“Breathe the pressure
Come play my game, I’ll test ya
Psychosomatic, addict, insane
Breathe the pressure
Come play my game, I’ll test ya
Psychosomatic, addict, insane
Come play my game
Inhale, inhale, you’re the victim
Come play my game
Exhale, exhale, exhale”

In a repetitive song about drug use from the 90’s, I kinda feel the same way about the insanity that is monochromatic setting in gyms and I can definitely say that my Cams have been Jammed for some time.

Let’s face it, the season for hard sends is just about over and most of us are dreading the return to the gym, this time to try and escape the heat and train for our fall tick list. If you’ve been climbing for more than a decade, you might remember headed back to the local gym for a summer membership and marveling at how they fit so many routes and problems on the same feature and being psyched to try them all. Imagine an arete with a 5.7, a 5.10b, and a 5.11d for the perfect warm-up rope plus other routes on either face all accessible from the same anchor. Or how about a sick hero toss and hang out from under roof that the V1, V4, and V7 crowd could all enjoy from different starts all by the use of tape to make the holds you were supposed to use. Well not anymore! In the pursuit of something called line purity (…not sure I like the sound of that), only one color is allowed per route (oh fun, that definitely got worse) and this has been a major blow to the ability to train and grow as climbers and for gyms to expand and maintain their customer base.

Lower Density

When we used to set with gaffers tape, I admit the color pallet of the holds was much duller and boring, but color could still be found and the trade routes went up, usually in hold families, to get your anchor problems on the wall. Then you filled in the gaps with a few additional holds because half the holds are going to be used from the exiting routes that are already up. That’s one new problem for half the work! To avoid confusion we used a wide range of colored or themed tape under each hold, sometimes to the point when one of the larger holds could have several lines passing through it from various directions. But now, with monochromatic setting, similar colors need to stay farther away form each other and we have a great amount of dead space on the wall. We might be seeing 50% to 75% (on a good set) of our former coverage, and it’s noticeable.

Less Variety

With fewer routes on the wall, there is less variety in style. In my home bouldering gym, we average 8-10 problems, maybe one of each grade if we are lucky, but they tend to set on a bell curve toward intermediate/advanced climbers and might skip a grade or two. Holds are bought in sets and families of similar types and that means the same color too, so the problems start to become repetitive once you know the holds. Can’t pinch? I guess that new purple one is out, just like last time. Hate pockets on a roof? Make sure you avoid that yellow on on the wave. Recalling back to the before time, you might be hit a crimp to pocket to a pinch, to a sloper and they could all be from a different manufacturer because the the point was the movement and not the aesthetics. Larger gyms can have a larger selection, of course, sometimes it’s a real Yankees vs A’s situation, but it stifles the creativity of the setter because maybe the perfect hold for your vision is simply a different color. And this lower density and variety leads us to less practice at certain movement types making it more difficult to break into the next grade.

Wider Grade Gaps

When there are fewer problems on the wall and less holds to choose from, nearly every problem starts to become a benchmark and the nuance of the grades starts to fade. What I have started to notice, both in myself and others I talk with around the gym, is that sometimes the gap the from one grade to next is so vast that projecting starts to feel like a fruitless effort. There have been numerous occasions when I flash the first seven of eight in the new set and the eighth I can’t even pull off the ground or link more than two moves. I see people that were new post-Covid closure and they are still stuck on on the same grade and sadly making the same movement mistake for the last year and a half. Could they train, try outside, take a class, or ask for beta? Sure, but with such great spans between grades, progress can be brutally slow, and not everyone wants to train.

Slower Climber Growth

This pertains to the above, as an individual will likely grow in the sport much slower, but it also means slower growth in the customer base. People like to feel progress, it’s what keeps them coming back. We see it in weight loss, in running, in lifting, in learning an instrument there has to be some sort of measurable growth. A larger portion of the population will quit when they plateau. I’m not here to judge mentality, but a gym is a business and lives or dies by maintaining it’s user base. If the variety is stale, the bulk population is stuck at the same grade because the next one is too far away, repeating the same problems over and over gets boring very quickly and people cancel their membership. Some people may see this as a benefit since only the dedicated stick around, but that gatekeeping is bad business and reflects poorly on all of us.

Higher Turnover

Fewer routes means that in order the keep things interesting and fresh, the sections of the gym are getting re-set more frequently. This is the only way to combat the lack of density and variety, but it contributes to the frustration and not wanting to project that next grade. We have 6 sections and set twice a week in our gym, that means you have only 3 weeks to work, which means for a limit project the average person may only get a few sessions on the line they are working, and see little progress before it’s gone. That’s the beauty of an outdoor project; so long as access isn’t threatened, it will be there next season to keep hammering on it. So you see, this solution to the first two problems can also be a factor in the second two problems.

Conclusion

All this just to say: I finally gave up training in the main bay of my gym. The CTC program I spent so much time writing and perfecting hinged on there being a greater variety of routes on each feature, except for maybe the 4×4 day, and now it feels obsolete. Training can still be done on hangboards, campus boards, and systems walls, and while I’m getting really good at climbing at a 40 degree overhang, I’ve slowed my growth elsewhere. In the next editorial I’ll discuss the benefits of these training tools and then we will be reviewing some of these systems throughout the summer. But, how do I get through this current frustration? Well, The Prodigy have stated the problem AND the solution; “Breathe, baby…”

Tylor Streett can find anything to complain about, so at least he is good at something