Climbing gym chain · Belgium, France, and Spain

Arkose grades, explained

Arkose is a French company that runs bouldering gyms it calls 'climbing lofts', most with a restaurant (La Cantine, several with Ecotable eco-labels), a bar and a climbing shop. Steve Guillou and Samy Camarzana founded it in 2013 and opened the first gym in Montreuil that December; it bought the MurMur gyms in Issy-les-Moulineaux and Pantin in 2018 and opened its first gym abroad, in Brussels, in 2021. Its site lists 29 gyms: 13 in the Paris region, 13 elsewhere in France (Cholet and Niort open in October 2026), one in Brussels and two in Madrid. Newer 'Arkose XP Climbing' sites sit inside multisport complexes, and the Angers and La Rochelle gyms are run by partner companies.

Arkose doesn't say so outright, but its gyms appear to share this grading. Arkose's guide gives this colour order for its gyms in general, but says a city's gyms, or sometimes a single gym, can use their own colours, so check the board at yours. From climbers' descriptions and photos of the gym's grade boards. Gyms reset and regrade often, and grades vary between setters, so treat this as a guide and check the boards when you visit.