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General Climbing Discussion

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Route Setting 28-Jun-2006 At 12:42:11 PM Nottobetaken

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A couple of suggestions from my experience (apologies for any repeat suggestions):
>What makes a good problem?
It's worth bearing in mind that the best boards evolve over time - so getting it right the first time (unless you've got a week or so's worth of spare days on your hands) isn't going to happen.
1. Handholds. Make sure you've got a great variety. Pockets, slopers, edges, underclings, pinches etc
2. Angles. Vary the angle of some of the holds themselves (as dalai has suggested). Unless you're trying to build a system board (yawn!) then you won't want every single hold to be aligned horizontally. For example, turn some of the edges into gastons, sidepulls - even underclings. Similarly with the pinches and slopers.
3. Hold types. Try and get a good mix of wood and plastic. Wood obviously is the cheapest option - and if you've got the right tools - the best for creating some unique shapes. Some examples of holds could be a) using 3 layers of MDF screwed together - then sanding one side off to create fantastic slopers. b) using simple pine blocks to create 'flat' slopers; 4-finger/3-finger/2-finger pockets (use a 'bore'-type drill bit) c) 10-15mm ply for good edges
4. Handhold scattering. The basic rule I apply is: big handholds = majority in upper 50% of board ; small handholds = majority in lower 50% of board. The key here is the word 'majority'. Not all! There are reasons for this - notably to do with footholds (see next point) but also on a 40 degree board especially - you're most likely to be making big moves from the base of the board upwards (in a lot of cases) - so you'll want some 'user-friendly' numbers to aim for in the upper reaches.
5. Sort out the footholds. Make a decision as to certain rulings for your board (as Ronny has suggested). If you've already drilled and placed the T-Nuts for your handholds - then think about adding some screw-on footers to fill the blank spaces (depending on the density of your grid). We have a policy that considers all holds painted red are footers - everthing else isn't.
6. Most importantly - before anyone comes over to play - start making some problems up and write them down. Very important to make things 'flow'. There's no point having an easy move, to an easy move, to a drop-the-clutch hard move, then back to easy. Make up 1 move problems, 2 move problems, problems that just rely on underclings, problems that just rely on slopers, variety problems (everything!) and of course - tracking. (A 40 degree board is especially good for this).
7. After a settling in period of about 4 weeks - keep the board completely unchanged for about 6 months (minimum) 2 years max. This will let you get a good collection of problems together (see point 8). The last 'phase' we had we ended up with 146 problems - you'll be surprised how much variation you'll get.
8. Keep a log book. 3 or 6 months down the track you'll be lapping the problems you once considered hard projects. It will also save you time when it comes to having a good training session - as you'll know what the warm ups are. You don't want to spend your entire TRAINING session sitting on the ground trying to be creative. Leave that for your rest days (or again - as Ronny says - your injured days!)
Because you've got a 40 & 15 - I would use the 15 degs mainly for slopers (with bad footers), and the 40 for the more positive type of handhold (though not strictly speaking).

Hope that helps!