azclimber.com

Hoffman Estates, IL - http://www.prairiestonesports.com/

*Prairie Stone is not a rock gym. It is a fitness center that has a rock wall. Check their website for open climb days because unless you are a member they will not let you climb. We went there on one such day and it was a disaster. We saw the wall prior to our climb, saw that it was small, but decided the price of five dollars was worth it just to get on a wall for a couple of hours. It was not worth the five dollars. “Open climb” must be interpreted by members with children as “Open babysitting.” When we went, only two staff members were belaying with an auto-belay in service as well. Three ropes and no bouldering. And too many kids. The night we climbed Prairie Stone stunk. It might have been an off-night, but I didn’t get that feeling.

-Staff: fair. The staff were nice enough, especially considering all the kids they had to watch, but there was an incident that cemented the fact that I will never climb there again. I outweighed the staff member by at least 50 pounds and when he belayed me (I would have preferred my climbing partner to do so, but you must to make an appointment to get belay-checked and that guy could not be reached to make such an appointment) the staff did not anchor in and wasn’t prepared when he got yanked up the wall.

-Cost/rental equipment: fair. Prairie Stone doesn’t get a ‘poor’ here because its only a five-spot to climb, harnesses are free, and they provide belay devices. You need to bring your own shoes unless you don’t mind climbing in tennis shoes or barefoot, they do not have shoes to rent.

-# of routes/space usage: poor. There are more than three routes, but only three ropes. This means lines to go up. It sucks.

-Route markings: fair. They did a decent job marking the routes when they were first set, but some of the tape fell off and not replaced.

-Merch: poor. By poor, we mean none.

-Extras: poor. Some could claim that Prairie Stone has the most extras of any rock gym seeing as they have a fully staffed physical therapy room, actual daycare, weight and cardio machines, pool, sauna, basketball and volleyball courts, et cetera but we are judging them as a rock gym not as a gym with a rock wall (which is exactly what they are).