Synergy Climbing and Ninja

Synergy is the best climbing gym in Chattanooga, and the case is not close once you know what you want out of an indoor wall. It is bouldering only - no ropes, no lead, nothing to clip - and that focus is the reason it is better, not a caveat to work around.

Ten thousand square feet of it, with two thousand more given over to training walls. That ratio is not an accident. The board wall is the real argument: MoonBoard, Kilter, an adjustable Tension board, a campus board and fingerboards, all in one room. If you are trying to get strong for the sandstone half an hour from here, that is the room that does it, and there is nowhere else in the city with the collection.

It was founded by Lisa Rands, a World Cup winner, and Isaac Caldiero, the first American Ninja Warrior champion, which explains the other half of the building. The Ninja Zone has warped walls, race lanes, balance beams and an obstacle course called Isaac's Gauntlet, and it is why this is the gym children ask to go back to.

It grew out of Tennessee Bouldering Authority, which opened in 2000 and was the city's first gym, and it still has a wall called the TBA Training Area. It is woman-owned and independent, with one location and nobody to answer to in another state.

A day pass is $23, or $28 with the ninja course. A month is $78.50 on a rolling membership, which includes the yoga, the rental shoes and the member-only hours from six in the morning.