First Ascent Block 37 - Chicago, Illinois

Sean Bready

My Friend who is a member decided to take my girlfriend and I to join him and his girlfriend. Space was very easy to navigate and wasn’t too packed, but had regulars there, for midday during a Sunday. The space offers a lot of routes for varying degrees of difficulty as well as has a nice assortment of weights to use for warming up to strengthen and condition. The views are great and bring a lot of natural light into the facility.

Dulce Becerra

Gran lugar para escalar en Chicago, tiene muchos muros de todos los niveles, muy limpias las instalaciones y el personal muy amable.

Alexander Sofronas

Excellent bouldering problems and very kind staff, highly recommend!

Katherine Slattery

I went here when I was visiting my friend who lives in the area and I was quite impressed by this rock climbing gym. They have many different levels of bouldering you can try. In addition, the gym has such a nice view of the city. There is also a free weights area and some cardio machine. The free weights area has ample equipment, with barbells, dumbbells, and a few machines. There are also a few tables and you could take a break to do some studying or remote work if you wanted.

Tim T

Stopped by while in town for a conference. Excellent gym. Wide variety of interesting problems with excellent setting. The problems will appeal to those with varying styles and abilities. (Personally, I love slab, and found lots of great slab problems, which is rare at most bouldering gyms). Also very glad to see they are using V-grades instead of the color/spectrum/circuits style grading that many bouldering gyms are using now. Many other amenities including weights, cardio equipment, etc. I would certainly get a membership here if I were local.

沈宗豪Matthew Sim Tzong Haur

The place is very well-kept and all the facilities are working well. The gym also offers free locker service which is very useful for someone with low budget and work-out alone. There are plenty of routes of various bouldering grades spread around the gym. Finally the staff was helpful and friendly. I really enjoyed my time at FA! Definitely going back when I can!

Matthew Kerr

1️⃣0️⃣/1️⃣0️⃣Experience
Was in the city for the first time for a couple days and came here on a whim. I’m very glad that I did, super great bouldering facility. Has everything I’d want in a gym, friendly staff and crowd (20s to 30s age range mostly if that matters to you), relatively big fitness area for a climbing gym, city/street overlooks, and some really fun wall formations and routes. Beginner friendly, plenty of entry climbing and fun challenging routes. Would recommend!

Adrian Garcia Badaracco

First Ascent is one of my favorite places in Chicago. To me it’s really more than a place, it’s a community. I come to FA to climb, to work out and even just to work and run into people. Everyone I’ve met is extreme kind and friendly. I especially want to give a shout out to the staff who are nothing but great. I’ve been a member for 4 years now!

I love the events, in particular the 1 day events like Le Tour. I bet some more ambitious outdoorsy member gatherings like climbing, biking or camping trips would be a big hit.

I do think there’s some things that can be improved.

Some more staff, especially at the busy gyms like Block 37 would go a long way. On busy days the people at the front desk can get totally overwhelmed, lines out the door. I’d also appreciate if there was a staff member, ideally someone more senior, dedicated to walking around to interact with the community, be it small tips and coaching on the walls, looking out for safety issues, brushing chalked up holds or just hanging out. They could also be one to do small tasks like check lost and found, tidy up the gym, etc.

Cleanliness and maintenance can be also be issues. Corners get extremely dusty and bathrooms are often missing soap and other basics. It seems like the cleaning crews don’t have much ownership over the space or communication on what need to be done just isn’t there. I’ve mentioned this to staff a couple of times but apparently the cleaning crews are third parties that they don’t get much control over. I feel like cleaning used to be better.

My takeaway is that this is an amazing community but I do fear that as it expands things will start to slip through the cracks. I’d caution that trying to turn this into a pure for profit business may loose a lot of what makes it special.