Hi everyone! I'm a relatively new part-time boulder setter (~1yr on the job) working at a pretty small gym whilst I'm at university. As is typical for this sort of gym, our holds are generally quite small, with us not having the sort of massive comp holds or stackable volumes you might see elsewhere. Recently, a couple of the setters here have been experimenting with adding jibs onto some of our bigger holds and slopers to allow for more interesting grip types, but I realise when stripping that this just leaves two small holes where the screw-on used to be.

I was just wondering what you all thought of this? Would you leave the jibs on in the future, or do the small holes not make a huge difference? I'm sure this is a more common practice at bigger gyms and at competitions, so I'd love to hear more about what you all do about this. Thanks!

Hey fellow setters,

How many of you are parents? How many of you work in a team, in which all the members of that team are also parents?

Two of my team are parents already, the other two are having kids this year. We got chatting and thought (maybe naively) that we, as a routesetting team of parents could be pretty rare or even an industry first.

hey fellow setters, do you clean or maintain your makita dts141/xst01 to extend their lifespan?

Does anybody's gym use a Magido Industrial Parts washer as their hold washing machine? These are essentially the same machines that KleanHolds in the US sells. If so, do you have a way of cleaning the machine? Namely the gunk the cakes itself to the bottom of the machine?

I work for two gyms setting, the older of the two gyms that still has concrete walls has now a barely functioning machine due to the gunk -- for lack of a better term -- that has caked itself across the machine and clogged it (concrete dust + shoe rubber + chalk + sweat etc = major gunk). The newer gym I work for is starting to get the gunk, but not nearly as bad since the walls are wood. Curious about keeping these cleaner, and thus having cleaner holds.

Does anyone have a link for those hex bits that are combined with a t25? I dream of a world where I don’t have to constantly switch bits as I set but absolutely cannot find them anywhere.

Hi !

I often struggle to get inspiration for really easy boulders (without really using boxes and volumes as holds, otherwise routes of a higher grade in the same area would be trivial).

We don't have amazing holds in the color range used for easy grades (the grades above do 😅), and I sometimes struggle to think of something interesting but really easy (not technical, not physical, obviously nothing close to crimps, etc).

I always try to play with the wall features and the volumes as much as possible, but where on socials/internet do you guys get inspiration for these kind of boulders? It's hard to not come across hard boulders on Instagram 😅

Hi All,

Recently I've been given feedback from the customers that the routes we set in the gym aren't "fun". I pressed them on what that means and got a lot of typical wishy washy answers. Just wondering what the otherside thinks "fun" climbs are. I'm more interested in routes than boulders but feel free to comment just make it clear on which type.

Hello and happy new year! Setting for a comp and have a hard mantle problem that we’re struggling to grade. It feels like V8/V9 would be fair but with a move like this it’s quite hard to tell. I could also convince myself it’s V5. Feels low percentage and touchy yet very burly. Hoping it’ll create good separation in the field amongst some of our strong folks who can pull really hard.

Curious if folks have thoughts on grading mantles/using them in comps. In theory, it feels like there’s some physical limit for what would actually go as a mantle (i.e. could there be a V13 mantle or at that point is it just not a mantle? Or if it is a mantle and it’s possible, could it even be V13?) What are some of the hardest mantles you’ve set indoors/seen outdoors and how have you all settled on grades for them. Any insights are appreciated.

Thanks for the time and advice! Let me know if I need to clarify the question.

Cheers!

We are in the process of opening a gym and both my business partner and myself don’t have enough experience setting boulder however we have some experience with routes. (Of course we will hire route setters but we both want to be part of the setting team and I am thinking how we can keep acquiring experience, we have access to a lead wall but not much access to boulder wall) How much does the skill of route overlaps the one needed for bouldering in your opinion?

