Join Hans Florine in Kalymnos, Greece or Central Mexico!
Kalymnos, Greece
November 2-8th, 2024
Optional Multi Pitch Day Nov. 9 & 10th
7 Days of Climbing, Yoga And Culture
Through Earth Play Retreats with Heidi Wirtz and Marc Pietrolungo
Learn more and reserve your spot here!Central Mexico
January 4th – 10th 2025
Join us for the “Triple Crown” – 3 different world-class areas
A Climbing Retreat like no other!
Through Southern Xposure with Simeon Heimowitz
Learn more and reserve your spot here!CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
USA Climbing’s 2024-2025 youth competition season will kick off this weekend with a few rule modifications that followed discussions with gym operators—such as the ability for facilities hosting Qualifying Events to “apply for a limited waiver to the ‘new routes/boulders’ requirements,” per USAC’s new rulebook. (Photo from the 2021 USAC Youth Bouldering Nationals by Bree Robles @breesframes, courtesy of USA Climbing)USA Climbing recently released its 2024-2025 Rulebook, which included several notable changes to previous years’ rules and regulations. The changes ranged from preparatory and operational alterations—such as host facilities being able to apply for a limited waiver allowing members of the public to climb on Qualification Events’ routes and boulders during setting week—to terminology tweaks, like an event’s Chief Routesetter now being referred to as the Head Routesetter. [Editor’s Note: Gym customers who climb on QE routes/boulders during setting week are prohibited from competing in said event; per the new rulebook, those customers cannot be “potential competitors, coaches, or representatives of potential competitors.”]Youth age categories were also changed for the 2024-2025 season, explained in-depth by USA Climbing here. The decision to change the age categories was largely the result of discussions and deliberation between USA Climbing staff and members of a Youth Series Task Force. Qualitative and quantitative data was also collected and “played a critical role in the decisions made for the upcoming 2024-2025 season,” per the announcement above.Most of the amendments to the rules are listed near the beginning of USA Climbing’s new rulebook, in a page titled “Highlighted Changes.” The full 2024-2025 rulebook can be found here.
Panning out, the various changes to the rules came approximately nine months after the formation of the Competition Advisory Committee, a joint group comprised of representatives from the Climbing Wall Association (including many gym owners and operators) and USA Climbing. The Competition Advisory Committee met biweekly to discuss the logistics of hosting competitions and to “provide advice on creating a sustainable competition climbing infrastructure that meets the needs of indoor climbing facilities, competitors, volunteers, and the climbing industry as a whole,” according to Garnet Moore, committee member and Executive Director of the CWA.The Competition Advisory Committee was not created with a goal of changing any particular USA Climbing rules, Moore explained, nor did the committee have voting authority regarding any rule alterations or changes. However, Moore noted that the Competition Advisory Committee was given notice that rule changes were coming (prior to the new rulebook’s publication) based on committee conversations. “I believe that this more collaborative effort has really helped give USA Climbing deeper insight into gym operations and a better understanding of the ways that certain rules and policies can have a higher impact than a non-operator might assume,” Moore told CBJ.
Cost:
Climbers: $45
Callers (VI categories only): $20* (competitors are required to bring their own caller)
*Callers for the top 3 climbers will receive a prize package alongside their climber.
Format: Modified Redpoint
Categories: Our hope is to run the categories listed below. Depending on the number of registrations, categories may be combined.
Neurological / Physical Disability
Visual Impairment (competitors are required to bring their own caller)
Upper Extremity Amputee
Lower Extremity Amputee
Bilateral Lower Limb Impairment***
***Significantly reduced functional use for climbing or absence of bilateral lower limbs
We will have categories for Non-Binary, Female, and Male. This competition is for all ages but we softly suggest ages 7+.
Location:
Central Rock Gym Randolph
445 High St, Randolph MA 02368
New to Paraclimbing Competitions?: If you are looking for additional information about paraclimbing competitions and our adaptive climbing programs, please feel free to contact CRG Adaptive as a resource. You can contact them through email at adaptiveclimbing@centralrockgym.com.
Volunteers: For information about volunteering, please click HERE.
Registration: Registration in advance is required! Register HERE.
