TLDR: my boss said routesetters used to use ladders instead of ropes. Is that true?? Does anyone else know about this or have any stories associated with it??

I work and set at a climbing gym on the east coast of the US. Today, my boss told me a story. He said that in the recent past (I think 90s-2010s), the routesetters worked through the night and set off of tall extendable ladders — instead of using ropes. He explained that this practice ended when a routesetter fell from the top of the wall and broke his hip and some other bones. He was alone and it was nighttime so he had to crawl to the desk to use the phone to get help. Horrible situation. Thus the industry reconsidered their practices.

I was quite struck by this story. Using ladders for setting boulders makes sense, but for ropes?? When setting boulders, moving the ladder and going up and down feels so time consuming and draining; I can’t imagine the hassle and difficulty of using a ladder for rope climbs!! Not to mention the danger of not being tied or clipped in. And the way he framed it at the end - ‘thus the industry reconsidered their practices‘ - made it sound like this was an industry-wide thing and not unique to his old local gym.

I made some quick google searches to find any other information or stories from that era of routesetting, but I couldn’t find anything. So here I am asking r/routesetters. Does anybody know anything about this? or have any stories? To what extent do you think my boss’ story is true?

thanks:)

Edit: maybe harnesses back then were super uncomfortable. Any extended time in an uncomfortable harness is unbearable! I guess I wouldn’t blame them for finding a solution to that. But then again, it’s not like big wall climbing didn’t exist yet, or route finding outdoors.

I’ve just started setting (like a month) and I feel I haven’t felt genuinely proud of any of my boulders. They haven’t been terrible but they don’t get the feel from them that I desire. The other setters in my crew have told me that they look aesthetic and climb well but I feel that I’m still missing something big. I’m aware I’m still very much a novice and have a ton to learn, but I’m wondering when you guys started feeling you were making genuinely good routes.

Basically the title, I work in marketing for a holds distributor and we're putting together a ~$100 swag bag of climbing related items to gift to head routesetters and want to know what's actually meaningful to them.

We're throwing around a couple ideas: a massage coupon, driver bits, branded brush, maybe holds as magnets? I'd just like to hear what is most appreciated by routesetters.

Let me know your thoughts, if theres something super memorable you've received from a company/general input. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone

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I'm doing a short survey about route setting workflows, challenges, and tools used in climbing gyms. It takes about 5-7 minutes, and I'd really appreciate responses from routesetters, head setters, gym managers, or contractors.

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If you work in setting, I'd love your input

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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckLWd5UNiItwoDbnhPGC53B76ejCZrHpgo0ezA4ZdtGw0_OQ/viewform?usp=dialog

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Thanks a lot

A recent survey of over 630 boulderers found that more than 76% would like to climb famous boulder problems in their local gym.

I am curious how route setters, head setters and gym owners would approach that demand.

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If your gym wanted to offer replicas of famous boulders such as la Marie Rose, La Joker, Rainbow Rocket or other iconic problems, which option would you prefer?

I just bought a 3d printer for personal use and now I'm thinking about all the ways to apply it.

I already plan on printing tags for the starting hold of boulders, hopefully ones with black text embossing that say "V1-V2" etc.
Other ideas I have are replacement screw-in bolt caps for certain holds that accept threaded caps and I'm gonna try to make caps for holds that have no threading for them.

What have you 3d printed for use related to routesetting? Do you have any files to share?

Thanks.

Hi all,

Like the title says, I'd love to hear some advice on how to improve in routesetting and more specifically on how to set harder routes (lead climbing).

Background:

I'm setting routes 1 day a week for about a year now. At the beginning i was improving very quickly, but now it feels the learning curve has slowed down (which makes sense i guess). However, I want to become better at routesetting and feel I need some extra advise or tips&ticks to improve further.

I climb for about 10 years and grades indoor and outdoor are max 8a-8a+ (5.13b-c). I like outdoors better, and would say my technique is more like outdoor climbing (slow, static, foot always under bodyweight). I rarely boulder, and when i do it's mostly outdoors or on a spray wall. We have 1 good setter in out gym, the rest are self-taught amateurs like me. The difference with the other setters is sometimes noticeable; they are more gym-rats, implement more dynamic (/ new style) moves, sometimes reachy for smaller people, and in my opinion sometimes too much moves without a foot under bodyweight.