Hey all, was thinking of becoming a routesetter. Intermediate climber and was wondering what you guys think the most difficult parts of the job are and any helpful tips you might have. Also wondering about time estimates, at my gym the chief setter said he does around 4 bouldering routes a day or 1 huge top rope one. Thanks!

Hey all.

I've been setting for around a year now. Focusing on roped routes rather than bouldering. I'm pretty self taught when it comes to setting problems and have been signed off for the ropes access side by our tech advisor.

Im looking to progress in setting and have seen there are a number of courses avaliable. The one I have been guided to is the new Route Setting Development courses from Association of British Climbing Walls.

Does any one have any experience of setting courses and whether they've been worth it? This RSD has a lot of prerequisite courses that feel like a cash grab if I'm honest.

I want to buy one or two new sets for our climbing gym. Last year we had two new sets of unit holds what was awesome.

I’m looking for a new nice set with macro’s and PU holds that looks amazing and has a variaty of holds. You guys gave any favourites or recommendations?

Thanksss.

OH and if it helps. Walls are 14-20meter high. Mostly around 30-50 holds per route needed.

Do you guys have any little efficiency tips when stripping a section?

One example I have is when taking down boulders, I’ll take screws out going up the ladder and then switch bits at the top to take bolts out on the way down. This limits bit switching, which makes things go a little smoother

Hello everyone,

I’m a Brazilian climber living in a coastal area, where the saline conditions accelerate corrosion of fixed gear, so maintenance is a high priority. I’d like to learn how different climbing communities and crags worldwide handle the maintenance of routes, especially regarding bolt replacement.

• Are there commonly practices for obtaining permission from the routesetters?
• How is it handled if the original bolts are unsafe, but the conqueror/routesetter opposes their replacement? (this situation is a special problem here, where in some situations a crag stays with bad protection for many years because the routesetter says only him can replace, but never does it)

I’d like to know how this is addressed in your local areas, including any guidelines or examples of conflicts that were successfully resolved.

hi, i'm looking to buy a pair of shoes for routesetting as a gift and i am not sure which brand/ model would be best. Also, would it be better to just buy vans or some type or trek shoes?

Any information would be great

1. What is considered the best Base Coat material: (Also, What do volume manufacters use?) Elmers Glue? Wood Glue? Paint Primer? Latex Paint? 2-Part Epoxy Paint? 1-Part Epoxy Paint? Specialty Paints/Epoxies/Lacquer?
2. What is the best grit material? (Aluminum Oxide, Sand/Silica)?
3. What is the ideal grit size? (80/100/200?)? (Is there a technique that involves using different sizes together?) (What grit do "Flathold Macros" use?)
4. After the the Base Coat (together with grit) is cured, what is the best material to finish coating with? Paint Primer? Latex Paint? 2-Part Epoxy Paint? 1-Part Epoxy Paint? Specialty Paints/Epoxies/Lacquer?
5. For people that work in volume manufacturing (that are willing to share), what is the process and/or materials that are used at the professional level?

Do any of you(routesetters) consider a future in routesetting? Meaning a full time profession and one that you’re working towards now.

Hi, I'm a routesetter at my university wall. Our walls have a 1/2" layer of concrete on top of 3/4" plywood. The main way we attach holds is with bolts. It's an absolute pain whenever we put on volumes or have to put set screws in holds(takes two ladders, one person holding up the volume, one drilling out the holes and driving screws in - the process can take up to an hour per volume), as a result volumes usually stay up for 3-4 full resets at a time (moved around every 4-5 months).

Our wall is tiny, yet we have quite a sizeable volume of climbers (30-40 per day, maybe 100-120 different climbers /wk)

We'd love to be able to move volumes more often as it's the only real way we can augment our wall terrain and angles. We also want to add more screw-ons to our hold catalog as the large bolt on feet and edges are often too large to force certain movements and sequences. Do any of you have tricks and tips for drilling and setting on concrete?

Would a hammer drill make a huge difference? We use our cordless makita or miluakee brushless drills with a masonry bit.