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Here in the US it’s a big weekend – National Championships in Salt Lake City. Over 200 top athletes including 5 champions from 2023 and 2 Olympians. Good luck to all competitors, volunteers and staff! Beyond comps below you’ll find a fresh perspectives on gyms, routesetting, climbing partners, and media. Consider a donation to support survivors of Hurricane Helene.See The Freshest Job Posts Here
CBJ hosts the most active job board for climbing businesses and organizations. Below are the latest posts from this past week…Facilities ManagerEdgeworks
Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma, WA
“The Facilities Manager is responsible for the day-to-day inspection, maintenance, repair and construction of Edgeworks facilities, equipment and expansion/improvement projects. The Facilities Manager reports to the Director of Operations and works in collaboration with the Gym Operations managers of each location as well as specific department managers/directors to ensure that the facilities and equipment are maintained and operating in order to provide the highest quality experience for customers and staff. In addition, the Facilities Manager collaborates in the planning and management of special projects and/or construction projects for expansion/improvement of Edgeworks Climbing facilities.”
JOB SEEKER TIPS:
Boundaries at work: Why they matter and how to set them
By CareerBuilder
“If you’re not good with boundaries or need to go above and beyond to prove yourself, try to shift your perspective. When you attach your self-worth to work, it can be challenging to stop working. You may feel like you always need to go that extra mile and work until you gain recognition to feel good about yourself. This path sets you up for burnout and leads to a constant cycle with a hole in your day-to-day living you can never fill. Instead, strive to see your worth beyond your work.”Read the full article here
Bouldering Project’s new University District gym is expected to open later this month and will be the gym developer’s 13th location in the country and fourth in the Seattle area—the place where it all started, 13 years ago. (All photos courtesy of Bouldering Project)
Seattle Bouldering Project University District
Seattle, Washington
Specs: Bouldering Project (BP) is opening its 13th location in October, in the University District (U District) of Seattle. According to Kara Stone, the General Manager of Seattle Bouldering Project (SBP) U District, the employment team is already assembled, consisting of many students from the University of Washington—the college just blocks away from the gym. Stone noted some staff will travel between the other SBP locations—Fremont, Upper Walls, Poplar—in the city as well. Kevin Jorgeson, the Head of Product at BP, emphasized the role that the latter half of the gym developer’s name plays in the employment process: project. “We are unfinished. We are always evolving,” he said. “The idea of always being in the pursuit of what’s possible and what’s better is in the very nature of being unfinished. So, we really try to instill that in how we recruit and how we onboard and how we train and then the culture of how we operate.”
Part of putting that principle into practice will mean providing staff with ongoing learning opportunities on the job, while recognizing that students, especially, may be going through transitions professionally. Stone hopes that employees working at U District will learn a lot about communication, customer service, kindness and inclusivity during their time at the gym, however long that time ends up being. “We want [employees] to step up, we want them to stay with BP. We want to fulfill their aspirations, but at the same time, ultimately, I just want the work experience that they’re gaining from us to be a value to their future, regardless of what their future is,” she said.
SBP U District will feature almost 7,000 square feet of bouldering terrain split between two floors.
According to Jorgeson, the U District gym was started in part to help with the traffic flow at the nearby Fremont location. “Fremont’s our busiest gym in the business, and that’s a high-quality problem to have,” he said. “[SBP U District] will open up capacity for new people to experience BP for the first time, but also expand choices for where to climb in that neighborhood.” Jorgeson also described the decision to expand in Seattle—as opposed to opening a gym in a new market for BP—as part of BP’s vision for serving the communities around its existing gyms even better. “When we looked around at where and how to grow next, we just saw so much passion for what we’re offering in Seattle that it seemed clear that it was time to add capacity in Seattle,” Jorgeson said. “We want to go deep rather than wide in the future into the markets that we’re in.” The new gym’s building became an obvious choice for the project, Jorgeson added, because it’s close to public transportation, in an urban neighborhood, and has a storied past.
In being in a designated historic landmark building, one goal for the gym project was to preserve as much of the original building as possible, including the vault and deposit boxes in the basement.
