Another crazy day of setting

We've got two competitions coming up: our Four.Zero.Five Bouldering Finals on Saturday April 10 and our Sport Climbing Competition on April 24th.

I am in the midst of organizing and setting for both competitions as well as finishing up a new climbing wall project we are calling the "Salmon Wall."

I've been setting at the gym - usually about 12 hour days - since Tuesday. And that's not including the setting that we did last week. Each day I get about two new routes up (each about 70-90 feet in height) and about two boulder problems. This is in addition to tending to others needs - employees, customers, other business interests that arise - and of course, my family. Which unfortunately has been getting the worst of the deal.

At this pace the work is starting to take it's toll on me. I'm drained from jugging, stripping routes, sorting holds, matching bolt sizes to drop-in depths...the list goes on. My finger tips are raw, my arms hurt. I've scraped the same spot on my left knee I don't know how many times. My gloves stink. I thought just shoes could stink but I've since found out that fingerless gloves, if worn for a long enough duration without washing them, can really reek. Even after scrubbing my hands with soap and warm water my hands still smell.

Having finished a route and before moving on to the next one (there's always a next one), I'll take a look upwards and wonder: "is it any good?" I've grown accustom to setting without climbing - the moves are clear enough in my mind. I'll climb the eventually (before the comp, of course) - or have someone else climb them and let me know what they think. Sometimes I have to change a thing or two - but most of the time they're good as is. Maybe that happens after you've set a few thousand moves or so, I don't know, but it works ok for me - that is, "ok" enough anyway. I sort of reach a point where I have so much to do that I just set something, move along, and hope for the best. I can come back to it later when I've had a chance to forget about it and see it with fresh eyes.

I've found that I get in these habits where I won't eat anything during the day. Maybe an energy bar sometimes - but not lunch, certainly not lunch. It's a bad deal. By the end of the day I'm famished. Then I get up the next day and do it all over again.

Ruutesetting is one of those things that when you are into it, it moves fairly quickly, it flows. And you lose some sense of time. It is definitely a creative process - that's one of the main reasons I do it - it is a creative release. But it does become difficult - it becomes more "work" when you have so much to do.

I think I've set something like 9 routes now - that's out of about 30 routes total for the upcoming competition (on the 24th). We are on pace to be completely ahead of schedule. I'll keep my fingers crossed for no big roadblocks.

Tomorrow I am going to set the remainder of the boulder problems for the Four.Zero.Five competition on Saturday. Those should be fun.