Diablo Rock Gym

I started climbing in Austria where I learned belaying and techniques. The gym I used to go to in Austria has much higher walls (about 3−4x the height of Diablo’s) so the lower walls at Diablo are extremely disappointing. I don’t feel as though I’m getting endurance training at all.
My main issue however is that the staff at Diablo have an air about them like they’re better than everyone. The one female staff member I’ve encountered has been very nice, but the male staff is intolerable. They need an attitude adjustment.
Also, I don’t know how familiar the staff is with climbing itself. It seems as though they are well trained in the Touchstone style of climbing but have no idea what other belaying devices are. At Touchstone they seem to only use GriGris and they expect people to treat other belaying devices the exact same way. I am confident in my belaying as I have been doing it many many times as well as fall training… NEVER have I ever let my partner fall to the ground. Touchstone gym members, however, are extremely bad at belaying. I’m sorry to say but your rigorous testings prove nothing; my belaying partner has complained that while belaying me, some other people fell on him. This is unacceptable. And I do think this is the gym’s fault, since they’ve been teaching people how to belay. I’ve never seen this happen in the gym I go to in Austria, because the staff actually knows proper techniques and how to properly teach.
So while I am an excellent belayer, because I don’t use the same belaying technique, I have not been given a belay card (rather I get the 1-​day passes) because the staff doesn’t know what they’re doing. It is extremely annoying.
I will still go to the gym because it is the only one in the area but only because I’m desperate to climb.

Cut to my 60^th birthday and my decision to join this gym. They gave me the geezer discount. I took the beginning technique class from Julia (hope I got the name right) with my son in-​law and we started with 5.8’s and a few weeks later, we’re doing 5.10’s. The staff are all great, the vibe is mellow and I’m still the oldest climber in the building, ha ha.

We have a Boy Scout event here each year. Very impressed with the staff as they were very helpful and welcoming. Lots of good climbing happened.

I came here a few months ago with my boyfriend. It was our first time at this rock gym. We bought tickets online for the beginners class + day pass package. It came out to be around $ 30 a person. The last time I had been rock climbing (not here) was about 3 years ago and I remember the class being very informative and slow paced… I mean you could really mess up in this sport so it should be.
We started out with the class (this is what brought down the stars): A guy with a cap came over and gave us our harnesses, belay, and carabiner. He then proceeded to show us how to tie everything… super fast like we just needed a refresher. Uh, we are noobs, can you slow down? We were with another couple at the time who were first timers as well and we all had trouble keeping up. He acted very impatient every time we were slightly confused. After asking many questions and getting the same «you should already know this» attitude, we finally suited up and were ready to climb.
The rest of the trip wasn’t that bad. They had many levels from easy to extremely difficult climbs. We tried all the easy to medium ones with the latter being good challenges for us. They also had a tightrope for you to try if you were feeling adventurous, which we were. Although, there are other gyms that are much bigger in comparison, this one was a decent size and you could easily spent 3 hours here.
All in all, if we were there to just climb without the lessons, I could go again. I have to just keep practicing in the air with how to tie the ropes so I don’t forget and can pass the test. Not having to deal with the people who work there every time would be best. Otherwise, I’d definitely pick somewhere else if you were just starting.

It’s the spot! Great environment; friendly people and staff. For $ 70 a month full workout gym, rock climbing, and crossfit classes! Best deal in town. The have both top rope and bouldering as well. Awesome spot for the adventurous!

