Best Climbing Gym near Rochester, Minnesota

I come here for work and have a punch card membership. Everything about this place is fantastic. Wide variety of routes and difficulties. Gym is very accommodating to people's climbing abilities. Great customer service; Staff are never to busy to answer questions. Just a very cool and welcoming environment. I highly recommend ROCA.

This review is long, but to any parents reading this who are thinking about letting their kids climb here: there are safety concerns with this gym. I’ve been climbing indoors and outdoors for 15 years and I was formerly a climbing coach. I’ve climbed in 22 different states, 7 countries, and over 30 gyms, and I can honestly say Roca is the worst place I have ever climbed - actually, it’s tied for #1 worst with Slidell Rocks in Louisiana, which went out of business. The biggest difference between Slidell and Roca, is that the owner of Roca is one of the rudest people I have ever met in my entire life. Let’s start with Roca’s lead ropes: these ropes are in such terrible shape that I wouldn’t even feel safe using that rope to walk my dog. To any parents reading this: if I had children, I would not let them climb here based on the quality of these ropes. And to make matters worse, this gym will not allow the use of personal ropes. I strongly believe that if a gym insists on its customers using the gym’s equipment, that the equipment should be up to industry standards. Roca’s ropes are not. My belay partner is nearly twice my body weight - this is an issue that is rarely encountered by men, and men tend to not understand how serious of an issue rope burn can be when using poor quality ropes and having such a drastic difference in weight between belayer and climber, even with a GriGri. While using Roca’s rope for our belay test, I was burned by the rope on the practice fall, and again while lowering my partner later in the session. I’ve included pictures below. I’ve also included pictures of Roca’s ropes vs. our personal Mammut rope that is less than a month old - there is no comparison. If safety is the concern with personal rope use, I’d look at the statistics - bouldering is the number one source of injury while climbing indoors, closely followed by autobelays. The bouldering mats in the Roca bouldering area are incredibly stiff and FAR below industry standards, and pose a massive risk for injury (based on the quality of the ropes and mats here, I’d guess this gym is having serious financial trouble). This gym also has the most autobelays I’ve ever encountered, and autobelays are the number one cause of death in indoor climbing. Other common accidents come from ATC use, skipping clips while leading, improperly tied figure 8s, etc, but I have never encountered a gym climbing injury resulting from use of personal gym ropes. If this gym is truly so concerned about safety, they should address their bouldering mats and allowing ATC use first. I also wanted to note that I have never been spoken to as rudely as I was by the owner today, and I will gladly pass along the message about his mistreatment of customers to everyone I know in the climbing community from California to Maine. My family owns a climbing gym in a small town - I’m very familiar with dynamics within a small climbing community, and certainly if our gym had new climbers coming in with questions about unreasonable policies, we the owners would NEVER speak to someone in the tone that he used with us. Ever. Lastly, and I truly mean no offense to the setters, but it is clear the setters here lack experience. The setting is some of the worst I’ve encountered. The best thing this gym has to offer is the Kilter board. Also Sarah, Daniel, and Phil are great - aside from that, I can’t think of anything positive to say about our experience at Roca.

First time and we are smitten! Great place and friendly staff!

We had our son’s birthday party here, and had an amazing time! Brynn did an excellent job being patient but also setting expectations for our group of excited climbers. Everyone had success climbing, and we’ll be back soon!

Great place and wonderful staff. My son is doing the Rock Warrior course and loves it. I highly recommend!