Welcome to the Setter’s Archive, where we explore the foundations of modern routesetting through classic wisdom. Here you’ll find essays from famous works in the routesetting field, or simply routesetting articles published years ago that still ring true today. We’re revisiting these stories in their original form because, while much has changed in the routesetting world in the last two decades, many core concepts remain the same. We hope these excerpts from setting experts around the industry help you keep reflecting, learning, and growing professionally.
For more routesetting content, be sure to check out The Impact Driver podcast, Ask a Setter series, Truth Behind the Trade chapters, Behind the Wrench interviews and other routesetting-related articles on CBJ.
Intro by Holly Yu Tung Chen
Climbing competitions have evolved over the years from niche events into a drama-filled, spectator sport. The Olympics, World Cups and other world-stage events now draw thousands of viewers both in-person and online. But local gyms still host beloved comps with spectacular finals rounds that fill the gym with pumped-up crowds.
Joe Czerwinski, the owner and routesetter at Focus Climbing Center, is no stranger to routesetting for a live audience. Czerwinski has been setting for as long as he’s been climbing—three decades. In the early 2000s, Czerwinski was the setter for the Asian X-Games. He’s also set for the Gorge Games in Hood River, Oregon, and the Ford Adventure Sport Challenge in Vail, Colorado (now the Vail World Cup). “Most of the events were filmed for TV,” Czerwinski told CBJ, “so if the climbing was boring, the viewer was not watching and started looking for NASCAR.”
Recently, Czerwinski developed the Desert Classic, a local climbing competition at Focus with a large cash purse that has been attracting professional climbers, such as Matt Fultz, Kelly Birch and Natalia Grossman.
In this short but timeless essay—originally published in Louie Anderson’s instrumental The Art of Coursesetting book, released in 2004—Czerwinski talks about the mindset a routesetter must inhabit to set novel and exciting problems to keep audience members engaged. “With high-end setting there is no box,” he wrote then, and hopefully these tips help you to unbox your own creativity today.
SETTING FOR SPECTATORS
By Joe Czerwinski
Can you think of one mainstream sport that has become profitable without the aid of television? I can’t think of one either. If climbing is going to evolve into a mainstream sport, it will need television as its promotional tool.
For high-end spectator events, I believe the most important aspect of setting is to make the boulder problems exciting for the camera and the non-climbing spectator. The boulder problems must look impossible and the actual climbing must look spectacular. Non-climbers can’t relate to someone slowly grappling [their] way up a line of heinous slopers, no matter how hard or cool the problem may actually be. It appears boring and uninteresting. To truly attract the attention of spectators, the movements must be flashy, quick, powerful…and to a degree unbelievable. If it looks easy the crowd will dismiss it, with “that looks easy, I could do that,” and walk away or change the channel.
The most important aspect for this style of setting is the ability to think outside of the box. With high-end setting there is no box. One must posses the mentality to attack different ideas and try new things. For example, set a double dyno in a roof. The individual move might not be too hard, but the crowd sees someone leaping backwards, flying through the air, catching a hold and swinging around like a monkey. It’s impressive and captivating. Other tricks I’ve learned throughout my five years of high-end competition setting are rose moves, campusing, footless cross-unders, and dynos (which, if properly designed, will be executable for all competitors). More extreme moves can be figure fours, run and jumps, and wrist grabs.
Other ideas I, or others on my setting team, have used include theme routes (all screw-ons or all pinches, etc.), climbing feet first out a steep prow, holds in geometric patterns, attaching non-climbing holds to the wall (i.e. steel pipe), or even drilling holes into plywood walls to create pockets.
Some may think this style of setting is not a true representation of the sport. However, my experiences setting for some of the biggest television bouldering competitions prove that this is what major production companies want to see. We have to ask ourselves if we want the sport to remain as it is, or to evolve.
