You may have noticed that our online offerings have been improving in recent months and days. First came our online store, then came our online waiver system, and now we are offering online reservations.
Online reservations?
Ever since our re-opening in June 2020, we have been making many efforts to minimize the risk of COVID transmission to our members, guests, and staff. While any activity around other people carries a risk, we believe that climbing at N3C is one of the lower risk activities that can be done indoors. This is both due to the layout of the gym as well as the policies we have put into place.
Scientific evidence indicates that it is better to be in larger, more open spaces with high ceilings and a lot of airflow. N3C ticks all those boxes. The evidence also shows the effectiveness of basic screening, consistent mask wearing, and maintaining physical distance from people not in your “bubble.” We are doing all of these things as well.
In order to keeping that physical distance, we have limited the capacity of the climbing gym to a maximum of 30 participants at any given time. Until recently, this limit has not really come into play very often. However, since we are now in the heart of the indoor climbing season, we have recently had a few situations where we have reached that maximum and have even had to ask guests to wait for climbers to finish and leave before entering.
We want to make sure that we offer an awesome experience and we understand how frustrating it is to arrive at the gym only to find out that we are already at capacity. To solve this issue, we have set up online reservations.
It’s easier and more convenient than you’d think!
Our online reservation system for indoor climbing can be found here. We offer four different ways to make reservations, depending on what you’re after. Not only does making reservations ensure that you will be able to climb at N3C, it also allows for a quicker, easier check-in process when you arrive while helping our staff be ready to better serve you.
Here are the different options:
Members can simply choose the time slot that they plan to come in. You can reserve as late as 1 hour before your scheduled time, so you can be sure when you leave for the gym that you’ll be able to get in no problem. If you are planning on sharing your Guest Pass with a nonmember during the visit, please include them as another “member” on the reservation (member Guest Passes cannot be used during Member Only Hours). Note that you do not need a reservation for our Member Only Hours from 8am to 3pm on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, since we have never come close to capacity during those times.
Non-members who simply need a Day Pass can purchase their it online and schedule the time for their climb. The Day Pass is good for the whole day, but we can only guarantee access during the time slot that has been reserved. If you make your Day Pass purchase and reservation online, you don’t even need to bring your wallet into the gym! Reservations can be made up to 1 hour before the reservation time. Please note that Day Passes do not include rental gear, instruction, or staff belays.
Our popular Open Climb Package can also be reserved in advance. This includes everything you need for a great time climbing: a day pass, full climbing gear rental, and skilled N3C staff to provide belays until you and/or your kids can’t lift your arms (or 2 hours, whichever comes first!). Open Climb reservations can be made up to 1 hour before the reservation time.
N3C’s Learn to Belay Package includes everything you need to become an independent indoor climber*: a day pass to N3C, full rental gear, and a belay lesson. During the belay lesson, you learn the basics of top-rope climbing: how to tie into the rope, how to belay and lower a climber, how to communicate effectively using standard commands and responses, and even some of the basics of climbing movement. Learn to Belay reservations can be made in advance up to 2 days before the reservation time. If you want to schedule a lesson with less lead time, please call N3C at 603.838.5300, email [email protected], or message us via our Facebook or Instagram pages.
*The Learn to Belay package isn’t typically ideal for first time climbers; we recommend checking out our Open Climb package instead!
We hope that this new online booking system will make things easier and better for everyone. We look forward to seeing you at N3C!
