Hangar 18 Indoor Climbing Gym - South Bay

My son used to be a very shy scrawny little boy who hated exercise. He wouldn’t play sports, I forced him into taking karate since he wouldn’t go near any kind of team sports because he wasn’t confident and hated the feeling of responsibility if he made a bad play. After years of karate and I appreciated every second of that class, he was still weaker than the other boys and although he was even teaching the kid’s classes, he didn’t feel like it was a good fit for him, he felt the stress to keep up with the class and be truly good enough to be a black belt, he needed to train harder but his heart was not there. He started climbing at Hangar 18 when he went through a hard period of his young life when something traumatic happened to him. He found himself being challenged by bouldering and could feel he was getting stronger as he held himself up on the walls. He has been climbing for 2 years now and he is SO strong he can almost do a one armed pull up, he’s ripped, confident, and most of all, he is very happy. He started driving at 17 and has been going regularly since he could drive, and he is so focused and has clear goals to be a great climber. This is purely against himself, there is no sparring, no combat, nothing at all like karate and this is such a great fit for him and his personality. I’m so happy that he is so mentally, physically and emotionally healthy, I don’t ever have to worry about him not getting his exercise, except he does need to get his heart rate up and do some cardio… but this is great!!! His friends join sometimes and he takes his little sister they climb together and challenge each other. The workers here are all very serious about their jobs and if you ever go for a class or take minors they make sure you have proper waivers, training and are strict which is great, safety first! I don’t want there to be any accidents so I feel good that they are pretty strict. But you can tell that they also are having fun, they like their jobs. The atmosphere is very friendly but like I said they are strict and they need to be. They don’t do birthday parties they don’t have any frills- just straight forward rock climbing. I love that they don’t take up space for little kids parties. More serious about climbing. Good job!

Review for April 2024: I've been here three times so far, and unfortunately, it's the only Hangar that I have been to that will receive 4 stars. Mostly because the holds for the routes here feel really janky and old. The overall experience of rock climbing is still here. The routes offer a lot of variety, and they have top rope, auto belay, and a lead climb section. The staff here is friendly and very knowledgeable of climbing techniques and protocol. The bathroom and overall environment are clean. They have a small top out section for bouldering and use the v-system over the tag system, which is always a plus. However, the only issue are half the holds smooth when they probably shouldn't be, most likely through overuse. I've also seen a few slightly painted over holds as well, haha. I'll still visit because, like I said, the overall environment is good, and it's still fun to climb here once in a while, but it would not be my first choice out of all the nearby Hangar 18s.

Not the best time when I went because 1/3 of the gym was in construction. It’s extremely noisy and loud. I don’t find it pleasurable to climb in this environment. However, this location does look like a good gym if there were no construction. There were not many people when I was there. They have this cool lighting wall in the last photo too! I’m not sure how it works but it looks fun. My home gym didn’t have this. Parking lot is spacious but shared with other businesses. The gym itself is spacious compared to some other Hangar 18. Shoes keeper at the entrance was very helpful. Staff was nice.

I wouldn’t recommend if you prefer rope climbing. Limited routes, quite soft grading at least to the 11s, and some routes are not available for climbing due to the way the gym is set up (for example the offwidth).

This gym has definitely improved over the last three years. It continues to provide challenging and creative routes at a competitive monthly price. Also nice that there's no initiation fee or charge for freezing your membership. They also have tons of locations so you'll never run out of problems. I recommend checking out the long beach location as well.