My daughter was interested in rock climbing for her Bday, I was very excited to have found somewhere near that we can go to. I looked at your website & saw good reviews.
We are all new to rock climbing and your facility, so we even went to check the gym before booking the party. And that’s when I actually first noticed the poor customer service at your front desk. I had questions with the prices and how things worked if I wanted a party. Basically, left your gym that night saying to one of your front desk people: «Should I just look at your website?» Because honestly, he made me feel that he did not have time to answer my questions.
A few days passed, since my daughter really wanted to rock climb for her Bday, I went ahead & called to book the party over the phone. I had a few questions first, coz again we are new to your facility & are not sure on how things work. Well, this is how it ended. I said: «You know what, I’ll just book the party on line.» Why? Because as I was trying to ask & talk to this someone on the phone, he was talking to someone else! I almost did not want to book the party there anymore at this point.
Today…today was the day of the party. I already had an idea of what may go wrong, but I was hoping it would be different. Unfortunately, it was not. Our party was 4−6pm.I was told we are able to use the party room at this slot even though you don’t offer it at this time on Sunday’s. I came a little early @ 3:45pm to check in. We were checked in by JP or PJ. I asked if we are able to set up in the party room & he said there’s a party that is still there & to check back in about 10 minutes. We check back at 3:55pm & asked someone else if the room was ready… JP or PJ annoyingly shouts «I already checked them in!» I had to step away because I did not want to loose it in front of my children and her guests. My husband finally spoke to an older gentleman & we were told that the room is being cleaned, but for the meantime the girls could start climbing. Katie was the girls instructor and if it weren’t for her, my daughter’s experience would’ve been really awful. Katie was awesome! (She is the the reason for the 1 star) Thanks to Katie or else it would’ve gotten really bad.
The whole time that the girls were climbing, guess what happened to the party room? No one ever bothered to come up to me or my husband to follow up on it. We had our cooler, snacks & decorations for the room by the sofa waiting. I just told my husband to take everything to the car & forget it! If it weren’t for one of your other staff over hearing me complain to my older sister about talking to the manager that someone finally talked to us. This was already probably 5:45pm! JP or PJ came out to apologize to my husband, but for what?! It was already done!
Improve your customer service at your front desk. Teach them just simple common courtesy. Teach them that they can’t assume that not every person that walks in your gym is supposed to know what to do! I asked for climbing shoes for one of my daughter’s guests & I get a snarky comment that her shoes is as good to use. I know that! She preferred climbing shoes! JP or PJ rolls his eyes and basically drops the shoes like he did not want to give it to us! Ask him if he heard anything from me?! I’m a very patient person, but I could’ve really lost it there at that point. I’m an adult & your staff are all kids! They are hanging out there in front, flipping their hairs & acting like they can’t be bothered! Please. my daughter loved the experience climbing with Katie. I am really considering signing up so she is able to do more climbing. But if your front desk staff is not going to improve, I’ll take my business somewhere else & soon other people would too.
For the record, I am not complaining so that we can get free classes or a refund. Ask PJ or JP (whatever his name was!), because he did offer that to my husband. Unfortunately, this experience earned you this review.

Reviewer has no previous climbing experience. Writing as a pure beginner.
My SO and I came on a Sunday midday for an introductory climbing class and hung around after to play around. We were really happy with our experience. The intro class is effectively $ 5 on top of admission and gear rental, which signified to us that the gym puts value on safety. The class was small (5 people) and the instructor made sure everyone was competent by the end.
The climbing itself was fun and challenging, but approachable and addicting. There is a bouldering pit, top rope area, and lead climbing area. My guess is that this is a rather small gym, but from a beginner’s perspective, it was plenty big. They advertise that the routes are changed up at least every twelve weeks.
After the experience, we are definitely looking forward to going back and strongly considering a membership.

The positives
Big place with lots of walls to climb and a decent bouldering area.
Amenities include steam room, hot tub, and towel service.
Awesome classes include yoga, crossfit, stretching, and much more…
They hold holiday parties and competitions regularly for members.
Membership is fair at $ 72 a month
The staff is very friendly
The negatives
Parking can be torturous during peak times
they do a lot of parties and so kids can get in your way while you’re climbing (though not a huge problem)
The place is pretty popular and it can be crowded at time, but really only too crowded during peak hours.
Occasionally I will come in and they will be resetting a large portion of the walls which gets in the way of my planned routine. This can be very frustrating and I wish they’d do this during their off hours.
If it wasn’t for the large amounts of kids running around at times, and the resetting of the gym during climbing hours I would give this place 5 stars.

This place is the whole package. Good members, great staff, and impeccable climbing. In addition, their sauna and seam rooms are luxurious and they have showers. The staff is really helpful and have helped challenge me.
All in all, a very good gym to have fun and climb hard

My cousin had her 30^th birthday here and we had a great time! My favorite thing about this place is that it was kid-​friendly and the staff was cool. I want to try bouldering next!