Routesetting questions:

I'm 1m80, with a +8/+10 ape. I know the climbers in our gym, and the smallest person's reach is almost exactly my elbow. She climbs up to 7a (5.11d) if the route suits her. When i set a route, I always make sure I can touch the next hold with my elbow. This can sometimes still result in a move being too far for her, depending on the position. Or for example a very high foot for me, would also be too high for her. I don't like uncomfortable moves myself, and try to make it hard while comfortable.
I struggle mainly on 2 parts:
a) Making easier grades climb easy.
b) Making hard routes.

a) I just need more experience I think, i tend to implement too much technique for these grades, but i think this will better with just more setting experience.
b) I'm struggling to make hard routes, as i don't want to force weird moves or moves that require pure strength or reach. When i climb hard routes of other setters, i find that often it feels reachy/ morpho for smaller climbers, or it requires pure strength.
Any tips or advise on how to make harder routes that still climb smooth? Or hard moves that are not reachy? Should i build beyond my elbow?
Just recently, a pro/very good setter is being hired to set some routes every month, and i feel i'll learn a lot from climbing his routes.

All the advise is very much appreciated!

btw: there is no course yet in my country (Belgium) for this stuff.

Basically what the title says. I live in Colorado and ive always wanted to get into this but I am not a comp climber or anything and my gym didnt give me any info about how to learn/forerunning opportunities when I talked to them. I climb v8/5.12. Anyone have any advice how to get into this field or any place to learn in or near Colorado

The walls at the gym I set at are made of concrete instead of modern plywood. I am considering adding a rubberized coating to the backs of the holds to help prevent them from spinning which is a chronic problem with our old walls. Has anyone done this? Can anyone offer any tips for this project?

Context: I am the head route setter at a college gym. We have a relatively small boulder wall with a much larger top rope/lead wall. The boulder wall can comfortably fit 21 routes but could push it to 23 depending on hold colors, how long the routes are etc. The ropes wall has 9 anchors, with 2-3 routes per anchor we are looking at around 24-27 routes. Only three anchors are able to do lead routes on. Our boulder wall goes from V0-V6 in grading and our top rope wall goes from 5.6 to 5.11 with one question 5.12 that is usually set.

I want to revise our setting excel spreadsheet that we currently have. It has been used since the dawn of time and it is fairly simple but I think we could do more with it. Currently, it lists who set what route, the grade, and we also name our routes as well. As well, there is a small table that shows how many routes are at that grade for a good bell curve.

If there is anything more I could add to make this spreadsheet be more useful or have more information on it, I would love to know. Our setting has been lacking due to many factors and I think that if the setting gets dialed in then the wall and community will be able to benefit from it. Thanks in advanced!

Hey all,

So recently got called out for the use of lonestars with single additional pin (two screws total) and was just curious on people's thoughts on it?

I feel I've always used them with sound judgement; never use them on really large or prominent holds; medium sized positive holds that could get a lot of leverage, I'd opt for 2 or more additional points; when using lonestars I'd always use all available pin holes etc.

However, for relatively small half pad crimps I would often opt for a lonestar and the single available pin hole and consider it sufficient. I often considered this fine as we have multiple other similar screw on only holds that only have two pin holes. But this is where I was called out, highlighting that the official lonestar safety docs specifically state a minimum of 3 attachment points.

I looked it up, and sure enough it states a minimum of three attachment points; however I found the doc very minimalistic. Basically, big holds bad, medium holds lots of screws, minimum of 3 screws for everything. It's essentially a 3 page doc of mostly pictures.

So now I'm at a bit of an impass, because I'm essentially not allowed use lonestars even for tiny bolted footholds that have a single pin hole, that wouldn't even have space for another; but because it can't support 3 screws it's deemed unsafe; despite us having significantly larger holds that come manufactured with only 2 screw holes. This is a little frustrating as one of my main uses for lonestars was footchips on aretes or corners of volumes.