The home of SBP U District is a 112-year-old former bank, which was fully operational for 106 years and then “shuttered alongside some other really important components of that corner…despite the fact that it has such thriving foot traffic and a light rail station across the street and a university that you can literally see,” Stone said of the corner on which the building resides. The team hopes to bring new life to that area, while combining the building’s historic elements with BP’s bouldering roots. For example, the building’s basement will feature a 2,000-square-foot yoga studio as well as a 200,000-pound vault that will host an infrared sauna and cold plunge, with safety deposit boxes still inside. The first floor—the former bank lobby—will showcase the building’s marble features, while offering a 1,500-square-foot fitness area, a co-working mezzanine and a couple of boulders. The second floor is all foam and bouldering, with wrap-around windows letting in natural light. “The building itself is just unbelievably beautiful,” Stone summarized.
To stay close to a climbing gym business’s original ethos while expanding, Jorgeson encourages owners to “find the right people who are bought into your mission, vision and values, and then trust them,” which he said hopefully creates a sense of buy-in, responsibility, connection and trust. In addition to trust, Stone added that focusing on empowerment, transparency, commitment and intentionality, as well, can be integral to maintaining a gym’s values as the business grows.
According to Jorgeson, the infrared sauna inside the vault will be able to host 26 individuals.Walls: Owner/Contractor
Flooring: Owner/Contractor
CRM Software: Approach
Website: boulderingproject.com/u-district/Instagram: @SeattleBoulderingProjectIn Their Words: “This gym is most definitely what I would call a love letter to our existing members here in Seattle. We’ve been doing business here since 2010, and we wanted to add more bouldering terrain, more yoga classes, more co-working space, more of everything that makes our facilities magical and bigger than what they are. But also, opening up in this amazing neighborhood, U District, offers a distinct opportunity to serve the really young and diverse folks that call U District home.” – Kara Stone, SBP U District General Manager
A fun side hustle, or a career? Lots of climbers want to become routesetters, but once they get a peek behind that curtain, the work might not seem as glamorous as they originally thought. Is routesetting a sustainable career? Why are so many experienced routesetters leaving the industry? What can we do to keep the profession going (and growing)?
This month we’re talking with Kenny Benson and Morgan Young about what it means to be a professional routesetter, and how we can keep moving forward.
Setters Only! is a series of free online discussions led by Foxman McCarthy-James and Justin Wright from Vortex Routesetting, with relevant guests from across the industry. The panel-discussion-style sessions include time for interactive Q&As with attendees.
Upcoming Dates:DECEMBER 10 & JANUARY 14
@6PM MT(Monthly on 2nd Tuesday)
Meet your hosts and guests:
Kenny Benson holds a USAC L4, has over a decade of full-time commercial setting experience, and was recently promoted to Routesetting Director for Momentum. His career has spanned setting at local, regional and divisional events to working on Youth Sport and Bouldering National Championships, Collegiate and Para National Championships, and two IFSC Para World Cups. In a field that is physically demanding and rapidly evolving, he has been focused on staying adaptable—both in his setting work and his approach to longevity in the industry. He believes with age comes the challenge of maintaining the same level of performance, but also the opportunity to lean into experience, strategy and creativity to continue contributing meaningfully to your setting teams.
Morgan Young is the Head Setter at Seattle Bouldering Project, a role he has held across multiple gyms for 15 years.
Foxman McCarthy-James is an owner and consultant with Vortex Routesetting. She has brought her background in education into her routesetting career, serving on the CWA Routesetting and Work at Height Committees and teaching routesetting clinics around the country. She is passionate about continuing the conversation on how we can make our industry more welcoming and inclusive.
www.vortexroutesetting.com
Justin Wright is an owner and consultant with Vortex Routesetting. He holds a USAC L4 and has developed routesetting teams across the country. Serving on the CWA’s Routesetting and Work At Height Committees, Justin is committed to helping move the climbing industry forward by developing routesetter education pathways and recommending best practices for volunteer Work at Height standards.
www.vortexroutesetting.com
The 2024-2025 USA Climbing Rulebook is now available. All competition resources can be found on the rules and policies page.
View RulebookSupport Those Impacted by Hurricane Helene
Our climbing families in the Southeast have been severely impacted by Hurricane Helene. As they continue to fight through the devastation, the Regional Coordinators in Division 7 have received numerous requests from our membership expressing a desire to help with the relief efforts in the affected communities.
