Routesetting in the Modern Age

I see trends.

I see copy-cats.

I see certifications.

I see lack of experience and substitutions of certifications for experience.

I see new holds. New walls. New careers.

New "volumes." (We didn't used to call them volumes when we made them ourselves. Let's not pretend these are anything more than oddly-cut sections of plywood pieced together. And overpriced shapes made of plywood and paint.) 

A certification is no substitute for hours spent playing around with placing holds and calling the sequences "routes."

There is a lot of presumptuous crap being place on the walls in the name of "routesetting" and deemed as greatness when in actuality it is simply someone getting practice out of their ego spewing.

Home walls are the place where routesetters are born.

Gyms may pay if you sell it well and they buy your act.

Build yourself an 8x8 wall in your [mom's] garage and BUY and a box of holds. Practice placing them. Stripping the bolts. Creating problems for you. Assume that 80% of what you'll make is crap or convince yourself it's the best in the world. What's it going to be?

Put some shit on the walls. Turn holds, play around, break problems, fake problems, critique your fellow climbers that can turn wrenches same as you, challenge yourself, challenge your friends, take the time, build your repertoire - stop trying to sell yourself. Just work harder.

Call it a V8 if you want to, but don't stake your soul on it - because it doesn't matter.

Don't pretend you know what you are doing. But keep doing the SIMPLE job of putting holds on the wall and turning them, and turning them, and trying, and struggling, and trying, and working towards the end result of understanding the emulation of routes. Because that's what we are really doing right? Emulating. Challenging. Acting like what rock can be - and even beyond what rock can be.

Put in the hours just like you would do for climbing. But here there are no degrees. It's more like art, more like magic, to get it right. Don't expect that you can be good with an arbitrary acknowledgment from a single instructor or certifying body. 

Play with holds like you would play with Legos.

Turn wrenches, spin holds, STRUGGLE, don't claim to be more than you are. 

People don't care WHAT grade you climb, they care how well you set for THEM.

The best routes are the ones people struggle for - the ones people climb - the ones people WISH they set. Set that route. Ask yourself, who are you setting for anyway?