The Hive Climbing and Fitness

As other have mentioned, no cave and no top-outs, which is a bit of a miss. However, this gym is a big improvement on the Vancouver and North Vancouver gyms, for a few reasons.

1. Layout: The long, narrow layout spreads out the crowd (no bottlenecks) and provides young kids and more beginner climbers their own separate area at the end of the gym. This is a great solution seeing as this location is far more geared to families, birthday parties etc.

2. Traffic: It's way, WAY less crowded...for now, at least. I went mid-day on both Saturday and Sunday and it was nice and cool with tons of space and nearly no wait on any popular problems. Hoping the location keeps it a bit more chill for a while, which also reduces wear & tear on the (shiny, new, clean) facilities and walls. Be warned...shiny and new means some rough holds, especially the volumes. I got two flappers in as many days from not super hard climbing.

3. Facilities: I was pleased to find that this gym has two large, private shower rooms as well as a large single room Accesible washroom located on the main floor, away from the climbing walls/traffic. This is a positive difference for me from other gyms I've been to, including those in the Hive network, which have had only group-style shower rooms (separated by curtains, but still) or washrooms right in high traffic areas (N. Van is 5-10 ft from the wall). It's nice to take a shower or change in privacy, good for families, and it was smart not to put the bathroom right on the gym floor as hopefully it makes people think twice before wearing their climbing shoes into the bathrooms...gross. A family of 4 could easily shower/change in one of the shower rooms.

4. Boulder Problems: The problems are better spaced/less crossing which means more climbers can be safely sending simultaneously, so less waiting around. I'm new to bouldering (not to climbing in general) and found an ok selection of problems for me, probably 30% I could top, 20% I could flash, and the other 50% were challenging in a fun way. I saw experienced climbers with plenty of problems that they needed multiple attempts or couldn't send. The review about not having hard enough problems may be true for very experienced/skilled climbers, but you can always up the difficulty by changing beta. There was a good mix of holds including lots of volumes and slopers.

The only suggestion I have for the future is to make sure the staff is more comfortable talking to parents who let their kids run wild/walk under people on the wall/climb rainbow on fixed problems. Kids are kids and that's to be expected; I did have a few times where kids crossed my route/got too close for comfort with no staff or parent intervention despite them both being around. I don't like having to be "that guy." With the amount of families and young kids at this location especially, it's important to nip that in the bud before injuries happen.

Oh, and put some brushes throughout the gym.

I live in Vancouver, work in North Van, and I will be driving out to this gym at least once a week because it's really so much more comfortable than the other two. Hoping they are able to hit the sweet spot between too few customers to stay in business and absolutely rammed with people all the time. Happy climbing!

Clean and spacious, and staff are super friendly like the other gym locations. It's less busy than the Vancouver location, and more convenient to get to than North Van.

Really amazing space and excellent staff, beyond friendly! :) It's still on its baby legs, (at time of this review), after just opening, but can't wait to see what it grows into. And am so happy to have a second option outside of Vancouver that isn't super busy! Thanks guys! ????

A great bouldering gym just like its predecessors on Main Street in Vancouver and in North Vancouver. Nice long layout with an assortment of problems. A great location to experience bouldering problems of a slightly different style as compared to the other two gyms in the hive community. 4/5 as the Main Street location will always be my favourite due to its coziness and familiarity.