to step and defend Carabiner's a bit here. It is far from a shoddy operation, and maybe some of the staff are hard to get along with. But people here are really getting the wrong idea about the place. There are some really pleasant, helpful, and knowledgeable staff that are there dealing with, yes, a lot of birthday parties, but also a lot of people who have little climbing experience, and so maybe they get overzealous about 'safety'. It is large and there are plenty of places to tuck away.

They have had some very fun routes to climb, some challenging ones, too. And if you are having trouble determining the colors of holds there, which are quite varied (and don't correspond to a grade in any way), you better get your eyes checked stat.

Worst gym ever is an overstatement, by far, and I just had to go against what seemed a couple biased, misinformed posts and a couple that just seemed too personal to be fair.

So what shift do you work? haha seriously.

it is not a select opinion... there have been quite a few threads over the years about bad experiences there. Not even including that it took the guy like 5 years to build the thing "oh it'll be open next month..."

when the area is filled with gyms you need to be high quality everywhere or people will go elsewhere. which they do.

G.Cerne wrote:yes, a lot of birthday parties, but also a lot of people who have little climbing experience

The reason for this GC is because the REAL climbers left due to a lot of the issues stated prior, just like any setter or staff member worth their salt.

Is this the only gym you have been a member of or climbed at regularly? My guess from your post it may well be and you're likely a new comer to the sport (I notice you signed up to Mountain Project just to post this one comment so it's not a stretch to suspect you very well may be connected to the gym).

I also notice you didn't comment about the blatant false advertising. Most gyms don't need to subscribe to false advertisements to try to get climbers, they set better routes, they make the gym better. The manager, Alisha, even said on the phone she would send out a correction email... still waiting for that one!

I was considering spend my $30 there for just the bouldering for a month but, given how Alisha handled the situation, I'd rather put my money into figuring out how to climb outside and making SURE I don't give them any loot. Maybe they'll go out of business and a real climber might take over.

The Phoenix wrote: the REAL climbers left due to a lot of the issues stated prior.

The Phoenix wrote:I'd rather put my effort into figuring out how to climb outside

Do you even lift, bro? How much you bench?

Will S wrote: Do you even lift, bro? How much you bench?

Ha no never except this one time in highschool... Funny story actually... but I digress. I think the last time I tried a bench press it was like 10 yrs ago and I couldn't even do 100 lbs. cld care less about a weight room at a gym, esp this gym. Never belonged to a weight/typical gym either.

Is how much people bench important to you Will? if so how about you, broham???

CJC wrote: still a pussy though, hiding behind an alias.

I'm going to save you the time wasted waiting for someone to bust your balls for saying this behind the CJC alias...
You must realize that's ironic.

CJC wrote:strong words from an alias. this is his shit-talking alt, the other one isn't quite as whiny or abrasive. still a pussy though, hiding behind an alias.

Lol, so you the pot or the kettle today CJC?

The Phoenix wrote: Ha no never except this one time in highschool... Funny story actually... but I digress. I think the last time I tried a bench press it was like 10 yrs ago and I couldn't even do 100 lbs. cld care less about a weight room at a gym, esp this gym. Never belonged to a weight/typical gym either. Is how much people bench important to you Will? if so how about you, broham???

Oblivious. Start with the part where you are talking about "REAL" climbers, then go to the part about you "figuring out how to climb outside". Irony much?

Will S wrote: Oblivious. Start with the part about you talking about "real" climbers, then go to the part about you figuring out how to climb outside. Irony much?

Been climbing for almost 20 years and have hundreds of FA's in my state, serve on LCO board, etc etc... The comment was about how to figure out how not to give Carabiner's $30 for bouldering. Put the money towards propane for the lanterns, gas, or a new tarp to keep things dry when it rains this fall... that sort of figuring, the type a cash strapped climber does...

Will S wrote: "figuring out how to climb outside".

Another thought Will... where you live it's a desert and you can climb pretty much anytime and it's easy... The only figuring I remember on my visit to Josh was, is it in the shade? Climbing multiple times a week, throughout the entire year, in the north east can be very difficult with our weather. Add a difficulty finding climbing partners to that (lack of popularity compared to a place like Josh) and going climbing on any day usually takes some "figuring." For u im sure you could wander on up to hidden valley on any old day, grab a partner and go. There's no figuring, no, which areas/walls/boulders seep and for how many days after how much rain, which problems are humidity dependent (think slopers), etc etc.

its a known fact in CT that carabiners is a garbage operation. They chnage their routes maybe once every 2 years? ...not even exaggerating that much. then again, all the other gyms in CT are garbage operations as well with the exception of Glastonbruy which just opened :P I mean unless you consider 25ft walls in 10x10 square rooms to be gyms.

Are there any other good gyms near Wilton / Norwalk? I need a place to go when I'm visiting my parents in CT.

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote:Are there any other good gyms near Wilton / Norwalk? I need a place to go when I'm visiting my parents in CT.

Nothing close... Valhalla or The Rock Club are good but, both are 40min drives. There's good outdoor bouldering near Wilton, let me know if you want more info.

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote:Are there any other good gyms near Wilton / Norwalk? I need a place to go when I'm visiting my parents in CT.

http://www.indoorclimbing.com/connecticut.html