The Level 1 Clinic

Almost a whole month ago, I attended the USAC Level 1 Setting Clinic at the Edge at Halfmoon which was an awesome gym to climb and set at. There's loads of variety in wall angles -- from slab to a 45 degree overhang on the bouldering wall -- as well as some pretty cool features. I was definitely psyched to be able to set there.

I drove up the night before from about five hours away which was just over three times as long of a drive than I had ever driven before. I slept on the New York State Thruway which was surprisingly comfy. My Scion xD, which is an adorable car and definitely big enough to fit a 5'3" climber diagonally across the back was more comfortable than the mattress I'd slept on all summer.

V3 Youth B in Blue

The morning of the clinic I was so excited, that I woke up around 5:00 am and then convinced myself go back to sleep for another hour. I arrived at the gym by 7:00 am, remembered that most setters don't like to wake up that early and drove to the diner nearby. Breakfast was amazing. If a diner has rye bread, there is a good chance I will approve of them. I ordered more food than I needed, but enjoyed my hearty breakfast.

After the amazing breakfast, I headed back over to the gym. I took about ten minutes to park. I tried to back into a spot, but the lines were missing on one of the sides and it was a strugglefest. I eventually gave up and pulled through to the spot in front of me. Only one other person saw this occur while he was doing yoga. I gathered my setting stuff as well as everything I'd want for the day and put it in the bucket I borrowed from the CAVE as Molly Beard the instructor for the Level 1 Clinic drove in. I was psyched to meet her and eventually just dumped the majority of my food into my bucket so I could go inside and see the gym. I helped bring some of the holds out from under the wall although I had trouble since some of the buckets were probably heavier than me and that's saying something considering I'd been working in an office all summer and hadn't seen a full flight of stairs in months.

V1 Adult In Purple

Even though I had been to other setting clinics before, I definitely learned a lot. A lot of the setting clinics I had attended in the past didn't focus on setting for kids because at a college climbing wall, we don't really have to worry about setting for kids. I definitely learned the most when it came to setting for kids and was probably the most inspired when I was setting those routes. Kids might not have the core strength, but they're usually more fearless and more creative. It was cool to think about what they might try on a move to make it work. That day we set 5 problems. We set, foreran, and then stripped the first three then we set, foreran, and tweaked the last two. I set a V1 for adults and a V3 for Youth B.

5.10b Youth A in Yellow

I really enjoyed the setting pace. Even though I've been setting for three years, I'd only recently been able to work with other setters. At the bouldering wall at my school, it wasn't out of the ordinary to finish setting a problem after three days. We've since decided that that was unacceptable and unreasonable since our wall isn't even 16 feet high. I was really glad that in preparation for other clinics, I'd done things like set five routes at the same grade in different styles in under thirty minutes each with a little time for forerunning afterwards. I actually got to really enjoy the clinic rather than stress about finishing.

At the end of the day I hung around to talk with Molly about setting and to see people climb my problems. I was lucky enough to meet a girl in the Youth B category who was about to try out for the competitive team and needed to send a V3 to get on the team. I was psyched that I was able to put something together that she could enjoy. Before I had to leave, she had almost sent it, but she had gotten stuck just before the finish, trying to find her feet.

I met with Molly to discuss the possibility of mentorship with her. Thankfully she said, "yes," and I thanked her with a recipe for gluten free peanut butter cookies. That night I was lucky enough to be offered a couch to sleep on and dinner. I was very grateful and also still need to make that thank you card (I've been making thank you cards by hand which is super thoughtful, but takes a really long time and it often seems like I've forgotten). I have a growing list of why climbers are some of the best company.

The next day, we set a single route with a specific grade, category, and wall assigned to us. We also had to set with increasing difficulty. I had been assigned to the wall I asked for an was psyched mostly because I rarely ever get to set on such a slabby wall. To make the day even better, Molly surprised us with the new hold buckets from So Ill. I've been using mine since I got it.

I set a cool mantle towards the beginning which admittedly, isn't the easiest move to make when you should start around 5.8 or 5.9 at the start and hit 5.10b by the end, but it was too cool to pass up. Molly helped me force the move as I found that tall people could just stand up and hit the crimp. In the really slab section, I tried to use slopey crimps, but with the extra pull of the rope the route would've been 5.11 in that section, I got stuck using mini jugs, which ended up providing a good rest before the final wall section. Climbers cross for the 1st cheese wedge, reach for the second with their left, hit a jug with their right and then throw a heel over the second cheese wedge. The remaining section is pretty balancey, but very enjoyable.

The cheesy group photo

And the end we wrapped it up and I got the group together for a cheesy photo. You can see some of the guys holding their buckets up in the back. I really wanted to do a silly one, but people had to leave. I was so glad to be able to attend the clinic and to meet a bunch of cool setters. It was so cool getting to try different routes and to learn more about setting. I'm definitely planning on helping out with setting for more competitions especially youth competitions.

The next comp I'm setting for will be the Heist in two weeks and I'll definitely try to set some of the youth problems.