There is an immediate and dire need for basic provisions – clean water, food and shelter. For those who want to help, USA Climbing is supporting donations to the American Red Cross to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene.
DonateCBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Graphic done by Climbing Business Journal; all photos courtesy of Andy NelsonOn this episode of The Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen interviews Andy Nelson. Andy has been climbing since 1998, and he became the first paid routesetter at Vertical Endeavors in Minnesota around the mid 2000s. In the routesetting arena, he’s practically done it all, from commercial setting and running a setting crew to setting for comps all the way up to the divisional level. He worked for Nicros Volumes for a while and then, in his words, “went rogue” and “started shaping for everybody and their brother.” Andy has also seen every stage of the hold manufacturing process, from being on the ground in a factory, pouring holds, to design and branding work. Now, Andy owns and operates Method Grips.Andy and Holly started by diving into his memories of the “good old days,” or maybe the “dark ages,” some might say—a time when routesetters were paid by route and members did not have the luxury of choosing between gyms. They also talked about how Andy has witnessed the industry change over the years, some of the shifts that have allowed setters to do their job more safely and sustainably, and the potential of more oversight from government agencies in the future. Holly and Andy debated about whether routesetting is an art, and they got into some of the nitty-gritty details of holds, shaping materials, and the “evolutionary arms race” between routesetters and hold shapers.Thank you TRUBLUE and Strati Climbingfor your support!
And thank you Devin Dabney for your music!
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro05:10 – The Average Mid 2000s Setting Day07:53 – Pay Per Route/Boulder08:58 – Quantity vs. Quality11:32 – Gyms in Minnesota15:59 – Standard Routesetting Equipment of the Mid 2000s20:40 – Constants Over Time21:52 – Is Routesetting an Art?26:00 – What Makes a Good Routesetter?30:08 – Women in the Routesetting Field39:07 – Hold Shaping Evolution43:52 – The Next Big Push in Hold/Volume Evolution46:31 – How Big Can Holds Get?49:27 – Foam and Texture53:29 – Hold Durability57:45 – Changing Textures01:01:07 – Andy’s Drill of Choice01:03:39 – Closing
Abridged Transcript
…You told me some stories about your early routesetting days, and to my understanding, you started as the first paid routesetter at Vertical Endeavors. I’m wondering whether you can run me through what an average routesetting day was like back in the day.
Well, it literally is completely different than how it’s done now. Prior to me convincing Vertical Endeavors to pay me hourly to do the work, everyone was a contract setter there. They were paid by the route or the problem that they put up, and that was a pittance. It was just a very small amount of money. And if you did enough of that work, then they might kick you back with a free membership as well. So, consequently, the gym had tons and tons of setters, and they would just filter through. Somebody would come and set for a couple months, and then they’d take off on a climbing trip and be gone for a couple months. So, what ended up happening with me is they brought me in to basically lead a crew. I had, I can’t even remember the exact number, but it was some absurd number—like 50, 60+ routesetters on my payroll who I was paying per route or per problem, and I was managing them. What we ended up doing—to be efficient and to actually get turnover in the gym and get routes up and get problems up—is the gym would close early on Sunday nights, and I would bring in as many setters as I could possibly get ahold of, and we would just totally redo giant sections of the gym. Like, we would reset a third of the gym in one night. I’d have 30, 40, even 50 people hanging from ropes, resetting walls. And it was my job to make sure that chaos was under as much control as possible…
Andy Nelson (right)—pictured among climbing industry legends Ty Foose (center) and Kelly Soohoo (left)—started his climbing journey in 1998 and has since worked in many sectors of the industry, from routesetting to hold shaping.
How much did you get paid per route or boulder? Do you remember?
I don’t remember. I mean, you have to remember, this is 2008, 2009, so it’s quite a while ago now. And I want to say it was less than $10 a boulder problem, and it was probably less than $20 a route. So, it was not a lot of money. And when you’re a new setter, we’d set for four or six hours on a Sunday night, and a new setter might get up one route or a couple boulder problems. They’re putting in—running around the gym trying to figure this out—five, six, seven hours, and they’re making $20. So, it was super challenging to not only recruit talent, but to keep talent. And that’s why I had such a huge roster…We were just desperately trying to keep people around. There was really no incentive to try to be professional and try to do it for a living.
