and not be waylaid by chit-chat.
I feel like that kind of thing would be more awkward at a normal gym. In the climbing gym environment it feels completely normal because you end up discussing the climbs even with strangers, but once you get up to the weights/gym area people just get on with their thing unless they're with friends. It would be weird to just start chatting with people you barely know.
I have a hard time saying "no", or disengaging from a conversation once I am engaged in it
Ditto! 😅 I'm not very good at social etiquette at the best of times, so struggle to know at what point I'm being rude to try and conclude the conversation.