I live in Whistler, have been climbing since the early '90s, indoors and out. I train at Ground Up whenever I am in Squamish, and usually go once a week in winters. It is a solid climbing gym, with good route variety, refreshed often, and decent progression. It has a large, gym-length bouldering wall on the second level, mostly focused on overhanging routes, and a decent number of walls for roped climbing, including a freestanding pillar.
However it could do with a small number of improvements:
1/ The upstairs bouldering gets busy and crowded fast with kids running around without much adult supervision. There aren't enough benches, and often I would find my chalk bag tossed aside or my stuff sat on. This perhaps has to do with the "urbanisation" of climbing culture, and I question why climbing parents aren't teaching more safety-oriented behaviour. This isn't a playground. While Ground Up cannot fix a culture, it can lead the way, and (much) more needs to be done here to avoid an environment where accident becomes all the more likely due to kids (literally!) running around underneath you or swinging into you. More than once I have been kicked in the shin by a kid *running* past the benches. At the very least, look into how to add more benches and create more space (you'll need to reduce the mats on the south side). As for the kids, get them under control, or you'll be dealing with the lawsuit(s) once someone gets really hurt.
2/ The workout/training area is pretty small, the equipment is tired, and the indoor bike is flat-out broken. The benches are ripped and worn. Much more could be done with this space to make it useable; much more training equipment could be provided in other spots in the gym, like hangboards.
3/ No one knows where to put their street shoes. Put some mats on top of the lockers!
4/ Locals vibe. Yep! Welcome to Squamish. Locals are friendly though. Just say hi.
As for this gym being a bit sandbagged... well, I guess it is, but the comment here saying that perhaps reflects an urban approach. This gym is more easily graded than the Core in Whistler, for example, and is about on par with Hive in Vancouver. Some gyms in Montreal are harder graded than Ground Up. Overall I find that Ground Up contains a wide variety of routes with solid progression at lower grades -- something I look for, as I'm often looking to train endurance, and not power, and climb for longer while not spending $$ to be quickly exhausted. On the boulder wall, there is a selection of styles, from modern/gymnastic to crimpy/power, balancey and footwork to arms and fingers. Yes, it is mostly overhanging and there is no top-out. So YMMV here, but imo, it's fairly priced for the space and number of route options. read more