Earth Treks Columbia

7125 Columbia Gateway Dr C, Columbia, MD 21046, USA

Address:	7125 Columbia Gateway Dr C, Columbia, MD 21046, USA
Phone:	+1 410-872-0060
Site:	earthtreksclimbing.com
Rating:	4.4
Working:	Closed 12–11PM 12–11PM 12–11PM 12–10PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 6

johnathan nuss

I follow this up with the fact that i have been climbing for three years now. It has been outside mostly and in the last year, some gym climbing. This place gets a 2 star rating because they do have a really nice facility. Thats about it though. Heres my experience. 1. When I arrived, they immediately grabbed my harness, which is a petzl gym harness. They asked where I had gotten the harness, to which I replied a site online where I paid 60 bucks. At first, I thought they were interested in the harness. It is a good quality harness and fairly simple. Perfect for gym climbing (hence petzl calling it the "Gym" harness). No. They thought I had taken one of theirs. They use a similar harness for kids at this gym. They thought I had stolen it. 2. The harness was considered unsafe for belaying. Ironic since they use them at their gym. I have belayed many times with this particular harness without issue. I was required to use one of their harnesses. While using their harness, I noticed it was worn and old. It loosened slightly through the evening as we climbed. I had to tighten it on a few occasions after noticing it getting loose again and again. Its one of the reasons I bring my own harness. I can trust my harness to be in good condition. Ive learned from climbing at gyms here in Utah, that I cannot always trust the gyms gear, hence the reason I bring my own. 3. Belay pass-off. Earth Treks has a rediculous system. You are not allowed any help and they did not tell me that I was jumping right into the test when I got belayed ceritifed. I thankfully passed because I have been climbing for three years, including outside and belaying for lead climbing outside. I said "belay on" and was corrected. They said that "on belay" is the correct terminology. They clearly do not climb outside. When I climb at a busy crag outside, I dont use those typical commands. I use something that my climber will be able to identify as me AND ONLY me, talking. If my climber hears the belayer next to me yelling "on belay", when in fact Im off belay, that would be a problem. Being so nit-picky is an issue that gym climbers wouldnt understand. Furthermore, they said my belay technique was incorrect. It wasnt. I attempted to correct it to they way they said was safest. I saw one of their staff belaying a child who was lead climbing. He was lazily grabbing the rope above the ATC with his left hand, in order to move his right hand back down on the loose end of the rope. If she fell while he was doing this, he woudnt have been able to hold on to the rope and might have torn up his hand in the process. 4. After finishing our evening of climbing, a girl walked up to me and identified herself as someone who works there, but was off the clock. She asked if I was "belay ceritifed". She didnt ask nicely. I responded "Yes, I am". She then told me, for the second time on the night, that part of my belay technique was incorrect. She said that they way I was letting slack into the rope to let down my climber was wrong. The issue is that I was following what had been told to me previously by those who did my belay certification in the first place. I was extremely confused. I should have stayed with my original technique that has never had issue in the past. This is lengthy, but, this was a bad experience. As a somewhat experienced outdoor climber, I was not impressed. These are not people I would trust to climb with. These are people who probably do not know how to improvise in dangerous, emergency situations. They probably wouldnt be able to belay with an 8 if their ATC was dropped off an edge on a 300 foot multi-pitch. I dont even know if they are aware that the Gri-Gri exists. I wouldnt want to have that argument with them because they would probably think it was dangerous.

Carlos DelCastillo

We celebrated our daughters bday in their facility at Columbia, and it was a great experience, best ever. Staff was very helpful and friendly at all times, in the phone and during the actual party. We had three people (Christa, Brian, and Daniile) helping with the children, and they were absolutely awesome...very attentive and careful with the kids, super diligent and paying attention to every small need of the children and the parents of the bday girl. They helped during set up and cleanup, and took care of the whole party, always smiling and with great professionalism. Totally amazed with their capabilities. For the first time, my husband and I were able to relax during a bday party, because the three helpers assigned by the place truly took care of everything! This is something that it is always promised by the businesses, but rarely delivered. The children were very fond of them also. We absolutely recommend this place; the children had a blast, and all attending parents were highly satisfied.

Bjarb J

Columbia is by far the best location. The setters do a superior job on the bouldering wall and very creative climbing routes at this gym compared to the other two locations. I strongly prefer this location despite it being smaller than the others because of the quality of the climbs. My only complaint is there are long waits for treadmills and they make it very hard for color blind people to boulder because they put green/red/tan holds of the same hue next to each other, which all looks like one big boulder problem. If they had lights on the bouldering wall coming from below and pointing up at the holds this would help, or if they just used contrasting hues like neon and pastel, or different saturation levels of color, that would also solve the problem. all the Earth treks locations have this problem.

Adam Webb

Earth treks in general is a great gym. Everyone working at Colombia is always friendly and helpful. They offer a good amount of classes and a number of vendors come through. You get discounts on sales as a member, and many classes are free or discounted to members. They change up the bouldering routes fairly regularly, and change wall routes now and again. Theyll also have fun events and competitions on occasion. I subtracted a star only by comparing it to the Rockville gym. That gym is huge and has many different wall shapes, sizes, and has more complex bouldering. Two changes Id like to see are being able to roll over guest passes and to reduce the initial set up fee. Especially if you cancel and sign up again. You can suspend your membership for a month if you need to though.

Alexander Steele

I have to start by saying Matt and the Earth Treks staff at Columbia is wonderful. If they ran the whole show I would rate the gym 5 stars. The 2 stars is the absolute nightmare it has been dealing with the Memberahip Cooridinator Dayle Spotte. The billing department has no inkling of customer service. I have had multiple billing issues and they will not allow you to cancel your membership or put it on hold unless you notify them 5 days in advance. I asked to cancel my membership due to health reasons on November 1st but the gym is making my pay for an entire month of membership I will not use and would not prorate the month for me. I will be going elsewhere upon my return to climbing.

Tim C

Tucked into an office building in the vast office park that is Columbia Gateway (a "Corporate Community"), Earth Treks Columbia is the smallest of the three (so far) Earth Treks in the DC metro area. Its tiny relative to Rockville or Timonium, with less wall space and shorter routes. Having said that, its still an excellent climbing gym. The boulder problems and routes are regularly updated. They also have with a nice variety of cracks to try. They provide yoga classes and an excercise / weight room. The people are great.