I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Charlotte since the beginning of June. Enough that I believe a more proper review of Inner Peaks can be written!

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: to me the most important part of any climbing gym is the community! I don’t care how poor the facility is, when you’ve got people you enjoy you make the most of it.

Fortunately this place is not a poor facility and it has a great community! One I’m glad I got to be a part of, even if only for a few months.

The gym itself is a beautiful facility. All the bells and whistles you’d expect to see from a recently built gym. Full workout room with all types of exercise equipment and a training area with a Moonboard AND a Tension board! They’ve also got a campus board, several hangboards, pull-up bars and a few other things. Well rounded in a training capacity.
The climbing itself was very good. I only touched the bouldering, but I’ve been told the sport setting is very good. The walls are TALL, at least 60ft with relatively consistent angles.

The bouldering walls are Walltopia and you know what that means — my favorite feature (not)! Textured walls. They look great, they feel great, but even with great footwork toe rubber gets chewed threw much quicker. I don’t find it particularly beneficial from a training perspective either.

The angles are pretty consistent, but I wish there were some overhung walls that didn’t have an angle change. Plenty of bouldering real estate however, so even though the boulder density isn’t as high as I’d prefer there are still plenty of problems. There is a section of slab in the back corner of the gym that regulars affectionality (or maybe not haha) call “The Bike Rack”. Presumably because that’s all it’s good for. I tend to agree. 🙂

The grade distribution is great! I don’t think it’s helpful to put a specific grade on a problem, but that’s a minor gripe. The grading definitely has a triangular distribution, but there are still at least 15-20 problems v7+ with typically 3-4 v9 and 1-2 v10 at a time! It’s great!

The setting was excellent and very consistent. The headsetter regularly boulders outside and it is reflected in his setting. A lot of unique movement that he keeps fresh by traveling a lot.

Something must have improved in the setting because I didn’t spin a single hold. How the gym got the name “Spinner Peaks”, I’ll never know haha

Met some great people there too! Both Ben and Henry welcomed me into their group and I got hang with a lot of strong climbers! I didn’t know how much I would enjoy climbing at Inner Peaks, but once I met those guys it was great!

The last thing I want to touch on is cost: I feel like the gym is quite pricey, but my biggest gripe is the $70 initiation fee. The silver lining is the 7th month is ‘free’ so there is that, but for those only climbing for a month or two you are stuck paying quite a lot for a day pass or shelling $140-$210 for one or two months of climbing. Steep!

Over all I loved climbing at Inner Peaks and would encourage anyone to check it out.

Inner Peaks South End
Wall Space	(0-10)	8
Wall Shape	(0-10)	6
Setting Quality	(0-10)	8
Route Density	(0-10)	6
Grade Spread	(0-10)	8
Wall Material	(0,2.5,5)	2.5
Screw-Ons	(0,2.5,5)	5
Climbing Training Equipment	(0-5)	4
General Training Equipment	(0-3)	3
Total Score	(68)	50.5