azclimber.com

Chicago, IL http://www.lsac.com/loc.php?l=ic&a=climbwall

*The IC is like Prairie Stone in two key ways: both are gyms that have rock walls as opposed to rock gyms, and both have a limited number of ropes (IC has four and PS three) resulting in the high probability of having to wait for a rope. Unlike Prairie Stone, the Illinois Center has a wall worth climbing, and a good amount of rental gear. Oh yeah, the IC’s wall is 100 feet tall. It is kickass. Once again, however, a lack of ropes is a major disappointment since you will most likely have to wait for a rope. That stinks. We agreed that for an avid climber, it would be best to climb it once or twice for the experience because roping here consistently might be aggravating.

-Staff: good. The staff member we encountered was helpful enough, but own main complaint was she continually climbed during our session there effectively reducing the already small number of ropes from four to three. Esta no bueno.

-Cost/rental equipment: good. There is a trick here when paying (if you are a guest and not a member) at the front desk. There are really two levels of fee, one is for a belay certification and the other is for a belay check. If you have climbed before, when you sign in and pay you need to say you just need to be belay checked. A belay check is the usual song and dance a visitor needs to go through so the gym knows he/she is not an idiot, a belay certification is like a class to teach a first-timer how to belay. The fee drops from $40 to $20.

-# of routes/space usage: good/excellent. The number of routes available for four ropes is actually fairly high. Each rope has about three to five routes each, but again there are only four ropes. No matter how good a wall is, it cannot make up for the fact it has four ropes. Bleh.

-Route markings: excellent. The IC does a great job of keeping routes marked, as 100 foot route require some energy conservation.

-Merch: fair. They have a display case of some various products but do not expect to show up here and be able to outfit yourself. They have a couple different pairs of shoes, one or two harnesses, and a few chalk bags.

-Extras: good. This isn’t even a gym anymore but a sports complex. The list of things here is too massive to list (for crying out loud they even have a sushi bar) but most of it is irrelevant to a climber looking for a rock gym. To restate: the wall at the Illinois Center is great and you should climb it but one or two days is enough to get a good feel for it, but this isn’t a rock gym and as such might get old in a hurry.