Stone Climbing Gym has been operating in Spokane since 2000 — longer than most people realize — and it has quietly become one of the more serious climbing facilities in the Pacific Northwest. The building, out on West Sunset Highway near the airport, doesn’t announce itself. It looks like a warehouse because it is a warehouse, roughly 20,000 square feet of it, with walls that rise to around 45 feet at the tallest point.
The gym runs both top-rope and lead climbing on its roped walls, plus a full bouldering area with routes that cycle out regularly enough that regulars aren’t staring at the same problems every week. The setting angles range from vertical slabs to overhangs that’ll humble you fast if you assume gym climbing is easier than it looks. There’s also a decent kilter board setup for training, which the stronger climbers tend to cluster around on weekday evenings.
Day passes run around $20 for adults, with gear rental on top of that if you don’t have your own shoes and harness. First-time visitors will need to get a belay check if they want to climb the roped walls, which is standard practice at any reputable gym. The staff runs those checks without making you feel like you’re taking a driving test, and they’re generally patient with people who learned to belay at a different gym and just need to demonstrate competency.
What makes Stone worth a specific trip rather than a passing mention is the community that’s built up around it. Spokane doesn’t have dozens of climbing options, so this gym concentrates a wide cross-section — younger athletes training seriously, older folks who’ve been climbing since the 1980s and treat the place like a social club, beginners who just discovered the sport and are still figuring out how to read a route. On a Saturday afternoon the bouldering area has a loose, collegial energy where it’s normal to ask a stranger for beta on a problem you’ve been stuck on for 20 minutes.
The gym also runs youth programs and an adaptive climbing program, the latter being something that’s genuinely rare in this region and worth noting if you’re looking for inclusive options for a family member or friend with a disability.
If you haven’t climbed before, Stone offers intro classes a few times a week that cover the basics — movement, footwork, how to fall safely, how to belay. It’s a couple hours and runs somewhere around $60 to $70 with rental gear included. That’s a fair price to find out whether you like it enough to keep going.
The location isn’t particularly convenient if you’re staying downtown, but the drive is under 15 minutes from most of Spokane, and the parking situation is painless. Go on a weekday evening if you want to see the regulars in full force. Go on a weekend morning if you want more wall space to yourself and a slightly calmer atmosphere. Either way, bring water — the facility is big and the air circulates, but you’ll work up a sweat faster than you expect.
