The Pad SLO, San Luis Obispo CA

Not sure how you could give this place anything less than 5 stars. Clean, friendly, open 24/7 for members (!?), good variety/quality of routes and decent rate of refreshing old ones. Superb climbing gym!

The bouldering and top rope routes were great. Checkin staff was friendly. I would have loved to give this place 5 stars, but they had a group of little kids running around, and literally screaming, completely out of control. There was a very young gentleman (ok, kid) "in charge" of them, but he wasn't even close to being in charge. They were running up and down the bouldering area, not looking out for anybody on the walls. One kid grabbed an older gentleman's chalk bag, chalked up, and then dumped the bag in the process. The older gentleman was not impressed at all. The kid said he thought the chalk was for everyone. Nobody was watching him. The kid group then moved over to the auto-belays. The kids would each take one of the only 4 autobelays, and climb random holds to about half way up, then come down, and do it over and over again. When tired, they'd just lay on the ground at the bottom, still hooked in. After waiting quite a while for a route, I asked the kid on it (the instructor wasn't around), if I could give it a go, and he just said he was going to switch routes with his buddy. (He eventually relented after a stern talking to).
They really need a much more responsible person running any kids program they have.

It's nice to have a place for people to do that isn't overpriced. Quite a few climbing walls for a smaller place. It's perfect for our community.

I love all their free-climb walls, roped & harnessed walls, and they have soft landing pads when you fall or jump down.

The prices are pretty good. Especially for the fact that the facility is open 24 hours a day for monthly members.

My teenage son and his friend had a great time climbing for their first time, and they are not athletic at all.

It is also a good place for large groups for birthdays.

Looking for a place to hang out! Look no further! From Beginners to the Experienced climbers! Awesome employee's!

After visiting several walls across California, I have to say, wicked! Routesetters have made a massive effort to bring an outdoorsy feel to it! V1-V4s are really fun, on the easy side compared to other walls to help you build up up your confidence.
V5-V8s are a blast, fun starts, traverse moments, lots of pockets and pinches. Not many big volumes or dynos though, like comp walls tend to have.
A few hardcore Vs for the Ondra’s wannabes out there!
I think it’s a fantastic indoor wall. Also really, really nice and welcoming staff. I can’t recommend them enough!

Decently tall climbs with nicely spread out and separated areas for climbing and bouldering. Staff are helpful even when things get busy

Just a great place to have fun and get a fantastic workout at the same time. The membership has grown, the vibe 8s great, the staff is awesome.

This is a great climbing gym.and we go to gyms all around the country. I was here for 4 months during a travel contract. It was easy to sign up and get lead certified and everyone is friendly. I love that you can get in 24/7 to boulder, workout and shower. Great selection of lead routes as well! They switch up the walls often to keep you on your toes. I've also never been to a gym that lent shoes and harness. Way to remove a barrier for new climbers. Can't recommend enough! Thanks!

Just came out of the gym and still stocked about the climbing here. Such a nice welcoming and introducing to the area! Thank you so much! Great route setting and atmosphere, we loved it. Unfortunately we just do a quick stop here on our road trip, so maybe only one climbing session left:)

I'm so grateful that The Pad is back! It's clean, well organized, and the people are always super kind. Cannot recommend enough!

Climbed here as a student for two years, excellent route setting, great community, very welcoming and forgiving staff

Me and my stepson go 3 or 4 times a week. We love the pad. Being able to go 24/7 as a member is amazing. 2am and you get that itch? No problem the pads got your back!

Excellent experience! Climbing for all ages and skill levels, plus other activities like Yoga and weights. There's something for everyone!

Been here for over a decade. Clean, full-service, great staff. Continually renewing their equipment. Racquetball and Squash courts are kept in really nice shape

Had a great time there today! Took my 14 year old nephew for his first time climbing and we'll definitely be back soon. Place had a ton of fun routes for beginners like us and the front staff made us feel welcomed and answered any and all questions we had. I forgot the guy's name but to the guy working the front desk on your birthday today you're awesome!

The staff is rude. Just a bunch of burnouts who sit at the front desk gossiping and laughing at people the whole time.

The showers are luke warm, generally out of body wash & shampoo, and it's hard water so you'll leave extremely itchy. (If you ask them to refill the dispensers they will. I guess in the meantime they're too busy sitting at the front desk stoned, playing on their mac books. Apparently that equates to work at this place.)

They will continue to charge you a full monthly rate when they are closed down for a pandemic.

They lock the yoga studios so you cant freestyle.

It smells like a dirty foot in there all the time.

Gym is nice, unfortunately it’s hard to climb since there are unsupervised children running around with absolutely no grasp on climbing etiquette. The gym is already over capacity couple that with the herd of children jumping routes, make for very unproductive climbing. They would benefit greatly with and expansion with larger child section.and staff that enforce those boundaries. (This all applies to bouldering section) I do really like this gym unfortunately, due to these things climbs have been rather disappointing.

The Pad and Kristin are incredible. They truly care about people and I've been personally blessed by them. Go here. They genuinely want you to thrive!