Climbing the Walls, on Third Street

Next door to the Museum of Craft & Design, on Third Street, Dogpatch Boulders offers a 20,500 square feet climbing gym, with 17-foot-high walls. The facility is inside an adapted warehouse space, originally built for American Can Company in the 1950s. When it opened in 2013 it was the country’s largest bouldering center. Since then, the gym’s parent company, Touchstone Climbing, created an even bigger place, Pacific Pipe, in Oakland.

“When we came across this space in the Dogpatch District of San Francisco, we fell in love,” Chris Zeng, Dogpatch Boulder’s manager, said. “We’re excited and proud to be a part of this neighborhood’s community as it continues to grow and evolve.” 

On a quiet Monday afternoon, roughly a dozen individuals climbed the walls. Luhanna Lopez and her boyfriend, from Monterey, were in the area to spend time with her brother. She’d previously been to a climbing facility a handful of times and thought she could really get into it.

“I’ve only been to two other gyms, but this one is definitely a lot bigger,” she said. “[The routes] are marked from easiest to hardest. Some are clearly harder than others… I am pretty motivated to get the ones that are a little harder!”

Her partner, Kenny Aguillera, visits rock climbing gyms about once a month. “It’s definitely worth paying for the day pass here,” he said, which costs $30.

Dogpatch Boulders offers fitness classes, including yoga and strength training, as well as bouldering lessons. Routes are changed every three months to provide new challenges. Climbing instructor and personal trainer, David Lester, who teaches classes two days a week at Dogpatch Boulders, as well as at Mission Cliffs, said there’s growing interest in rock climbing. 

“When climbing first debuted in the Olympics—even when it was announced—there was a wave coming,” he said, with interest increasing post-pandemic.

Dogpatch Boulders hosts special interest group climb days, which regularly include Black Rock Collective, a Black climbing group; Lady Crush Crew, consisting of mostly women and female-identified people; Lagartijas, for BIPOC climbers; and Queer Crush, catering to LGBTQ+ community members. Annually, the facility hosts the Bay Area’s largest climbing competition, Battle of the Bay, to be held this year on November 3 and 4. Before the competition the gym’s route setters set up new routes. 

The facility offers hang boards – to strengthen fingers, hands, wrists, and arms – a cardio space, yoga studio, fitness room, campusing wall – for working the arms and upper body –  a systems wall – a dedicated climbing area with regularly spaced pairs of holds – and a Kilter Board, a high-tech stand-alone device that can tilt at vertical angles, enabling a climber to hang from 10 degrees to 68 degrees. Locker rooms are equipped with free lockers, showers and saunas.

“Lots of families and children use this gym and our other gyms. We simply ask that children and parents follow the rules we’ve set to ensure the safety of everyone,” Zeng said. “We also offer kids camps and kids programs, which are very popular. Dogpatch Boulders even has a dedicated kids’ climbing area.”