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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

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Route Setting 28-Jun-2006 At 10:41:33 AM Ronny

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The thrust of what's above is pretty much spot on - aim to eventually have a board covered (I mean really covered - use every inch) in random holds and then just go crazy with making up problems.

A couple of thoughts though (based on experience at the Foodland Woodie):

Name or number the holds and write the problems down. This may seem really anal, but its very frustrating when you get back to the woody and think "what was that cool problem with the gaston we were trying 2 weeks ago?".

Spend a month or so moving holds around/getting them well spaced/orientated so that they 'gel', and then leave them in place for a year or so. Then when you make up cool problems that you can't do, you can come back to them 6 months later (so long as you wrote them down). You'll need plenty of holds to make this viable though.

As well as tracking problems (hand holds as footholds), you can try screwing on loads of small footers (from ply/mdf etc) and then making a general rule that only those holds are in for feet. Cause its not much point having a mingin' sloper problem if you've got a bivy ledge for a heal hook.

I've used an angle grinder with a metal grinding wheel for shaping wood holds - this can be a good way of getting interesting shapes.

If all else fails, you'll need a friend around the corner with a woodie, plenty of time on his hands and regular finger injuries to set probs for you. That seems to work for me.

Boardlord might have some useful comments also...

J