the biggest hit to my ego gym climbing is when routes are rated medium and I can't finish them at all because the holds are so far away it simply isn't doable.

by "doable," i mean: the absolute limit of my reach is 6 feet and 10 inches. that is from my toes to my first pad, as far as I can possibly reach. (I'm 5'2".) I frequently use every inch of this to climb gym routes, and the setters just as frequently set holds 7' apart for moves that require static balance. doesn't mean jack shit if i can stand up in control and lay my body against the wall if the hold is still 3-6 inches (or more) away. also, armspan has a limit, too, right? so sometimes they set "monkey bar" bouldering problems that are impossible too.

then a gumby will climb it, and i get really mad. it's not fair!!!

I hesitate to say this, but why worry about a gym? In my opinion, the singular purpose of a gym is to become a stronger climber for real climbing. So climb whatever there is there, become stronger physically and in technique, and wait for the real climbing!

and like i said, it's called learn to be flexible. unlike reaches, where is is feasible to have a move where someone who has a total reach of 6'11 can reach it and someone with a total reach of 6'10 cannot, a sit start does not immediately jump a threshold in difficulty when your height becomes 5'6. sorry. short people have to scrunch themselves up all the time to do moves. average height people have to scrunch themselves up all the time to do moves. if you never have to scrunch yourself up to do a move, you probably don't climb very hard or you'r probably very tall, or both. either way, this hypothetical you who never has to do any scrunchy moves is going to be a very limited climber.

and, for the record, my bitches about reachy-ness are specifically directed at gym climbing. outside, the rock is the rock, but the rock wasn't set by someone with a sequence in mind placing only the feet that they needed, and the rock allows for a great deal more creativity.

the problem arises because, as you say, the gym is for training. i usually redpoint a couple new .12a's a season, outside. so i want to train at a reasonable level, inside. but when all the routes harder then .11a at the gym have ridiculous reaches in them that make it impossible for me to do the route, my training is severely hampered. and sometimes it's every route harder than .10a. (the routes aren't graded as such in the gym but those are rough approximations).

and sometimes the routes are better or worse then others, but all the routesetters at the gym are male and, not to put to fine a point on it- they're all tall, 5'10-6'4. the tallest one listens to me most. and because it's a college gym, they're sticklers for their rules. and the rules say that only people who are on the payroll can self-belay with the gri gri to set routes (insurance reasons). and also because its a college gym, there are rules about who can be on the payroll. and one of the people that can't be on the payroll is graduate students who are funded, because they're already on a different university payroll, which excludes me as a setter.

Tell them to set the routes with their elbows; if they can touch the next hold with their elbow then that is probably a decent distance from one hold to the next.

oh i have. in addition to many other things.

And I'd bet, dollars to donuts, that most of the setters at clausti's gym are blowing her off as some bitchy n00b, because the vast majority of the complaints about "too reachy" come from complete neophytes. Which is a terrible reason to discount criticism.

I realize that ego and climbing should not mix. Yes, I am suppose to climb for myself and not care what anyone thinks. But my ego has had a hard few weeks. *sigh*