I’ve been a Touchstone member for a bit now, but most of my time is spent at GWPC or Ironworks with the occasional jaunt over to Mission Cliffs or Dogpatch. I checked out Diablo for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely a fan!
From the outside, I was skeptical. The building didn’t look very big, and while the walls aren’t as tall as some of the other gyms, the number of routes for both bouldering and top-​roping are actually pretty substantial. The gym also packs in a decent weight room/​cardio equipment, a pool (!!), a dry and a wet sauna, plus exercise classes + a Crossfit gym as well. This is definitely one of the more all-​inclusive gyms of the Touchstone family.
The staff members here are great too. I didn’t get a sort of pretentious/​arrogant vibe that I’ve felt at a couple of the other gyms. My guest had shoes but needed a harness. The woman at the front desk comped the harness which I definitely appreciated. His belay test went smoothly as well and she was great about giving him some pointers.
Overall, a super positive experience. If I’m ever back in the area, I’ll definitely be back.

I had only been to DRG one other time years ago. My friend that I went with and I are both very new to climbing. Even though we didn’t come on a new class night, Kyle still took the time to show us how to belay and tie the rope correctly.
The staff were all very helpful, especially Kyle going out of his way to make sure we were very competent and safe. I have already gone back again since the first time we went last week and I plan on going more because it was such a great experience.

Not bad! Diablo Rock gym is definitely baby-​sized compared to its other sister sites, but it definitely does NOT lack dynamics. They still provide great routes that is challenging for all levels! It can get a bit crowded though, especially in the evenings and weekends, but it’s not that bad.
I also love the staff members here, they’re all very chill and very helpful. Feels a bit on the slow side, but for some reason, it doesn’t bother me. Probably because the music is so hypnotizing and the general atmosphere is super relaxed.
The bathrooms here are very nice and clean and VERY EMPTY. I’m pretty sure I could go butt naked in here for a good hour and nobody would know. They also provide nice smelling shampoo, conditioner and body wash as well as blow dryers and brushes (pretty dirty though). I think they also provide towels, but I always bring my own anyway so who knows.

Very unhelpful staff, and rude staff. I went there for the first time last week and I have never been so disappointed. The staff member if you can call. him that,.helping us was not helpful, rude, and left us to go play on his cell phone. No other staff member offered to help us and when I asked if there was a manager they said no with a huge rude smile. When climbing the staff also dropped me quickly to the ground even though I told him to go slow and I twisted my ankle. I would not recommend this rock climbing gym to anyone. I will be finding somewhere else to climb. The managers are obviously not interested in obtaining new clients.

Id like to rate this in 5 areas
1. As a Rock Gym — Not the biggest gym I have been to, but certainly one of the most fun. Lots of good technical routes here to keep you busy for hours. I wish the bouldering area was a bit larger because it gets really crowded in the evenings, but its still a lot of fun and they keep the routes fresh. Has a good range of routes for people of all skills. Easily as good as any other rock gym I have been to. Its pretty empty in the mornings so thats the best time to go. They also have a slack line and a campus board as well as monthly challenges.
2. As a gym/​cross fit gym — Lots of machines and free weights. You can do almost any routine you would do at any other gym although they are lacking some of the fancier machines. What they have works just fine for me. There is an outdoor area where they do cross fit. I can’t speak to the cross fit because I don’t participate in the classes.
3. Classes — So far I have only done a couple of the classes and they have been great. They have a paper schedule that shows you all of the classes for the month when you walk in, Id recommend picking that up.
4. Staff and Community — The staff and members are pretty much the friendliest people on the planet. The sense of community here is outstanding and I have yet to run into anyone who isn’t polite or acts indecent towards other people. Everyone is extremely respectful. The staff is very helpful and will go out of their way to help you out. The teachers are also knowledgable and will work with you individually if you ask them.
5. Locker Rooms — EDIT: I GOT A MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGER — He told me that he was fixing all of the things listed below. Just like I said, the staff here is ¹⁰⁄₁₀.
The men’s locker room left a lot to be desired. The Suana was missing a knob so it was hard to tell what temperature it was at. The steam room isn’t bad but it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while. The showers work… some of them… the shower heads appear to be really old and they are very cheap to update so I am not sure why they still have some that don’t work. The soap dispensers are kind of hit and miss — some of them work well, some do not. I saw some guy attempt to use the hair dryer and it didn’t work. The lockers look really old and a lot of them are missing numbers. Overall the locker rooms could really use some work. I have yet to go to some of the other touchstone gyms, but I suspect I would find the same thing with the older gyms in the network. I think one of the saving graces here is that they actually give you a good towel, which is something that I really missed at other gyms.
Overall its a really good gym and I would give it 5 stars if it wasn’t for my issues with the locker room. The staff, teachers, and trainers there are really steller and I would definitely give them ⁵⁄₅. The rock climbing and gym experience itself is also really great and I would that ⁵⁄₅.
As a bonus, this place has quite a few youngsters going through it because that is the nature of a rock gym. They do an excellent job of keeping the kids out of trouble and out of the gym area. They also keep the gym and rock area very clean.
I recommend checking this place out if you are in the Diablo Valley.

