PSA: The entrance is on a small commercial/office park street off Gasstraße *not* Mendelssohnstraße…read moreas it might look like on some maps. Don't make the mistake I did and wander around in circles wasting precious time where you could have been climbing! Cool, now that that's over with... My hometown gym is Dogpatch Boulders in SF, and I routinely complain about how Dogpatch has "ruined" other climbing gyms for me because bouldering just isn't as fun anywhere else. So when my coworker described FLASHH as "like Dogpatch," I was skeptical. Turns out he was right! The problems here are challenging, with a wide variety of holds and routes. There's plenty of space, and a range of route heights as well. Problems tend to involve fewer, larger holds and more reach and flexible movement than I'm used to, which was surprisingly fun rather than frustrating (given my short height). Routes are rated on the Fontainebleau scale, typical in Europe, rather than the V scale. I have yet to figure out the exact conversion, but regardless there's plenty of variety in problems to keep climbers at all levels interested. Finally, the most important question: How to pronounce the name of this place? Is the second "H" silent? Guess I'll have to go back and ask!

I've been to climbing gyms all over the place, and this is easily one of the nicest. They've really…read moremade the best of the huge amount of space they have. There's good problem variety, both in style and in difficulty, and at the end of the night I was going home because I was beat, not because I was bored. Having only been there once, I can't say how well they handle problem rotation, but considering the attention paid to everything else (and the size of the place), I feel comfortable assuming they do a good job. Despite having other climbing gyms closer, this is the place I'll be getting a membership to. The only downside is that it was a seriously hot night and the fans were not at all keeping up. I imagine most of the time this isn't a problem, but it was basically a sauna.