the Cost of a Party at a Rock Climbing Gym

Though the price of having a party at a rock climbing gym may seem prohibitive, the included services actually made for a very fun time. A full afternoon from 1 PM to 5 PM of rock climbing with no one else in the gym, five climbing walls ranging from easy to difficult, and 7 spotters to help work those five walls. This was essentially the full package that was offered from this gym as we utilized all of their trainers and walls and rented the place out to make it our own. This was for my daughter's 11th birthday, and roughly 30 kids and 30 parents attended the party.

The quality of this service was great! The whole staff was very friendly, from the manager who we talked with to set this up all the way down to how the trainers encourage the kids to reach the top of the walls they were climbing. Though the service did not include anything extra than the facilities and spotters, we received four full peaceful hours of our kids being busy. After the trainer's gave a safety speech to everyone, including the parents, they proceeded to engage the kids to form lines in front of the walls they wanted and to get excited. The kids instantly reacted and got very excited. From there on out, it was hard to peel them off the walls. All the kids had a blast and the parents even got up on the wall a couple of times.

One thing that I realized about half way through this service was the fact that the difficult wall was not being used, which I attributed to the fact we were dealing with 10 and 11 year olds. That meant that there were two or three spotters that were not necessarily needed for the duration of the day. Though the extra spotters around meant that they could rotate through the walls and no one would get tired, the party could have used 1 or 2 less. The party consisted of 30 kids and roughly the same amount of parents on a Saturday, which may indicate why the price was where it was. Additionally, the service did not include any food or cake, but did include picnic tables set up in the middle of the gym.

Some of the tips I would share would be to try and find a place that is more geared towards the interests of children. In other words, try and cater to the age group. I mentioned that the difficult wall was not used by any of the kids, which meant that we were paying for the use and that use and it's respective trainer when they were not being used. So shop around and see if there is a birthday party package for kids under 13 at a gym that might give you a better price. You may not be able to rent out the place but the price will probably be more accommodating.

Also, consider how many kids you are going to have attend the party. If I had to guess how many kids could be kept busy by one wall, it would be about five or six. So, for our party of 30, we had the right number of walls, we just didn't have the right number of easy/intermediate walls.

The overall idea of having a rock-climbing party at a gym is a great one. This was around the time that kids start getting active and adventurous and they can do this in a safe environment with their parents and trained professionals. I would have to say that I wished I had shopped around more for competitive rates, but the afternoon was worth it and my daughter still remembers it as one of her favorites.