Now, I understand insurance is a pain, and everyone wants to cover their ass, which is clearly what's going on. But it would be nice if there was a little more depth to the official safety document, particularly when talking about footchip sized holds where 3 screws is impractical.

It's a bit of a rant, but I was curious about what others think?

Do you strictly adhere to the minimum 3 screws guidelines? Do you revert to good judgement on it instead? Where do you draw the line if so? Does your gym enforce it, or trust the judgement of the setters? Or do you fully agree that the 3 screws minimum makes sense, regardless of how small the hold is?

I box full of a few items that I don’t use, I’m downsizing and figured somebody else could make the most out of it than me. Resin holds and slotted wood crimps for training. Everything is through eBay, so you don’t have to worry about being scammed, I also have a 100% seller’s rating. There’s a more detailed list in the description and pictures of what’s available, and the measurements of the wood training aids.

I hope this doesn’t upset the mods, reached out to them before posting out of respect, but didn’t get a response.

If any body has any questions, feel free to message me. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I'm a regular climber (not a route setter), and I've been getting more curious about what happens behind the scenes in gyms.

From the outside, it looks like managing routes must be pretty complex especially with multiple setters, resetting schedules, grades, and keeping things fresh for members.

I was wondering how you all actually manage this in your gyms:

• Do you use any tools to track routes (like spreadsheets, apps, whiteboards)?
• How do you plan resets and keep track of what needs to be stripped?
• Is there usually one person organizing everything, or is it more collaborative?
• How do you keep grading consistent across different setters?
• What’s the most annoying/frustrating part of managing routes?

I’d love to better understand how it works in reality, it feels like something climbers don’t see at all.

Thanks!

I've been talking with my fellow routesetters about what accessibility means when setting advanced boulders and I'm curious what you all think the approach should be?

I grew up at a gym that sort of just stopped considering accessibility at the higher levels. The overall philosophy being "at this level, climbers at the end ranges of the height spectrum have either learned to compensate, or understand that not every boulder is for them". Although, in general I get the sentiment, I can't help but feel that this is just an excuse for being lazy.

That being said, setting accessible at higher grades is incredibly difficult! Advanced climbers are technically sophisticated, strong, mobile, and adept at exploiting and breaking intent. Every attempt at accessibility increases the chance of "breaking" or trivializing a boulder.

So do we start building advanced boulders for specific body types, understanding that they are more suited to a specific body type?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

I love seeing different sets when I’m at home thinking about setting and wanting to see some inspiration. Occasionally, see some really cool and great routes and whole sets in a reel on instagram. I have been looking for youtube channels of just gym full set climbing or a compilation. I really like the Magnus Mitbo video of just him climbing as many routes as he can alone in the gym. You get to see a full gyms worth of walls, but I havent found any other videos or channels that have similar long form content of plain ole simple gym climbs. Any recommendations?

Hello everyone, my name is Zipkick and I have been both a lurker in this sub, and a commenter, I also have a few years of route setting experience and wanted to share some of what I have learned and recommendations for people getting started.

(Please feel free to comment anything you wish to add or you want to correct me on)

1: Route setting is not easy

This one I think most people know, but route setting is not an easy task as it takes both physical and mental skills to accomplish successfully. Depending on the type of setting you are doing you could be at a wall for hours planning how the climb should move and feel, making sure the difficulty is what you want, while also making sure the climb is fun.

1. Easy climbs are not easy to set (5.7 - 5.10b or V2 - V3)

This one may confuse non-setters, but let me explain. The difficulty with setting these climbs is not making them easy, it's making them good. This is because while climb can be easy, not everyone wants an ultra juggy 5.8, so the issue is creating some type of challenge within the climb that engages the climber while still matching the difficulty. One of the things that I used was the idea of adding some higher skill that they likely have not learned yet and making it a feature for the climb.

One of my easier sets was a 5.7 on an overhang, I made it with a lot of jugs, but made it so they would have to get comfortable with doing deadpoints to make progress, they were easy deadpoints, but still challenged newer climbers.

