itstoearly
Mar 14, 2011, 3:27 PM
Views: 9065
Registered: Jun 25, 2005
Posts: 166
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Kind of a rant here from my own personal experience, but...
I am 6 feet tall. When I started routesetting, I got complaints from anyone under the average height that sometimes my routes were too reachy. OK, fair enough, I said to myself. The purpose of setting a gym route is to be accessible to the most climbers possible at that skill level. So I spent months training myself to set routes that were either not reachy, or had alternate sequences for shorter climbers to use. I now never get complaints that my routes are too reachy.
Now, we have some kids at our gym who climb very, very strong. One 12 year old at our gym recently made it to the semifinals of the ABS finals in Boulder last month. Now, they come to the gym, and set routes, and rate them. Except, often times I won't even be able to do the sit start, because they decided the starting hands would be on a sloper 2 feet off the ground. Sure, no problems for them. They can get right under that hold and move freely. But if you are over, say, 5'5", you're just SOL. Sometimes it is an issue with other moves in the climb, too.
So my gripe is, I had to learn to appease the shorter climbers and set routes accessible to all heights, yet they turn around and seem oblivious to tall climbers.
Anyone else run in to this?
Our gym has a fairly lax route setting policy (all route setters are volunteer), and pretty much if the owner (who is a really awesome guy) knows you, you can set.
EDIT:
This was more of a rant than a request for suggestions. Obviously, this isn't a huge deal. This is indoor climbing. If I can't climb a route because i am too tall, well, sometimes height is an issue outside, too. And you can't complain to anyone outside. It's most the principal of the matter that short climbers ask that I set for them, but they don't seem to return the favor.
(This post was edited by itstoearly on Mar 14, 2011, 3:37 PM)
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