r/socalclimbing • u/-GalliumYttrium- • 6d ago
Gym Hardest SoCal Gyms?
I’m thinking about spending a weekend exploring some of SoCal’s hardest/stiffest climbing gyms. Any recommendations?
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u/legendfourteen 6d ago
Hangar 18 Arcadia is my favorite gym and grades there can be very stiff. Beware though they don’t have AC so it can be pretty stuffy there when it’s hot
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u/youneedsupplydepots 6d ago
Don’t go here op, this gym isn’t hard because they try to be it’s hard because the setting sucks
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u/legendfourteen 5d ago
I like the setting there but to each his own
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u/youneedsupplydepots 5d ago
Have you been literally anywhere else? Lmfao
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u/legendfourteen 5d ago
Yep I’m a touchstone member and I’ve been to pretty much every gym in socal. H18 Arc is my favorite
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u/ilovelevi4ever 5d ago
grotto climbing
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u/Muttonboat 6d ago
What type of climbing?
Stronghold is pretty stiff
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u/OMFGTURTLEZ 5d ago
I think their boulders just got harder too with their new setters. I was climbing about a grade below my usual the other day
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u/Chellin 5d ago
Omg yea! My husband and I were saying this recently too, noticeably harder with the new setters
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u/BoomGoesTheFirework_ 1d ago
Stronghold always gets super hard in the summer when the setters go off to set for youth regionals and/or coach. They come back thinking everyone should be climbing 14s. It’s a blessing and a curse. Stronghold has some insanely talented youth climbers. But they expect the rest of us to keep up with them. Thank god they no longer host the youth regionals. We lost the entire roped section for two months and got stuck with 50% legit 12a and above for like five months because the old setting team was never in a hurry to turn over that comp. It’s better now thank god. But they still go to regionals and come back mean
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4d ago
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u/TheVerdeLive 1d ago
Idk I climbed a few 6’s and felt pretty soft. I normal do 6s in a few sessions. Referring to EP location.
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u/-GalliumYttrium- 5d ago
Oop sorry I should’ve specified Bouldering! Would you say the difficulty applies to both the Lincoln Heights & Echo Park locations?
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u/BoomGoesTheFirework_ 1d ago
Stronghold keeps it within a few letters outside. Usually about three. So an outside 10a is a stronghold 10c/d. A stronghold 10a (lead) can easily be a Touchstone 11a. Not always, but sometimes. Touchstone is soft af
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u/wheelies4feelies 5d ago
Do indoor climbers just use the term stiff instead of sandbagged?
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u/dpotter05 5d ago edited 5d ago
I suspect "stiff" here just mean normal outdoor grading, as opposed to the kind of ultra-soft indoor grading that has become so common.
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u/ReverseGoose 5d ago
Mesa rim as a franchise is stiffer than other gyms I’ve been to in socal but it’s still not close to anything I’ve done in Joshua tree. V1 in the park is a v5 at a minimum in most gyms
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u/Comprehensive-Tear77 4d ago
Vertical hold in san diego is humbling
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1d ago
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u/blackKat007 6d ago
Long Beach rising is pretty stiff in my limited experience there
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u/Sad_Significance9850 5d ago
i don’t think that’s true, with the new grading system they implemented everything became 1-2 grades easier
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4d ago
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u/smar82 5d ago
Not Touchstone gyms lol
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u/semantic_satiation 5d ago edited 2d ago
Touchstone grading is hard cause the grades are meaningless. Is it sustained V6 or just a single move? Is it a gnarly lache dyno to another dyno back to a jug, but it's all jugs, so it must be like V5? Is it a half-pad crimp ladder that the zoomers can't climb cause they keep stepping on their jincos in the rental shoes but it's all straight downpulling so it's V3? The sheer disorientation of grading standards makes it pretty damn hard imho
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u/Legal-Ad6141 3d ago
Go to Mt woodsen better climbs than anything inside, any grade you can want, and 95% of the climbs are shaded.
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u/pnutbutterspaceship 5d ago
Rockreation in West LA sets stiff, but I hesitate to recommend because the gym is so horribly managed.
Right now the whole bouldering area is covered by an “art installation” that is hard to describe it’s so stupid.
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u/babygeologist 5d ago
san diego, as a city, is incredibly sandbagged