Singapore Bouldering Gym Review: Ground Up Climbing
Also my home (only) gym over a decade ago
This post is part of a blog series reviewing all the bouldering gyms in Singapore targeted at new climbers and foreign visitors. Check out the origin article here:
Group Up Climbing Review
At a glance
Note that these are specifically for bouldering, Ground Up is a gym that’s catered towards toprope and lead climbs
Environment: 4/5 - Generally clean with onsite toilet, changing room, and showers. Not much QoL amenities and the water cooler is a centralised one for the building (a few minutes walk away from the gym). Child-friendly snacks and drinks are available for sale here and there’s also a nice gear shop featuring local brands
Social experience: 3/5 (as a working adult)- Usually full of team kids who will flash your project until about 7-8PM, other climbers here seem to be at the higher grades who are here to train more than socialise and it can be difficult to strike conversations unless you’re projecting V6s and above with them
Training experience: 5/5 - Only thing this gym lacks is a moonboard, but that’s beyond my paygrade anyway. Routes here trend towards old-school - crimpy, tanky, and static-able - but there’s also always a few newer flashier comp styles. IMO a gym to go if you’re serious about gitting gud
Around the area: 4/5 - There’s City Square Mall nearby in the day but nothing much is opened nearby after 9 PM. But if you’re willing to walk ~15 minutes, there’s a 24-hours Enchanted Cafe towards Whampoa side and the locally-famous food streets around Jalan Besar Stadium
In point form
Old-school gym located at the second floor of Civil Service Club (CSC) @ Tessensohn Road that’s primary catered for top-rope and lead climbing
Features a highly-underrated (IMO) bouldering section consisting of 2 floors, kilterboard + spray wall + endurance wall + kids routes on first floor, climbing-focused/calisthenics gym area and commercial bouldering routes on second
Be prepared to sweat, air-conditioning may/may not be turned on on the second floor commercial routes section - part of the old-school experience :D
Routes trend towards old-school and requires more finger strength than your typical beginner-friendly gyms in Singapore, V1s here can be V2/3 elsewhere just based on finger strength
Routes here seem to be set with kids having a chance in mind, as a result, is friendly for strong female climbers who may not have span. Occasionally when they have events, some walls may also be set specifically for kids in mind (think box training?)
Has a nice balance of straight wall, slab, incline, and overhang routes and they’re one of the gyms that know how to set interesting dihedral routes
Gym equipment in the gym section is catered towards bodyweight/calisthenics/climbing workouts
Demographics tend to be climbers in the V5++ range, and team kids + parents/coaches
Really good food available nearby-ish (~15 minutes walk to the Jalan Besar Stadium area), but if you’re not the kind to walk…
Bowling alley downstairs if your fingers need an extra push
Roadside parking is available nearby or you can park at CSC
Avoid early evenings to avoid falling on unsupervised kids
Logistics
Grades are communicated using the V scale - the only gym in Singapore (as of 2024 Q3) to do this explicitly
Shoe and harness rental available
Download the Gymmaster app to sign their waiver and purchase passes (can also be done over the counter)
Pass sharing is done via Instagram DM/phone calls using mobile number as a person’s identifier
Nearest MRTs: Farrer Park (Purple Line)
Routesetting happens every Monday afternoon (finishes ~7PM)
Ask them questions via Instagram DM
Links
Personal story
Ground Up Climbing used to be ClimbAsia back in the day (yes I’m that old I guess 😅) and was one of the only places in Singapore with a bouldering gym that resembles the gyms of today.
Surprisingly, they’ve maintained the same way of monitoring access since then — a coloured wrist band — but the entire double-storey bouldering area has been renovated and is now air-conditioned and much more well equipped. Can’t imagine a climbing sesh without air-conditioning these days tbh
First started coming here because they had a birthday celebration pass discount in May where I bought their multipass offering. Ended up here for three interesting sessions.
A view of what the second floor is like:
On the last of these sessions I was even treated to no-tex holds (I believe they’re one of the first - if not the first - to have these holds on a boulder problem)
So around April, I gave up my membership with BM to go around exploring gyms. I wanted to see what else was out there and Ground Up caught my attention. Partially because it used to be ClimbAsia where I spent about two years climbing at in my youth.
Came here with the usual gang of people about three times so far and had quite a bit of fun training with the (relatively) old-school styles here. First floor was kinda out of bounds because most of us aren’t at board-climbing training level yet (did my first V0 board route here tho - and it felt like a V3 commercial route, humbling!), same with the spray wall.
This gym however is mainly catered for top-rope and lead climbers, and the bouldering environment kinda reflects that.
If you’re looking for a quiet gym to project by yourself or just to get in some hardcore training volume on old-school styles, this is the place to be. It’s generally quiet after 7:30PM and the team kids have gone home but be prepared to have your ego shot down before that as they jump around on V6s like they’re V1s.
I also really appreciate this gym as the only one that grades routes for what they are instead of assigning a gym-specific grading with some colour/arbitrary number value. For me, it’s a place where I can benchmark the level I’m climbing at.
Route grading here has also been quite consistent throughout all my visits here, but I think the setters might be too strong to accurately assess lower grades. Some V3s - especially on the overhang - feel like a V4 but only because it’s tanky, not because of technique - which probably isn’t noticeable if you’re like V10 strong or something.
Also noticed that the setting here is more friendly for female climbers as well because the setters keep kids in mind. Very few — if not no — routes here have betas that include “be tall/long”. Which some other gyms in Singapore seem to like having.
Since it’s relatively near my house compared to other gyms, will definitely be back whenever friends aren’t available for a sesh.
Cheers
Till the next review 😀
Got comments/feedback? You can DM me regarding gym bouldering in Singapore at @boulder.joernal on Instagram.