Four F Words

I’m tired of walking into the gym and seeing new routes or problems that climb as if the setter put more effort into choosing the colors of tape than they did spending any time to be sure the climb was even worth attempting. There’s nothing worse than some egocentric climber bolting shit to the wall and touting it as some golden problem that everyone will love. As both a climber and a setter, I find it offensive. While most gyms that I’ve been to don’t seem to pay their setters, many of them at least get free memberships. The story might be different in other regions, but in the end, the setter is performing a service and their product is representing the gym. If you had to choose between two gyms, would you climb at the one with fun, challenging routes or the one with awkward, uninspired routes? Setters thus have a responsibility to both the gym and the climbers in the gym, so why not have a set of setting guidelines or laws? I know, blasphemy. What follows are principles that should help improve the quality of routes and problems, reduce the number of injuries in the gym, and result in some heavily chalked holds.
The Four F’s of Routesetting are Fun, Friendliness, Forerunning and Flow. This speaks nothing of the difficulty of the climb and pertains only to the quality of movement, the hold choices, and how that adds up to being an enjoyable experience. Let’s start with the second F – Friendliness. The friendliness of a route is all about what it does to your fingers and your body. Are the holds sharp or are they comfortable to grab? Are there pockets or unfamiliar holds that might destroy tendons or tweak a finger? Are the moves awkward or threatening to blow a knee or a shoulder or are the moves natural? If someone blows a move, where are they going to land? How are they going to land? Put simply, nobody wants to get hurt, and most climbing injuries happen in the gym. Is that a coincidence or is it due to unfriendly routesetting? Generally speaking, avoid sharp holds. Avoid holds that will tweak fingers. Pockets are fine, but realize that people that don’t climb on pockets are scared of them. Interesting holds only draw climbers to the route . They don’t necessarily make a route better because holds are only part of the equation. How the setter uses them is maybe even more important. It’s amazing how a poor routesetter can take the newest, most eye-catching holds and wind up with a climb that nobody wants to do while a good routesetter can take the oldest, most uninspiring holds and put up something that winds up being far more than the sum of it’s parts.
The last F – Flow is all about movement. How well does one move transition into the next? Is the climb choppy? Is it a bunch of starting and stopping or is it continuous? Is the intention to match hands repeatedly or is there a nice balance of single handholds and matches? Do the holds want the climber to do one thing while the setter wants you to do another? If you fight the flow, all you wind up with is an awkward aberration, so really, if you have a move in mind, set it so that the holds want that move to happen and don’t force it to happen unnaturally.
The first F – Fun is usually a product of Friendliness and Flow. If the holds are friendly and the moves flow together in interesting ways, then it shouldn’t be much of a surprise when you find that the route is fun to climb. The question is, how do you know that the holds are friendly and the moves flow? How do you know the climb functions the way you intended? The answer is another crucial F – Forerunning. Routesetting without forerunning is pretty much driving without checking the gas. Maybe you get somewhere or maybe the end result is disaster. Forerunning reveals the flaws of a route. Is it too easy? Too hard? Does the sequence work or will people be skipping holds? Maybe the setter will have to rethink something or reset part of a route, but if quality is the goal and not an ego boost, isn’t it worth it?

~ by bdalhaus on July 26, 2010.