Downtown Victoria has Crag X, the city's longest-running climbing gym, with 15-metre roped walls, and BoulderHouse Victoria, a bouldering gym for climbers aged 13 and over. BoulderHouse has a bigger gym in Langford with a kids' floor, and The Boulders in Central Saanich has competition walls and a certified speed wall.
Photo: Crag X
Crag X on Pandora Avenue was started by local climbers in 1995 and spent about twenty years on Johnson Street before moving into its own purpose-built building in December 2015, where you can see the walls from the street. Its 15-metre walls have routes about two metres apart, every top-rope line can also be led, and an overhanging wall is kept for lead climbing only. Auto-belays let you climb without a partner, and there are two large bouldering areas. Beginners start with a lesson, while experienced climbers take a belay test, free for top rope and $15 for lead. Crag X also teaches Learn to Lead and an indoor Transition to Outdoors course, and holds its own competitions, such as the Highballathon.
BoulderHouse Victoria on Quesnel Street opened in 2016 around the 100-foot wall used at the 2015 Bouldering World Cup in Toronto. It's bouldering only, for climbers aged 13 and over, with eight colour-coded circuits and a section reset every Tuesday. BoulderHouse Langford, on Langford Parkway in City Centre Park, followed in 2021: a two-storey gym of about 13,500 sq ft, built with the City of Langford, with a 150-foot main wall reset every Thursday and a training area. One membership covers both gyms.
The Boulders is a not-for-profit gym at Stelly's Secondary School in Saanichton, about 17 km north of downtown. It began in the 1990s as a wall a teacher built on the outside of the school gym, and its competition facility opened in late 2011, with overhanging walls about 18 metres high, a certified 15-metre speed wall and a huge door that opens the main wall to the outdoors. It hosted the IFSC Youth World Championships in 2013 and runs adaptive programmes for climbers with disabilities. On weekdays it opens at 15:00.
The University of Victoria's CARSA Climbing Centre in Gordon Head has a 55-foot tower with ropes and auto-belays, and a 14-foot bouldering wall. It's open to the public: in October 2026 a drop-in cost $15, and students, staff and community members could buy Climb memberships, from $108 a term for UVic students. New climbers need an orientation before they can drop in. The UVic Climbing Club meets there on Wednesday evenings from September to April and climbs outdoors at weekends.
In October 2026 an adult day pass cost $20 at The Boulders, $22 at Crag X and $24 at both BoulderHouse gyms, with Crag X and BoulderHouse quoting prices before tax. Crag X's Power Hour, from 21:00 to 23:00 on Thursdays and Fridays, cost $13. A monthly membership cost $87 at Crag X, or $64 off-peak, and $87 at BoulderHouse plus a one-time $60 start-up fee, while The Boulders charged $80, or $140 for a household. Crag X also offers a sliding-scale membership.
BoulderHouse Victoria and the main floor at Langford are for climbers aged 13 and over, but upstairs at Langford the TreeHouse is a 6,000 sq ft kids' floor with a wall about 12 feet high and 130 feet long, set for ages 3 to 12. It has its own drop-in hours, and a drop-in cost $17 in October 2026. The Boulders runs youth teams, starting with Team Bedrock for ages 6 to 9, and holiday camps, and Crag X welcomes children until 18:00 and teaches Teen lessons for 12 to 16-year-olds.
Victoria is the driest place on the BC coast, sheltered by the Olympic Mountains, though most of its rain falls between November and February. Mountain Project lists well over 100 climbs around the city, most of them at Mount Wells, Mount Macdonald and Glen Lake. Mount Wells, off Humpback Road in Langford and about half an hour's drive from downtown, is mainly sport climbing, with most crags a short walk from the road. It's in a Capital Regional District park whose mossy rock outcrops are fragile, so tread lightly. Al Agopsowicz's Vancouver Island South Select and Aidan Nickel's Greater Victoria Bouldering cover the local rock. Further up the Island, Horne Lake has steep limestone sport climbing, but Mountain Project warns of access problems there and around Nanaimo.
The Alpine Club of Canada's Vancouver Island Section runs trips and courses, rents out gear and has groups for kids and youth, women, newcomer youth and LGBTQ2+ members.
The Boulders hosted the 2026 Speed National Championships, from 31 January to 1 February, with 92 athletes. Sport Climbing BC's 2026–27 season brings a speed competition there on 14 November and the speed provincials on 6 December 2026, with a bouldering competition at BoulderHouse Langford on 28 and 29 November. Victoria is on Vancouver Island, reached by car ferry from Vancouver or from Port Angeles and Anacortes in Washington: see climbing in Vancouver for the mainland's gyms.
Sport Climbing BC's season runs from Pop & Lock in Kelowna in October to the open provincials at the Richmond Olympic Oval in December, with speed events at The Boulders near Victoria and bouldering across Metro Vancouver.
Joe Rushton