…But with that system for the experienced setters who can set more efficiently, wouldn’t that incentivize them to set quantity over quality?…
That’s exactly what happened, and that’s the way I operated back then, too. Before I got hired on hourly, I would go in on a day off and I’d put up 25 boulder problems in four hours—just slapping stuff on the wall because it was cash. That was one of my big responsibilities in the role I was in, was to quality control. So, I didn’t actually set during those times when I had these big crews running. I was literally just running around and forerunning problems and giving feedback and making and forcing the quality control. Otherwise, it just wasn’t going to happen. It was just slapping holds on the wall and calling it good. It was a different era then, though. It was literally the only gym in a metropolitan area of 5 million people. It was like, “Where else are you going to go as a climber?”…
…So, in more than a decade since you were setting at Vertical Endeavors, a lot obviously has changed. I was wondering whether you could run me through your standard equipment. Did anyone have an impact driver? Did anyone wear safety glasses? Were there sleds on ladders? Your laugh tells me no.
Yeah, for me, it was herding cats the whole time. And it was kind of always just controlled chaos. Most people didn’t use—I mean, this is when impact drivers were just starting to come into fashion. So, about a third of the crew actually had an impact driver. Everybody else was using T-wrenches. I remember I had probably 20 or 30 T-wrenches in my setting kit just because I’d have to borrow them out to everybody, since they didn’t have tools. There was no way the gym, at that point, was going to provide tools for setters. That was on you. You had to bring all your own gear. As far as safety equipment, like earplugs and eye protection, nobody even thought about that kind of stuff. That wasn’t even—it was flip flops and no shirts and hanging from a rope and old, beat-up rental harnesses.It was terrible. It was, in every way imaginable, terrible. So, that’s the one thing I’m so glad to see has evolved and professionalized, just the whole safety aspect of routesetting. Because when we were doing it back then, it was chaos. You’d be pitching holds off the wall, just throwing them on the ground and people running around everywhere. It was a miracle that nobody in my tenure got severely hurt because safety just was not a priority at all. It wasn’t even a thought for most of us. It was more about, “Let’s just get this stuff off the wall and get the new stuff on the wall as fast as possible.”
…Do you think routesetting is an art?…
…I think there’s an art to it, but it’s a functional art. And I think the same goes for shaping and a lot of other aspects of the climbing industry. But I think it’s art to a certain extent. But the more we professionalize, the more it’s going to drift away from being an art…I refer to a lot of things as “functional art.” If you’re going to try to liken it to something that everybody understands, it’s more like architecture or something in that realm—where you can build a basic, simple house that is totally functional, or you can build this beautiful facade and fancy windows and add a lot to it to make it a thing of art. So, I think at its core, routesetting is a job and it’s a function, but it can be art if it’s done right and done well.“To be honest with you, other than the basic idea of attaching holds to the wall, everything’s changed,” Andy (right)—pictured with setter/shaper Chris Neal (left)—said about the evolution of commercial routesetting over the years. “”We never [used to] put emphasis on things like forerunning or aesthetics as much…”
…I want to talk about your hold shaping, and I want to talk about what you’ve seen in the evolution of holds—not just the shapes or the size, but the materials and how things went from almost two-dimensional setting to this crazy 3D stuff that we see, now that we can build with volumes, change entire features with big macros, and make people do moves like mantling that might be really hard to do on, say, baseball-sized holds. Talk about what you’ve seen in terms of trends and how we got to where we are now.