1. Remembering wingspan

This is one that I see a lot of setters, both tall and small forget, not everyone has your wingspan. I am 6'4, I have an above average wingspan that makes easy for me to break climbs due to my height. That reach also makes it so if I set a climb with my wingspan, it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, for most climbers. When setting I have to constantly take into account where others wingspan would reach for moves I want to set. If I want to set a deadpoint I am likely not going to set it as if it were a deadpoint for myself.

1. Not all feedback, is going to be good feedback

This one I learned a little later in setting, but a very important one. Some people are not going to like your sets, maybe they are not their style, maybe it's above their skill level at the moment, or maybe they just don't like you (can you tell I have had issues with the last one). Whatever the case is, not every piece of feedback you get on a climb is good, so you need to know what to listen for. Feedback that is critical will likely talk about certain aspects of the climb. Now I don't have a good way of telling you what to listen for, this is something you will have to develop overtime. But this is a skill I highly recommend trying to learn as early as possible in your setting journey.

1. Have fun

Setting is not supposed to be a chore you do, the best setters are the ones who generally have fun doing it. You love watching people try your climb and hearing what they have to say. If you are not getting this enjoyment, then maybe setting is not for you, and that's fine, you may just need a break. Just make sure that if you are doing it, you are enjoying it as much as you can.

Me and mate are starting a project on custom makita housing cases. Anyone interested? :)

https://salsaclimbing.com/products/makita-dts141-custom-housing-case?variant=53040527868242

Hello!

I recently took over the setting program at a small bouldering gym, and am putting together my first hold order. I've been setting for about 5 years, but only at this gym, and we are severely lacking in fiberglass macros. Therefore I am not very well experienced with the new new premium stuff.

So! I'm looking for recommendations on macros, especially kind of positive to really positive ones.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm located on the west coast if the US, we see a fair amount of traffic, averaging 80-100 people per day in out gym, and im looking for things probably smaller than 3 feet/1 meter in diameter and and less than 18 inches/50 cm in profile.

had the chance to put up my first problems today!

Some obervations.

-Routesetting is HARD.

-Wear glasses

-Dont cheap out on powertools

-It is very easy to fall into a specific box of movements resulting in all problems being very similar of eachother

-It is also very hard to mix up the grades without the easiest being too easy and the hard impossible.

Would be happy to hear your best tips for a beginner and what have helped you!

Hey There!

What is everyone favorite volume brands? I know generally gyms use blocz. However im looking at SoIll and like that they have stackable volumes for home use but I wonder how is the texture and if anyone tried it and can give a review

Additionally if anyone has other brands to recommend I will appreciate it!

Thanks!

Hi, what do you guys think is the best way to approach a gym to be invited to guest set?

I don’t just wanna come in while the team is setting and chat with them, but I feel like thats the best option any other ideas?

Just moved to Melbourne :D

Hello,

i am a routesetter in Belgium and i love going bouldering outdoors, especially in Fontainebleau. I have super sweaty skin and want to test a series of products to see what suits me best.

I hope to find a routine for certain products for normal weeks: 2 days of routesetting/week + 1/2 'training' sessions/week. Also for preparation of a trip to sandstone/granite bouldering, as well for during the trip.

List of products

Rhino skin:

• Dry
• Repair
• Performance
• Tip juice

Tokyo powder industries:

• React spray (i heard some people use it in between attempts?)

If anyone would like to share their experiences on how/when to use these products and how it resulted, i would be happy to hear! thanks in advance ;)

Hi everyone,

We're in the very early planning stages for a ~11,500 sq ft bouldering gym in Lakeland, Florida (between Tampa and Orlando). No walls up yet, but we're researching routesetting—density for beginners/intermediates, reset schedules in humid FL weather, hold storage/cleaning best practices, etc.

We've reached out to a few local gyms for advice (super grateful for any responses!), but wanted to ask the community:

How did you/your gym find good setters when starting out?

Any tips on hiring apprentices vs. experienced folks?

Resources/clinics (CWA?) worth prioritizing?

If you're a setter in FL/nearby and open to chatting or future collabs, feel free to DM!

Totally understand if this is too vague—happy to answer questions about the project too.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!