I went climbing here today with my brother for some bouldering and it was awesome. Really impressed with this gym. Great bouldering area, weights and treadmills, top-​roped climbs, and they even have a sauna in the locker room. I was like «what???» Really cool place you’ll totally enjoy it. Just $ 15 to climb before 3pm and only $ 20 I think for an entire day pass. Worth your cash!

Great place to climb. Staff is ALWAYS extremely friendly and welcoming. DRG is always clean, staff are great and good climbing too.

I would give this place 5 stars for the staff alone! But since I’ve climbed several other gyms — it gets only 4 just because they are not nearly as huge-​a-​mungeous as Planet Granite in Sunnyvale where I first learned to climb. But it’s very close!!! I think PG is only bigger than DRG because they have a fully enclosed gym area including a spin class etc. DRG also has a complete gym, but it doesn’t have a tread climber and some of the other crazy contraptions I’ve seen elsewhere. They have weights, treadmills, versa climbers, row machines… full locker rooms with saunas and showers.
The bouldering area is challenging as it has both cave climbs and all sorts of pitch complete with a climb up cliff and jump off (6′ off the floor). Great variations for V0 all the way up to V9’s for the pro’s that also come to climb here. Hans Florine runs this place so it always has something for the advanced climber :-) They have the DRG Challenge board that allows anyone to compete throughout the year.
Rope climbs are outstanding. They change the routes up every 6 weeks or so and make sure that there is ongoing variation throughout the gym. Everything from 5.2 (for kids and birthday parties, speed climbs for teens, and beginners alike) all the way up to 5.13d.
Bring your own belay device. You can buy a gri-​gri at the front desk, but you can rent a harness with an ATC.
It’s in a great location within a stone’s throw of REI, Any Mountain, Lazy Dog, Elephant Bar, Panera, Fuddruckers… etc. So after you work up an appetite — you can finish off your day any way you’d like. Parking is no problem and everyone in the gym is very friendly and helpful.
We love DRG!

Just had my first visit to the Diablo gym today and I had fun — it was nice that it wasn’t crazy crowded at 10am. The main down-​side is that the walls are only about 30′ high.
I think that the routesetters make up for that by doing more unique things for shorter routes with the starts and mix it up — a 10c/​d was a lot more pumpy than I expected. I found 11a and 11b routes to be more challenging which makes me think that the route setters partly rate based on endurance (not so much an issue with shorter walls) so there are more technical moves required on some of the routes, and a lot more different grades of overhangs at this gym.
I just wish they had more lap swimming hours for members at nearby SwimTech — I would have stayed all afternoon! Looking forward to climbing here again.

Who would of thought BOULDERING is a real work out? My first time experience was a fun aspect but also tough. A lot of upper body strength using your core and mind boggling trying to figure out which spot to use as leverage.
Came here and made it a mother daughter day with the mini and had a fabulous time. Glad this gym actually had a lot of weight equipment, treadmills, ellipticals, and a swimming pool because I needed to get in some cardio before climbing. Diablo gym has friendly staff & a spotless gym. Will I be back? YES!!!