Route Setting
We take our route setting seriously at The Boulder Hub!
Route setting is a profession for many, with good setters having the opportunity to travel the country and the world, setting for facilities and competitions. Its an art form of sorts, sometimes for visual appeal, sometimes to showcase a style of movement or technique, to develop power, and sometimes to create classics that can be climbed over and over again to develop power endurance.
Our goal at The Boulder Hub is to have a good mix of all of these styles of setting, at all levels of difficulty, in order to allow our climbers to develop their skills in the way that is most relevant to their needs. To add to this, we reset 2 large wall sections per week, seeing our entire gym reset in under a month, regardless of whether people are on school holidays or not. That’s at least 20-30 new boulders every week, almost 52 weeks per year. This is a huge opportunity for climbers to develop and hone their skills more quickly!
Here at The Boulder Hub we are fortunate enough to have some highly experienced route setters in both the Event Setting and Gym Setting scenes, along with some fresh new talent!
Read on to learn a little about our setters here at The Hub.
Our Setters
Head Route Setter- Alan Pryce
Years of Setting Experience: 15 years commercially (Rope and Boulders)
Setting Highlights: Set around Australia commercially for National Adult and Youth events, set for commercial facilities as guest setter, run several setting clinics for facilities Australia wide, organised and set for huge climbing demonstration event at Spinachfest in Darling Harbour Sydney, Head Route Setter for WA State Titles, Head Route Setter for five extremely successful Catalyst Events!
Most enjoyable part of setting: Creating boulders and climbs of all styles to challenge people of all abilities, and teaching people to climb better by necessitating movement through precise setting. I love creating fun and challenging experiences
Most challenging part of setting: Continuously striving to set in a
Setter- Jason Liew
Years of setting experience: 1.5 years
Setting Highlights: Setting for competitions like Catalyst and the WA Boulder State Titles are definitely one of the major highlights of setting. Being part of the whole process of creating routes to challenge the competitors and watch them either make it or break it is just as exciting as being a competitor as well. The excitement, the roar, the struggle and the ultimate success of the competitors makes it such a rewarding experience.
Setting day to day as well is also a highlight. Each and every set we have in the gym comes with its own challenges. Creating climbs that teach and challenge movement is such a rewarding experience and it makes it all the more interesting being able to create various route with the same holds you’ve used a hundred times over and still be able to teach people something new is an amazing process.
Most enjoyable part of setting: Being able to create routes using the same holds over and over again yet create new movement is extremely enjoyable. Some days are harder than others but all days have rewards of their own
Most challenging part of setting: Setting outside of my strengths and being able to create movements for climbers of all abilities is always a challenging but very educational and rewarding.
Setter- Christina Bedard
Years of setting experience: 20+
Setting Highlights: Setting for larger events such as State Titles, Nationals and Catalyst, and watching competitors under pressure working hard to decipher your intended sequence. The roar of the crowd when they do unlock the sequence and the look of accomplishment of the competitors face, makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck!
Setting for our first Youthfest competition was also super rewarding as we were attempting to set very scaled down boulders (for climbers aged 4+), with definitive sequences, at the right difficulty…..all when we couldn’t test them as they were too compact. Was incredibly rewarding seeing the little people problem solving and testing their skills.
Most enjoyable part of setting: I really love being able to talk new climbers through intended beta, helping them discover new techniques or ways of moving/ problem solving. Their sense of achievement feeds my own sense of achievement to empower people to be better climbers.
Most challenging part of setting: Being diverse in my setting styles and not allowing my weaknesses to limit my creativity.