Some Kind Of Wonderful

First off, whoever invented air conditioning is my favorite person.  It is too hot.

I actually had another post ready to go for today but after climbing at a new gym that opened yesterday, I felt the urge to do a little review for what is likely going to be my new bouldering hangout.

The Circuit is a bouldering gym that had two locations, one in SW and the other in NE Portland (if you don't know what bouldering is, I did a post on some climbing stuff you may want to give a read).  Yesterday, they opened their third location in Tigard. 

This place is massive!  According to their website, the Tigard location is over 19,000 square feet.  As you walk through the front doors, your forearms are greeted with massive boulders filled with colorful plastic and walls of varying angles as far as the eye can see.  Okay, maybe not as far as the eye can see but it is pretty amazing how much terrain there is.  

The kids area was huge which is nice.  It's really annoying when little kids walk right under you when you know you're about to fall, so having a place for them to climb is always a plus.  Most kid areas in gyms are just flat, vertical walls but this area had a pretty steep overhang which, in my experience running climbing camps for years, is what kids like trying.

Part of the kids area with 2 slides.

There are two top out boulders, meaning you climb onto the top of the boulder and walk down a flight of stairs, which is always fun.  They even put a bar running around the top out boulders so you have something to grab when hoisting yourself up at the end of a problem.  Sometimes getting onto the top is pretty sketchy so the bar is nice to have.

If one of those overhead fans fell, it would be something out of the next Final Destination movie.

As with the other locations, the routes here are incredibly well set and always feel like each one was planned out, no matter the difficulty.  All of the holds are new.  If you've never climbed on new climbing holds before, they hurt.  New holds shred your skin because of how textured they are but as more people use them, they don't hurt nearly as bad.  The plus side is that I can climb a lot harder since my hands pretty much stick to everything.

All done.

The lack of seating for spectators and at the storage spaces was a little odd.  A few benches here and there would be a nice addition.  That and the water from all three taps in the bathroom was scorching hot are my only real complaints.  Well done Circuit.

That's all for now.  Bye.