I'm a newer routesetter in a smaller gym with some lax or outdated practices. We have a small selection of fiberglass holds, and for a route one of our setters is considering jibbing one of them. I've heard a lot from setters at other gyms about how that is a poor idea. I was hoping someone would be willing to explain to me what the exact concerns are, and what makes fiberglass particularly poor to jib. I've heard it damages the hold and basically ruins it, but what exactly makes the hold so bad one screwed into? If our team does decide to do that, what would be the best practice to maximize the longevity of the hold once its been jibbed?

I’m a head setter at my gym and I want to make climbing route setting shirts for my setters as a Christmas gift. (Not for sale) Give me your best setting slogan for me to design a shirt around 🙏

Best comment gets $5 Venmo for a free coffee

Hello Everyone,

My name is Makki and I am a climber/gym owner here in Saudi Arabia. Climbing here has recently it's infancy and now from what I see in its growth phase. As such we have opportunities at multiple locations and are looking for a routesetter/instructor to hire full time but not with a big budget.

Any suggestions on where and how to look would be good?

Besides membership size and anonymity, how does Routesetters Anonymous compare to this group?

Is what does either group have that the other doesn't?

I'm not trying to decide which is "better"

We've got one super strong regular (international level) at our gym and we struggle to set hard enough for them. They are leagues ahead of the next strongest climber at the gym. We try our best to challenge them and have them in mind often for boulders but they can't understand that we can't justify setting 10% of the boulders in the gym just for them. Do many gyms have this problem of the gym being sent most of the time by one person? Or do you set many boulders for just one person? Without having 'crazy hard/unrealistic boulders'. This person also doesn't pay for membership. Want to have a discussion about dealing with. Cheers

I recently took over as the manager of the wall at our local YMCA and decided to reset the entire wall for the first time in years. In doing so I discovered that we have a distinct lack of jugs in our hold collection because for a long time they relied solely on the natural-esque wall to dictate route difficulty. Looking into buying new holds and Synrock sounds appealing just based on their selection of screw on holds.

So, anyone used them commercially? Did they seem to work well? Our wall is very uneven because it's an older fiberglass-reinforced concrete wall, will ceramic holds still work on that surface?

What are some theories?

I work at a university rock wall, so we are a bit behind on setting practices. The setters are fully aware of the benefits of using set screws, but the higher ups are adamant that using set screws will destroy the wall and make it look ugly. They are also against, slightly less so, jibbing onto other holds for fear of cracking the holds, reducing the structural integrity, and leaving large holes in them when the jib hold is removed.

Can anyone please provide some data and or arguments that may help convince our boss to let us use set screws?

I know it's pretty foolish to look for medical advice here, but it's time to be taking grain-of-salt advice.

Head routesetter here. I have been a climber since 2018, and I really enjoyed the sport because it has been relatively low impact on my joints as compared with my former sports of running and powerlifting.

I would have chronic pain while working out in a few areas, but this is new. I joined on with a gym at the beginning of the summer, and from the onset my elbow started hurting. I was also playing rec dodgeball so I attributed it to the combination of throwing with my right and jugging/using the drill with my right. I've tried to figure out best methods on how to avoid the stimulus and therefore pain, and I think I have it mitigated as best as I can, and symptoms are mostly subsided.

It has manifested as golfers some days and tennis on others, but the most concerning symptom I've noticed is that when I feel my two elbows it feels like there's a triangular chunk taken right out of the top of my ulna*. Right at the point of the elbow. This could be two things - 1. I bailed a lot on this elbow back in my teens when I was a skater. But when bones chip, I understand that chunks stay and there's no "chunk". Or 2. A reversible bone spur that could possibly give the illusion that a chunk is missing, but it just protrudes.

Have any of you had these symptoms? I know there's people in here who want to tell me to go to the doctor. I will, but I thought I would reach out to the community to find anything out in the meantime