When I first started making holds, it was still PE, it was still polyester resin. And that had its limitations. When I look back on it and what I’ve seen over the years, I think the evolution has really been driven by routesetters pushing the envelope, routesetters wanting to evolve and to create new things and create new movement and create new styles. I think the routesetters’ desire to be more creative and to create new things has forced the climbing holds [sector] to evolve and to start trying new things, start bringing in new ideas, new materials, new products.So, we see people wanting to start climbing more three-dimensionally. Well, in order to climb more three-dimensionally, we have to try something to make the walls different, make the angles different. “Well, what’s that?” Well, we’ll bolt on things. “Well, what can we bolt on?” Well, let’s bolt on big chunks of plywood put together. “Well, that’s really hard to do when you have cement walls.” So, we evolved away from cement walls to plywood walls to make bolting volumes more efficient. “How do we make bigger holds? Because people like big holds.” Well, we need a different material…As hold makers, we’re just trying to meet the demands of the routesetters through innovation. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. So, I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff that’s just failed miserably over the years—like materials that didn’t work, or design ideas that just didn’t work…
What do you think that next biggest push is going to be in holds and volume evolution? Where do you see it going?
Well, we’re now getting to the point with a lot of the materials where we’re reaching their limits. Like, we know how big a PU hold can be before it becomes unreasonable, both cost-wise and weight-wise and so on and so forth. We also know what we can and can’t do with fiberglass. So, I think we’re now kind of starting to dabble again in new materials. The next big new wave is what’s called vacuum-formed plastic, where it’s basically a big giant sheet of plastic that is vacuumed over a form that makes your hold, and then it’s textured like a fiberglass hold or a wood volume would be. I think that is where the next big push is going to be, where a lot of designers and developers of climbing holds are going to put a lot of focus, but it has its limitations as well. So, I think right now we’re kind of evolving to a point with climbing holds where the right answer is multiple answers…
…I’m wondering what you know about the evolution of texture, whether it’s textured paint or spray-on texture or, I don’t know, glued sandpaper to holds.
…To kind of break it down simply, texture on PE and PU holds comes directly from the original foam design. So, whatever texture that foam had is the texture that you’re going to get on the finished product. And that’s a negative texture. So, what you’re seeing is the bubbles that are in the foam are what cause or what give you the texture. And that can vary based on the type of foam that you use. That’s why a hold released and shaped by me at Method could feel completely different than a hold shaped and released by brand “X,” even though it’s produced at the same factory. It’s because we used a different foam to carve the original.
…I do want to end on kind of a more funny, light-hearted question. I need you to defend the drill that you use against all other drills.
Oh, geez. Well, I’ll start by saying that I started with wrenches way back in the day, so I still set occasionally with wrenches. I currently run a Makita Soft Impact like most people, I think. And the only argument you can make for the Makita Soft Impact that is the final verdict is the fact that it’s a third as loud as any other impact on the market. So, noise wise, I won’t ever use anything else ever again. Once I bought my first soft, I was like, “Alright, this is it. This is all I’m ever going to use.”…
Join Hans Florine in Kalymnos, Greece or Central Mexico!
Kalymnos, Greece
November 2-8th, 2024
Optional Multi Pitch Day Nov. 9 & 10th
7 Days of Climbing, Yoga And Culture
Through Earth Play Retreats with Heidi Wirtz and Marc Pietrolungo
Learn more and reserve your spot here!
Central Mexico
January 4th – 10th 2025
Join us for the “Triple Crown” – 3 different world-class areas
A Climbing Retreat like no other!
Through Southern Xposure with Simeon Heimowitz
Learn more and reserve your spot here!
CBJ hosts the most active job board for climbing businesses and organizations. Below are the latest posts from this past week…
A fun side hustle, or a career? Lots of climbers want to become routesetters, but once they get a peek behind that curtain, the work might not seem as glamorous as they originally thought. Is routesetting a sustainable career? Why are so many experienced routesetters leaving the industry? What can we do to keep the profession going (and growing)?
This month we’re talking with Kenny Benson and Morgan Young about what it means to be a professional routesetter, and how we can keep moving forward.
Setters Only! is a series of free online discussions led by Foxman McCarthy-James and Justin Wright from 
October brings a fresh lineup of climbing holds and volumes from 21 leading companies, designed to jumpstart any routesetter’s creativity. This month’s roundup features an array of textures, macro shapes and complex volumes that prioritize versatility and functionality. Whether you’re expanding your hold collection or refreshing well-loved walls, these new additions offer something for any climbing gym.
BRANDS INCLUDED BELOW:
The 2024-2025 USA Climbing Rulebook is now available. All competition resources can be found on the 
