Climbing in Washington: The Best Gyms and Bouldering in the State

We build finger training gear out of Kennewick, which means we spend a lot of time driving across this state to climb. Here is every gym worth knowing about, sorted by where you actually live, plus the rock you should be training for.

Washington is a strange climbing state. Seattle has a genuinely world class gym scene. Then you drive two hours east and you are in high desert with almost nothing indoors and world class rock forty minutes away. Both halves are worth knowing.

Seattle and the Eastside

If you live here you are spoiled and you probably know it.

• Seattle Bouldering Project — the big one. Bouldering focused, enormous, and the social centre of climbing in the city.
• Momentum Indoor Climbing SODO — ropes and boulders, modern setting, well run.
• Vertical World — Seattle and Redmond. The original Washington gym chain and still a solid rope gym.
• Stone Gardens — Seattle and Bellevue. Long standing, strong bouldering, good community.
• Island Rock Gym — Bainbridge Island, if the ferry is your commute.
• UW Crags Climbing Center — students and members, and cheap if you qualify.

Tacoma, Olympia and the south sound

• Edgeworks — Tacoma. One of the best facilities in the state, ropes and bouldering both.
• Climb Tacoma — a good second option in the same city.
• Cirque Climbing — Olympia. Small, friendly, does the job.
• Source Climbing Center — Vancouver, if you are down near the Oregon line.

Bellingham and the north

• VITAL Climbing Gym — Bellingham. Bouldering, and a good one.
• Western Washington University rec centre — if you are a student.
• Summit Everett — between Seattle and Bellingham, worth the stop.

Spokane and the east

• Bloc Yard Bouldering Gym — Spokane. Bouldering focused and the one most people mention first.
• Wild Walls — Spokane. The long standing rope gym in town.
• Eastern Washington University EPIC wall — Cheney.

Central Washington and the Tri-Cities

This is where we live, and it is thin. Which is most of the reason this company exists.

• The ROCK at Tri-City Court Club — Kennewick. The only real option locally.
• Riverfront Rock Gym — Wenatchee, and a useful stop on the way to Leavenworth.
• Rock Solid Boulder Gym — Yakima. Bouldering.
• Central Washington University — Ellensburg, students only.

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Where to touch real rock

Leavenworth

The bouldering destination in Washington, and it is not close. Granite, a huge spread of grades, and enough problems that you could climb there for years without repeating yourself. Best in spring and autumn. Summer gets hot, winter gets snowed in. If you only ever climb outside in one place in this state, make it here.

Gold Bar

Closer to Seattle and the default weeknight destination for a lot of people in the city. Compact, mossy in the wet, and genuinely good when it is dry.

Index

Better known for its routes than its boulders, but the granite is superb and it is close enough to Seattle to be a day trip. Steep, technical, and humbling.

The gap between gym days

Here is the thing nobody tells you when you start. Climbing twice a week at a gym will get you to a certain level and then hold you there, because fingers adapt slowly and two sessions is not enough stimulus for them.

The climbers who break through in this state are almost always the ones doing something at home between sessions. Not more climbing. Twenty minutes of hanging, two or three times a week, on the days you are not at the gym.

CRUX BOARDMounts on a door frame or garage beam, comes down in seconds. The one most people start with, especially in a rental.View the board GRIP ZEROFits in a crash pad bag. For the drive to Leavenworth, the hotel on a work trip, or the days the gym is shut.View the block

New to hangboarding? Read our guide on how to choose a hangboard and train on it without hurting yourself first.