Climb-crafting, climbing design, "On-setting," and the upcoming comp

From Adventures in Routesetting

I've grown to dislike the term "routesetting." Yes, I know it's in the title of this blog and it's used a lot, but in a sense the term is a misnomer for what goes on at our climbing gym. I spend more time designing, building, crafting, drilling, and constructing from scratch (meaning nothing but a solid sweep of concrete) a climb. Not just a "route," but a real climb. A route, in the typically understood gym-speak is transient. A gym route typically comes and goes.

Ours is perhaps one of the few gyms in the country, for better or worse, that keeps many of its routes up for a prolonged period of time. (Perhaps with the exception of the bouldering wall at CATS in Boulder.)

Our routes tend to become treated as outdoor climbs do. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not as I like to see routes change often. But I think people get very attached to our routes and think of them as their own.

Take for instance Quarry Daze or Xodus - both have become notable lines that people use as a measuring stick in terms of their performance and their improvement. So it's not necessarily bad to have such routes, I suppose, as long as there are others that do change.

From Adventures in Routesetting

I just finished attaching a number of features to a newly developed section of wall. There are 5 features total on the route - the route itself is about 80 feet tall. Three of the features actually fit together to form one big feature that measures about 12 feet long. This feature is a curved plywood "wing" feature that is rounded on one side and slopes down and merges into the wall on the other side. There are no holds on the feature, just a textured surface. It remains to be seen how usable the entire thing will be.

The other two features are large diamond shaped features. One measures about 7 feet tall and protrudes about 3 feet from the wall at its apex. I built in three old-school resin plate holds, one for each of the 3 sides. The texture is fairly slick on this feature so you have to use the inset holds and other bolt-on holds. The other diamond feature is much lower profile (i.e. flatter) but it has some built in Bondo features and a good texture paint material. The surface of the feature itself is probably usable in some capacity but it also has t-nuts, allowing for bolt-on holds as well.

From Adventures in Routesetting

It's took several weeks of work to create the features for the route. Another few days to get them on the wall. And then a few more days to get the wall completed drilled and equipped with concrete anchor drop-ins (for attaching holds to with bolts). That, and there were a few drilled pockets created here and there.

So far this one route - which I'm now referring to as "The Sighting," has taken me the better part of winter - and it still isn't open! Now I'm down to the easy part - adding the handholds!

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From Adventures in Routesetting

I got a bit side-tracked this winter with indoor projects because I was quite busy with another for of routesetting - making an ice climb! Not one of those half-ass dry-tool, pseudo-ice routes - no, this was the real deal: running water frozen into ice on the front of the silos.

Last year I took an experimental approach and attached some old fixed lines to some bolts and let the water run over those and down the wall in the hopes that the temps would be low enough to created even a smear of ice. We lucked out and it worked!


So later 2010 when winter was upon us again, we set about re-engineering and designing a new structure for the ice to adhere to. We attached chain-link fencing to the exterior with 2x4s and concrete anchor bolts. This gave a better substrate for the water to run over and form into ice. By January 2011 we had an amazing ice climb. And as luck would have it we had another opportunity in February 2011 to create more ice. This time we expanded the water flow and created an ice wall measuring about 60 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

So I'm getting better at ice-setting - honing my skills. Already looking forward to the next winter-storm and further improving and expanding the ice.

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Our USA Climbing Sport Climbing Competition is coming up April 16th, 2011 so the planning is in full swing. As usual we have a ton of routes to change and that means a lot of man-hours, a lot of hanging from ropes in Waldo harnesses, and a lot of, what I like to call, ON-SETTING.

Definition
On-Setting - The art of visualizing and then setting with maximum efficiency a climbing route of chosen technical difficulty, challenge, and creativity. A play on the word of "on-sighting" in climbing.

On-setting is an advanced skill that requires acute visualization, practice, and efficiency. The point is to imagine the route and other potential hang-ups or road-blocks and advance in a way that allows you to set the route in one push with little to no rehearsal. Forerunning by other climbers is necessary to verify the quality and difficulty of the line.

Setting in this manner requires a lot of knowledge/experience about how various climbers might approach each move/hold, essentially feeling what it is like to climb the route without climbing it. You also must have a perfected method of selecting and placing holds in a way that keeps the process moving. When setting a route 90 feet in height this can be a real challenge.

In terms of practicing routesetting, on-setting is great practice. However, without experience resulting route quality can vary widely - so it's not recommended for inexperienced climbers and setters (in situations where route quality is important).