Adventures in Routesetting

Thought I would link to my other site talking about setting up an ice climbing route at Rocktown. From FusionFortySeven - Oklahoma Ice Climbing (really?) For those of you that have followed this site or one of the other iterations of this site (going back to the late 90s), you might recall some stories (dare I say legends) about ice climbing in Oklahoma. Stories about ice climbing in the Wichita Mountains, Avery Drive, even Turner Falls. Those stories are true, or at least base on truth. Then in 2010 and 2011 I went a bit further and pursued farming ice on the silos of Rocktown in Oklahoma City. It worked the first time I tried it – just using a series of old static lines and running water, the temperature was cold enough to create an ice climb that lasted for a few days. Based on that experience I took the next step and installed a chain-link fence along with a better designed irrigation system and produced a fantastic wall of ice measuring 50 feet tall and about 10

Another competition season is upon us and the routesetting at Rocktown will begin soon. The competition date is set for March 31st. That means every route in the gym is going to be stripped, all the holds cleaned, and every route re-set in a matter of weeks. Weeks, you say? Yes. The routes themselves range in height from 40 feet at the low end to 120 feet plus on the high side. Whereas most gyms can set their routes in a matter of days, we need quite a bit more time due to the amount of labor required. I've grown accustom to jugging hundreds of feet over the course of setting in the shortened time period. If anything, it's a good way to get in shape. I think of it as big wall route-setting. The routesetting session will kick off last day of February and continue through March until the day of the comp. This year I should have a crew of about 10 other setters to help out. That's great because one year I set about 20 of the 30+ routes and it nearly killed me. Division o